Oak Bluffs Town Column

August 2, 2012

Skip Finley

“The history of one’s own locality should be known to each of its citizens, since one cannot appreciate the present conditions without some understanding of the causes which have produced these conditions.” This prefaces Martha’s Vineyard, History-Legends-Stories by Henry Franklin Norton in 1923.

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July 26, 2012

Skip Finley

Of 52 Island beaches (by my count—e-mail yours and I’ll e-mail mine), only the Inkwell has been the subject and title of a movie, bad as it was, with not a frame shot on the Island. The 1994 feature film about a young man coming of age in 1976 included such visual malapropisms as sand dunes and palm trees on the beach, and a lobster (apparently on Xanax) caught by hand. One redeeming feature of The Inkwell was that it was recent visitor Jada Pinkett’s second film.

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July 12, 2012

Skip Finley

OgkeshKuppe (the wet or damp woods) was the name the original people gave Oak Bluffs, whose original settlement was in the Farm Neck/Eastville area. The first white man living in Oak Bluffs was Joseph Daggett, whose father came to the Island with the revered Mayhews. Joseph married the sachem (chief) of Sanchakantackett’s (Sengekontacket) beautiful daughter Ahoma, often called the Pocahontas of Martha’s Vineyard.

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June 28, 2012

Skip Finley

My Best Job Ever had to have been ring boy at The Flying Horses! There could not possibly be more prestigious and influential employment in the Great Watering Place of Cottage City, our beloved town of Oak Bluffs. I got to meet and re-meet friends, old and new, a first glimpse of the cutest girls—and possibly you. How pleased were the parents, the well dressed kids, cotton candy, popcorn—stuff old age diet forbids.

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