It’s been a blast penning the Town of Oak Bluffs column since my first on June 22, 2012. Oak Bluffs has a great history filled with stories of people and places, many eccentric, almost all endearing, and all worthy of posterity in the 253 columns I’ve devoted to sharing over these last five years. I’m fortunate to have been able to write about our town and to cover the many events for which we’ve become the favorite by Islanders and visitors alike. Thanks to diligent editors, my writing has received far more credit that I am due—but am pleased to accept.

Friday, June 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. is the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s season opening party, with the new exhibit, The Local Immigrants Project. The artist and some of the people included in the presentation will be there and refreshments will be served at the free event that takes place in the museum’s yard at the Edgartown campus. Following its groundbreaking of the renovation of the Marine Hospital, the museum is certainly worthy of your financial support. The Oak Bluffs Harbor Festival starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday with a rain date for Sunday. The popular event becomes larger every year.

Also on Saturday, June 17, Valerie Sonnenthal is leading a MELT Method Hand and Foot Intro Workshop at 10:30 a.m. at the Oak Bluffs Library, something I guess you have to Google. On Wednesday June 21, New York City folk/jazz/rock singer-songwriter Larkin Grimm performs outdoors in the gazebo, weather permitting at 6 p.m. Her new album, Chasing an Illusion, features David Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti on bass, and is said to have been mixed with “the same dusty, unlabeled mixing board” as Bowie’s Young Americans.

In explanation, as much as I have loved writing the column I have a bunch of other things I’d like to do requiring time and attention. Staying busy has been the panacea for my ADHD and the five retirements I’ve failed at so far. I recently finished a non-fiction book about black whaling captains and am fortunately very close to having a publisher. I am beginning a collaboration with Stan Nelson to produce a documentary based on the book—and planning a fictional, dramatic version with my playwright and television producer partner Kathleen McGhee Anderson. That’s why I’ve asked to relinquish writing the column. Also, awhile back I started a radio station at the high school to teach students professional broadcasting with a reggae format; WYOB stands for “We’re Your Oak Bluffs” station at 105.5 FM. In conjunction with the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, the students have also begun production of a Monday to Friday Island history program called Martha’s Vignettes, that I hope you’ll tune in to next fall.

Every once in a while, if they are good enough to publish, I have some ideas for occasional commentary’s for the Gazette about Oak Bluffs and some other Vineyard towns I’ve heard of. So, still proud to be from OB, I’m not going anywhere, just developing my new passion for writing.

Thank you very much to our readers, and all the wonderful comments and acknowledgements. And thanks to the two professional and talented people from whom I’ve learned so much and who let me do so on the job — the Vineyard Gazette’s editor Julia Wells and most especially our publisher who gave me this fabulous opportunity, Jane Seagrave.

I’ve enjoyed this a lot more than you. From Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s poem Silence; “Tis better to sit here beside the sea, Here on the spray-kissed beach, In silence, that between such friends as we Is full of deepest speech.”

And you know — Keep your foot on a rock.