All the Social News

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1908:

Those from Edgartown, in all numbering twenty-three, who attended the Neighborhood Convention at Gay Head on Tuesday, report a most delightful day. The start was made, five teams in all, at the early hour of six in the morning, and the arrival home was about eight in the evening, four hours on the road each way.

Vineyard woodlands are full of delicate pink lady’s slippers, the striking native wild orchids that grow here. In some places hundreds of lady’s slippers can be counted in a small patch of woods. Also called moccasin flower, the flower’s genus name (Cypripedium acaule) derives from the Latin word for Venus’s slipper.

Unfortunate License

The very thought that walking down a Vineyard beach and casting a fishing line into the ocean will require a license would appall and anger generations of fishermen stretching deep into the Island’s past.

The same restriction on fishing in freshwater ponds likely would have struck Island fishermen of past centuries as a foolhardy and unwarranted invasion of the government in a matter that was none of its business.

Sometimes referred to as the enigmatic man of American letters, the late William Styron was a longtime fixture on outer Main street in Vineyard Haven where he spent nearly 50 summers. Mr. Styron died in November 2006 and is buried in Vineyard Haven. A collection of 14 personal essays written by him was released in April of this year. Titled Havanas in Camelot, the essays range from a reminiscence of his brief friendship with John F. Kennedy to a meditation on Mark Twain. What follows is the essay Walking With Aquinnah, an account of his daily walks with his dog.

Swim First, Unpack Later

For some reason, I always remember the last swim of the season. Whether it was on a late fall afternoon in elementary school or as early as an August morning when I would sneak in a quick swim before catching the ferry for the trip back to college, the memory of that last swim would stay with me well into the winter.

In that way the last swim of the season is different from the first. The first, I never seem to remember.

Confronting the Pump

On Thursday, the Vineyard Transit Authority will mark nationwide Dump the Pump Day — an annual occasion that calls on people to use public transportation to save money, conserve gasoline and reduce greenhouse gases — by cutting its already bargain fares in half and holding a party at the youth hostel in West Tisbury.