David Plumb’s family has asked that donations in memory of David go to Mytoi Garden. David loved the garden and visited every week that he was on Chappy. The Plumb family has given the fountain near the entrance to the garden and his grandchildren gave the heaths and heathers on the serpentine path for his 90th birthday.
By the time you read this the Schifter’s house will be hovering in its new location. All that remains is to fill the space between the ground and the house with concrete blocks, then remove all of the steel beams and wheels that provided the levitation. Then the dirt goes back around the house and by Christmas you won’t know anything ever happened there. Don’t miss the book signing at Slip Away Farm on Sunday, July 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. for Melinda Fager’s new book Living Off the Sea on the Island of Chappaquiddick.
Adeline Mae Chandler took her first breath at noon on Friday, May 3, to the great delight of her parents Abigail and Curtis along with grandmother Sharlee, who arose very early that morning to be by her daughter’s side for the birth of her first granddaughter. Adeline weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 19 and a half inches long.
When I was a little kid, on May Day my mother would send me out with little baskets of flowers for each of the neighbor ladies. We made the baskets out of purple construction paper and filled them with pansies and johnny-jump-ups. The ladies were so delighted that I was convinced at a very early age that you really can’t go wrong with flowers. I still enjoy bringing home a big bouquet of roses.
The next Chappy Community Center potluck supper will be on Wednesday, April 17 and is hosted by Tom Osborn. I hope that Tom will bring a pot of South Dakota mashed potatoes. Once you have a taste you will never be satisfied with any other. Tom’s signature is in the form of a depression on the top in the exact size and shape of a whole stick of butter that soaked into the potatoes as it melted.
Happy belated birthday to Harold Zadeh, who turned 65 on March 26. Sadly, that day also marks his retirement from firefighting duty in the Edgartown Fire Department. Harold has been a firefighter for nearly a quarter of a century, and for the last eight years served as the Lieutenant of Chappy’s Fire Pumper #3.
I need to do some repairs under the ferry ramp on the Edgartown side. The recent run of extremely low tides and then the four-day northeaster have caused scouring beneath the retaining wall that separates Dock street from the ferry slip. In order to get the repairs done in one day, we need to start early and work late.
The school vacation week in February and the few days before and after seems to be the very quietest time for the Chappy Ferry as well as for the rest of the Vineyard. This is as close as we get to the “dead of winter.” Even so there have still been some interesting outdoor activities.
We are saddened to receive word of the passing of Franny Barnard. Her obituary describes a full life and family tree with many new branches. I always enjoy hearing of the earliest years of a person’s life. Without knowing all of the details we can still gain a perspective on Franny’s youth by reviewing a few of the events of those days.
When was the last time we saw ice in the harbor? It might have been the winter that Norton Point breached. There hasn’t been any real ice since then. Last year Caleb’s Pond and Cape Pogue Bay were frozen over for awhile. When the ice broke up, it flushed away on a single tide. The opening seems to be keeping the harbor from freezing over.
