Community
At first, it was just a peach basket nailed to a telephone pole. Vincent Frye was 12 in 1952 when he begged his parents to put up a basketball hoop outside his Oak Bluffs home. All the other kids on Wamsutta avenue had sporting equipment in their yard. So the “net” went up on the pole across the street, at the corner of Niantic Park. Neighbors came over to play ball, and the rest, well, is history.
Three generations of the Craig family participated in the annual Martha’s Vineyard Pistol Championships, held Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Rod & Gun Club. But in the end, it was James Craig who came out on top, beating out mother Shirley and son Riley, among others, in the large caliber pistol division. Mr. Craig earned first place in the division with a perfect score of 400.
Competitors had to fire from different distances, positions and time limitations. Second and third place in the large caliber division went to Bill Benns of Cuttyhunk and Joseph Smith II of Edgartown, respectively.
Just in time for Halloween, the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard has some singular pumpkin-colored cats. A mother, Etta, and her two kittens were surrendered. One kitten has already been adopted, and the other, a laid-back male named Ray is also ready for a new home. At eight weeks old he is eating solid food, but since he is still housed with his mother, he nurses from time to time. Once he leaves the nest, so to speak, his mother’s milk will dry up and she can be spayed and ready for a new home. Orange females are quite rare.
When Charlotte Holloman was a little girl, only eight years old, she and her parents visited the summer home of Harry T. Burleigh on Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Burleigh, best known for his instrumental role in arranging and publishing African American spirituals and bringing the songs to a wider audience, had long vacationed on the Island.
This year is the 68th anniversary of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. Stephen Amaral, 78, of Oak Bluffs, has fished in 67 of those derbies. Sometimes people don’t believe him when he says he’s fished in every derby but one, he said on a recent Wednesday afternoon, seated at his dining room table and surrounded by derby photographs and newspaper clippings.
A 25-year-old West Tisbury man was killed Monday when the car he was driving collided with a tree on Old County Road.
David S. Campbell, often called Davey, was a 2007 graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, where he was remembered this week as a gifted athlete who was “universally loved.”