My childhood was of the dirt-beneath -the-fingernails variety. I spent fall afternoons uncovering salamanders from under old logs and trapping slugs to see if they did indeed wriggle up when sprinkled with salt. (They do.) Summer days found my cousins and me on Chilmark ponds filling buckets with blue crabs and moon jellies, and out on Sengekontacket digging for quahogs with our feet. My fingers and toes were immersed in dirt.

75 Years Ago

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of September, 1932:

“Millions viewed the eclipse.” So said the mainland newspapers, and the Vineyard added its thousands to the common mass. Plans for obtaining the best view of this unusual display in the heavens were formulated days previous in many cases, several of the larger pleasure craft of the Island ports setting sail early Wednesday morning with groups of guests on board, bound easterly where the eclipse was more nearly total.

A DIFFERENT RESIDENT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I would like it to be known that the “Susan Shea” mentioned in the article in the Vineyard Gazette on Sept. 14 by Mike Seccombe titled, Sengekontacket Fine Is Planned, dealing with board of health violations, is not me. I have a home in Ocean Heights but it is not on the Boulevard.

I personally feel that this article brings to light some of the problems that should be dealt with and checked by both Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.

By Polly Woollcott Murphy. From the Vineyard Gazette editions of November 1976:

By BRAD WOODGER

We’re all busy. More important, however, is that everybody else knows that we’re busy. Few street meetings or catch-up phone calls conclude without at least one reminder (lest we forget) that “I’m-we’re sooo crazy-wildly-insanely busy.” There seems to exist a fear within our community that we may be perceived as being idle. God forbid.

Disappearing Ancient Ways

On Thursday night the Martha’s Vineyard Commission will hold a public hearing on a proposal to include five ancient ways in the town of Edgartown in a special ways district of critical planning concern.

Public attendance is encouraged at this important gathering, which may well decide the future of Watcha Path, Tar Kiln Road, Middle Line Path, Pennywise Path and Ben Tom’s Road — old byways which are so much a part of Island history and are now threatened by encroaching development and misuse.