Mother’s Day arrives each year with an odd dichotomy: It is universally held to be a marketing gimmick, and yet it’s widely observed by even the most cynical among us. If mothers approach the holiday with any attempt at mindfulness, then adoptive moms may have an edge in that department.

The history of the Island’s main streets is written on the facades of the older buildings. The three down-Island main streets all have their stories — and their storytellers.

Main street is memory lane for those who share in the fellowship of growing up, playing and working on the pavement and along the side streets.

Richard Clark of Vineyard Haven, Dennis daRosa of Oak Bluffs and Edward (Peter) W. Vincent Jr. of Edgartown all have spent most of their lives stepping, smelling and breathing the life on the down-Island sidewalks and streets.

At the center of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs is a square with ample room to sit this time of year.

The weather is not quite warm enough for ice cream, and the benches that face the main drag are empty. The summer tourists have yet to arrive, so no weary bottoms rest on the edges of the raised flower beds. Front stoops of storefronts are clear.

Despite the empty benches, a recent sunny afternoon found one elderly lady sitting in her own bright pink lawn chair, watching the world go by.

Two baby owls, only a few days old, believed to be the only owls ever born in captivity on the Island, are doing well on the counter top of Gus Ben David’s kitchen in Edgartown.

The little fuzzy creatures, not much heavier than a pile of feathers, are eating well and gaining weight.

For now, they are living in an eight-inch square box slightly bigger than a shoe box. The box sits on a heating pad set between 84 and 87 degrees.