Last February, Menemsha lost one of its memorable characters, a genuinely nice guy and a good friend, when Carl Whitman passed. He died the way he lived, unafraid to face the pain and suffering with which he would inevitably deal.

Joe the Clam Eater

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of January, 1948

Not conquering perhaps, but a hero just the same, Joseph H. Silva returned this week to his home in Edgartown. He went west as the Vineyard’s champion clam-eater, seeking a prize as the nation’s capacity consumer. Mr. Silva has won local fame for his capacity for steamed clams, boiled clams, fried clams and just clams.

Decision Time in Tisbury

Spring Slips In

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about “spring coming slowly up this way,” and his words hold clear meaning on the Vineyard in early April. Raw winds cut across the faces of passengers disembarking from Steamship Authority ferries in Vineyard Haven; horses seek shelter in pastures in Chilmark and West Tisbury; Main street in Edgartown, splashed with late-afternoon sunshine, can be filled with eerie silence.