Blue Skies, Ferris Wheels, Fireworks, Bonito: the Promise of August, and Now It's Here

By MAX HART

"There will be cool nights, and the mist drifting over the plain.
New crowds will come on the steamboats bringing their cars, and all the large, glossy cars will not go to Nantucket, but some will glide ashore here. The cicada will sing, and the human race will feel lazy, and the sunny afternoons will be as timeless as space itself."

Henry Beetle Hough,
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As the sport-fishing boat Cookie Too backed into the slip in Oak Bluffs harbor on Saturday evening, nervous chatter rippled through the onlookers who had congregated around the dock.

Huddling under what served as a gigantic umbrella, graduating senior Mario Spindola looked out from inside the Tabernacle before Sunday's high school graduation and could only smile. "It's a great day," he mused, his eyes scanning the growing crowd. "Too bad it's raining."