Mark Alan Lovewell
They are two Oak Bluffs plumbers who have much more in common than fixtures and pipe fittings. William D. (Bill) Norton, 80, and his son Ralph W. Norton, 53, have plenty to share when Father’s Day arrives on Sunday.
They are the perfect father-son team, sharing not only their work and trade, but also a certain easy fellowship that comes about with age. Their interests reach across the generations and intersect.
They say the Vineyard has changed a lot. The places to hunt and fish aren’t the same.
The Trustees of Reservations’ three-acre garden Mytoi on Chappaquiddick is the inspiration for an art exhibit in Oak Bluffs that opens today and continues through the coming two weeks. Two artists, Don Sibley of West Tisbury and Robert Baart of Brookline, have stories to tell about Mytoi. They tell it through words, in ink and paint.
The two-hour opening reception begins tonight at 6 p.m. at Dragonfly Gallery, 91 Dukes County avenue. Close to 40 works of art will be on exhibit.
Fishing tournaments seem to stick on the Vineyard. Invite a group of anglers together and hold a fishing derby and their fun tends to come around again, a year later. That is how the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby was started by the chamber of commerce and they are now entering their 64th year.
Ten members of the American Legion held a solemn ceremony on Sunday, Flag Day, to burn retired flags. The gathering culminated with flames and dark smoke rising from an old steel caldron. The 10-minute service included a prayer, a speech and the playing of music.
The infrequent event is held when the veterans have collected a large enough pile of flags, the organizers explained.
Bait fish that were once plentiful in the waters around the Cape and Islands have grown scarce. And recreational fishermen want Congress to step in to help do something about it.
Menhaden, also called bunker, have all but disappeared. Atlantic mackerel had a weak showing this spring. Even squid are down; the commonwealth has extended the spring fishing season into June to help commercial draggers meet the state quota, but the bigger question is what happened to the squid?
An old house came down in Aquinnah this week, and with it six generations of family history and more memories than anyone could count.
But this is not a trophy house story. The Manning family homestead was razed to make way for two new modest homes that will house the three Manning sisters: June, Judith and Jyl, and their families.