A Cast Into the Past

From Gazette editions of July, 1935:

Cans of Paint and a Handshake

The Edgartown Hardware Store has long been a place where not only could you buy your paint, garden hoses, scallop baskets, art supplies, light bulbs and sheetrock screws for that weekend home project, but whatever you bought came with an important add-on at no extra charge: customer service.

Peace Accord in Aquinnah

A sandy path to the sea is now the scene of a small battleground in Aquinnah between the Wampanoag Tribe and town selectmen. For reasons that remain unclear, the tribe has blocked access to the path which leads to Lobsterville Beach, and the Aquinnah selectmen are up in arms about it.

HOUSE OF HEALING

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I am writing this letter to make our community aware of Vineyard House, an organization that may not be widely known, but whose existence is so crucial — not only to the individual who is personally struggling with drug and alcohol addictions, but also to the people in the lives of the afflicted. The residual damage of these diseases has a trickle-down effect on the entire community, especially one as unique and isolated as Martha’s Vineyard.

From a July, 1960 Gazette:

Important as salt is and has been to the welfare of humanity the world over, and extensive as the industry of salt-making has been on Martha’s Vineyard, history has almost nothing to say about the Island industry. In the history by Dr. Charles Banks he merely states that there were extensive saltworks on Bass Creek in Vineyard Haven in 1840 and that others were operated near the herring creek (Tashmoo, presumably).

Once upon a time I would have been the perfect contestant on The Price Is Right. Bob Barker would walk up to a woman in the audience and offer $50 if she had an elephant in her bag. It would have only taken me a few seconds to rummage and come up with the three-inch elephant that was part of my son’s Bronx Zoo set. I always had that elephant ready to amuse one child if we were caught in traffic, or if one of the other children was in the orthodontist’s chair.