Commentary
A large brigade of Island firefighters, wearing their dress blues and standing straight and true, flanked the steps of the Old Whaling Church last Saturday afternoon, a fine May day flecked with sunshine and breezes. Joe Cressy would have called it a sailor’s day and he would have been right. Joe was right about everything — on this point there was general agreement amid laughter and tears, poetry and music at his memorial service on Saturday.
CLINIC IN CRISIS
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
This is a crisis — our clinic is at risk.
Family Planning of Martha’s Vineyard has been providing reproductive health care to Island men, woman and teens for nearly three decades. In 2010, our community clinic provided safe, confidential and affordable care for over 1,000 clients, greater than eight per cent of the total year-round population.
Memorial Day 2011
Bar None
From a 1932 Gazette:
To those who would look intelligently upon the distant past of Martha’s Vineyard, an authority to be commended is Charles H. Brown, Vineyard Haven attorney at law. A Vineyarder of a Vineyard family, Mr. Brown was, nevertheless, born in Charlestown, Mass., but, coming to the Island at the age of six months, he may justly claim the Vineyard as his only home. His father was a physician who practiced on the Vineyard.
Joe Cressy
Salty and scholarly
Haltingly clear
What Joe Cressy spoke
You wanted to hear
Scottish and kilted
Malt in his hand
Reciting keenly
So Scots understand
Heeling on Halcyon
Bound for the sky
Cresting and leaning
A tear in his eye
Mary and daughters
Our Changing Island