Soft Sell

From Gazette editions of July, 1986:

This week for the second time in less than a decade, Alley’s Store, a veteran West Tisbury institution, is changing hands. Howard and Susan Ulfelder of Hingham are buying the store from Charlie and Teena Parton, who bought it from the Alley family six years ago.

From a 1952 Gazette edition:

Since Thursday, when the Coast Guard building, three stories high, came towing into Menemsha Creek on a scow after crossing Vineyard Sound from Cuttyhunk . . . people have exclaimed: “How unusual!”

But here on the Vineyard the moving of buildings by water is an old story. Not too many men are now living who have engaged in such undertakings, but there are many familiar with the history of similar movings who can point out houses and other structures that floated alongshore to their present destinations.

Hot Air

From Gazette editions of July, 1936:

The giant dirigible Hindenburg soared over the Vineyard in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It was exactly ten minutes past two when Mr. and Mrs. Johnson Whiting of West Tisbury were aroused from their slumber by the roaring of the great engines. Arising and going outside, they saw the big airship crossing the heavens, its cabins brilliantly lighted and its hull shining above, as it headed easterly across the Island for the Atlantic.

From a June, 1948 Gazette:

Ode to Quansoo

From Joseph Chase Allen:

Smoother than prairie land, wearing a summer coloring of greens and browns, Quenames, named originally for the Indians’ eel-fishing-place, lies much as the settlers found it three centuries ago. The acres which comprise the original tract lie empty save for the half dozen buildings which mark the home sites of the ancients and their descendants. The woods form a distant screen against the northerly winds of winter. The place has a quietness that can be sensed from miles distant.

From Gazette post office files:

What splashes of color RFD mailboxes add to the landscape today. There are red mailboxes, blue, lion-yellow. There are mailboxes with whale’s tails painted whimsically on them, with lobster decorations, adorned with a smiling sun. There are mailboxes painted to resemble houses, striped mailboxes and mailboxes that look like the American flag.