If you heard all the sirens and fire truck horns sounding on Saturday morning, you might have thought we were under attack, but it was a parade for the official opening day of the Island Little League. From all over the Island representatives of the Police, Fire, and EMS departments led the parade of ballplayers and a small band at the end of the parade provided some great music.
The 6th annual MV Goes Pink will be this Saturday, May 8, at 10 am, so come walk to support Islanders affected by cancer and to help find a cure for this devastating disease. Walkers will start from Little Bridge on Beach Road in Oak Bluffs to the Edgartown Lighthouse and back. You can walk, donate, or buy a raffle ticket. For more info check out mvgoespink.com.
Jessica Forend has accomplished something that has never been done before. Jessica won the 2010 National Intercollegiate Dressage Association Championship for the 3rd year in a row. This year it was the First Level Championship, 2009 was Upper Training Level, and 2008 Lower Training Level. The IDA was established in 2001 and has never had one rider win the National Championship three years in a row. Jessica will graduate cum laude in May from Johnson and Wales University with a bachelor’s degree in Equine Business Management and will be moving to Frenchtown, N.J., in the fall to work with Betsy Steiner.
Fiction readers and dog lovers alike will not want to miss local author Susan Wilson talking about her newly released novel, “One Good Dog.” Susan will speak about her book at the Oak Bluffs Library on Thursday, May 13, from 6:30 to 7:45 pm.
The Library Friends of Oak Bluffs are getting ready for their summer book sale, so start putting aside used books of any category and for all ages, DVDs, and books on CD. Drop off your donations at the Library or call Gail Barmakian at 508-693-1274 to arrange a pick-up. The Oak Bluffs Public Library will have a delayed opening on Friday, May 14, when it will be open from 2 to 6 pm.
The PTO will be holding a Tag Sale next Saturday, May 8, from 9 am to 1 pm. This is a fundraiser for purchasing more cafeteria tables. You may bring items all next week from 2:15 to 3:15 each day and place them in a water-proof container positioned in front of the school.
The Oak Bluffs School Spring Book Fair runs from 8 am to 4 pm in the school library, but it ends tomorrow.
We send birthday smiles to grandson Marques Rivers and Marguerite Cook on May 10, Olivia Hall and Preston Michael Averill the next day, and Olivia Lew on May 13.
Sunday is Mother’s Day and for the first time in my life, as I stand in the store trying to decide on a card and reading the verses to find an appropriate one, I will not be choosing one that says Happy Mother’s Day To My Mother. My mother died in 1984, a year younger than I am now, and my mother-in-law died last November at age 97. Like many things in this fast-moving world, the definition of mothers has undergone vast changes over the years. I remember my grandmother, who was typical of mothers and grandmothers in the1940s, married by age 20 and always wearing a housedress with an apron, her hair pulled back into a bun on the back of her head, the requisite stockings covered her legs and her feet being well supported by high black tie shoes. Her occupation was raising six children and taking care of the house and gardens. My own mother married in her mid-twenties after college. Her life was much different from her mother’s as she combined marriage, raising three daughters, and a career. That was not typical of mothers in the 1940s. My becoming a mother in the 50s and 60s was only accomplished by the unselfish and loving acts of three women who relinquished their children for adoption to experience a better life than they were able to provide for them. I spent the first few years of their lives in fear that through some legal glitch a strange person would appear on my doorstep ready to sweep them out of my arms back to their birth parents. That didn’t happen and if the truth were to be told, there were moments during their teen years when that prospect was rather appealing. But it seems to have worked out. Now we have stepmothers, foster mothers, single mothers, adoptive mothers, natural mothers and some children have two mothers or two fathers to love them in the same household. In the end, it doesn’t seem to matter where the infant started life as long as when it was born it was placed to thrive and be cared for in a loving heart. Happy Mother’s Day.Peace.
