Opinion
It was Columbus Day weekend, 1994. Kaye Flathers was asked to read scripture at her nephew’s wedding on Martha’s Vineyard. It was the first time she had been to the Vineyard; as she stepped off the plane, the clear, bright air invigorated her.
Saving Farm Pond
In the year the United States signed the Declaration of Independence, a tannery barn stood on the south shore of Farm Pond, which appears on a 1776 chart to have several distinct arms. These, like the tannery, have disappeared. Boats crossed into the waters for hundreds of years. Better yet, the pond’s history is full of herring, crabs and shellfish — softshell clams and oysters — in abundance, until the 1970s. But since that time, the pond has mostly been closed to shellfishing, and nitrogen is the killer.
Undue Pier Pressure
The American Academy of Pediatrics this week revealed that children and teens in the United States are spending an average of seven hours a day using television, computers, telephones and other electronic devices for entertainment.
On the same day this news came out, Island children Tate and Corbin Buchwald, Lauren DeCastro and Lachlan Cormie saw their names go on the board as daily winners in the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
On Tuesday, after reeling in my first fish ever, I lifted up the big bluefish and turned around to see my friends Tom and Mike with their iPhone cameras perched over wide smiles. They were as exhilarated as I was. Perhaps this is what happens when you combine two guys who have a bunch of Derby pins and plaques with their pitiful friend who’s fished the Derby the last three years without a single catch.
WIPING OUT LYME
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Chowder
From the Chowder Files: