Julia Rappaport
The first day of kindergarten comes but once in a lifetime and yesterday, Joanie Creato’s son was ready for it. “He just kept saying, I’m going to kindergarten! I’m going to kindergarten,” the mother of two said yesterday morning. “He was very excited. I bawled my eyes out.”
Many parents tear up — or heave a sigh of relief — when their students step into the kindergarten classroom for the first time. But for Mrs. Creato, the moment was a triumph.
Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
Ripening fields lush — bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn.
— Michelle L. Thieme, August’s Crown
What does a principal do if parents do not come in to meet him and talk to the teachers?
Last year Laury Binney, principal of the Oak Bluffs elementary school, decided to go to the parents. And in his case that meant taking an unpaid sabbatical year and traveling to Brazil, including an extended visit to the two towns where most of the Island Brazilians hail from.
His trip provided a small window into the Brazilian community on the Island, which is well established but little known or understood.
In their workaday world they help other people create memories, but along the way they have created enough memories of their own to fill a book. And the children! V. Jaime Hamlin has four boys, three of them triplets; Patrie Grace has three girls and two boys. Jaime is a caterer whose reputation as a cook is beyond the pale. Patrie is the stalwart wedding planner and events coordinator. Their businesses are separate but intertwined. Exactly like their lives.
Interviews by Julia Rappaport
Growing up in a liberal community outside of Washington, D.C., Cindy Kane began her artistic life as a drawer. “I always had my hand on a pen,” she said. She is now a painter, but said aspects of her early art are still present in her work today. “My art has always been narrative, never abstract,” she said. “I’ve always been a storyteller in my paintings.”
Island visitors and residents may have cut back on many extravagances as the economy slowed this summer season, but weddings were not on the list.
“The economy does not seem to be affecting the desire and the interest in destination weddings to Martha’s Vineyard,” said Sue Curley, event coordinator at Tilton Rentals, a company that rents everything from tents to forks for celebrations here.