Opinion
Two year ago, a good friend of mine invited me to join her on a trip to the family home on Martha ’s Vineyard. I happily agreed and instantly began envisioning what this Island experience would entail. I was expecting some bluish water and a few pretty little beach houses along a shore.
From the Vineyard Gazette editions of August 1974: Forty cowboys, cowgirls and assistants came to the Vineyard Saturday in 17 trucks and trailers to stage the Island’s first rodeo and Wild West show, sponsored by the Island chamber of commerce. With them they brought 15 horses, six steers, a mule, two dogs and a buffalo, and before stands filled with spectators under huge striped tents at Scrubby Neck Farm in West Tisbury, they performed three shows. Vacationers intermingled with Islanders but, most of all, there were children.
In the Gazette newsroom, we all knew the stories. And over the course of about a year, Bill Eville, managing editor of the Gazette, shared in intimate essays with the rest of the Island community the challenges of raising two small children, Hardy and Pickle, and supporting his wife, Cathlin, through diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments for breast cancer.
When Sandy Pimentel from the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services board of directors called me back in January to ask if I would consider hosting the 2013 Possible Dreams auction, taking up the gavel where legendary humorist Art Buchwald left off, I was completely blown away.
Once again we are reminded that Martha’s Vineyard is indeed an Island. We are a slowly eroding pile of sand, rock and clay surrounded by water. Everything that we need to survive is transported here either by boat or airplane. Except for two things, water and electricity!
Sometimes we all need little reminders on what beach etiquette, at least here on the Vineyard, is all about.
When looking for a spot to sit on the beach, it is not proper to plop yourself in front of someone already there and the water (except on South Beach).
Depending on how close you are to someone else on the beach, be considerate when playing music. Some people just like the sound of the surf.