This will be a short column this week. I think I’m dying, can’t concentrate, everything hurts, but I want to give everyone I saw at the end of last week and over the weekend some warning.
Mike and I attended the celebration for John Alley’s life at the Ag Hall Saturday afternoon. I wore a KN95 mask the whole time except during the potluck dinner. I always wear a mask out in public. After we got home, I started feeling achy and cold. Mike made me take a COVID test on Sunday. It was negative, and I did call the friend I sat with at dinner. I will keep testing. Meanwhile, I am sequestered in our spare bedroom, and wiping everything I touch with Clorox.
It’s a funny feeling to be going through all this again. Although I consider wearing a mask a prudent precaution, it feels weird to be worried about what’s probably an old-fashioned cold. My immune system seems to have taken it badly when I started going out of the house after the initial two years.
Back to my normal column.
Regular rain has been wonderful. Here we are in mid-June, and I have hardly strung a hose, or taken a watering can around the yard, at all.
There are three birthdays to mention. Flag Day is Bill Haynes’ birthday, and Skyler Wallcox turned 2 on the 16th. Cliff Athearn will celebrate his big day next Sunday.
Looking at photographs of the graduating seniors, class of 2022, I can’t help being surprised at how grown-up and worldly these young people are. I had run into Kathy Lobb at Cronig’s, and some of our conversation dwelt on kids we had watched grow up, that it happened so quickly. One minute they are babies, then starting kindergarten, then graduating from high school, so full of enthusiasm and big ideas.
A similar feeling when I was looking over the crowd at the Ag Hall on Saturday. It was a sea of gray hair, of people I have known more than half my life.
Kathy and I had mentioned the Athearn boys, and only moments later as I was leaving the store, there was Kate Athearn. I mentioned being on a town committee with Brian when their eldest, Hunter, was born, and another member of our cohort, Diana Manter, painted a small chair for the new baby. They are grown young men now, though not immune to the excitement of the household’s new puppy, a Lab mix named Murphy.
The IGI Mobile Market will be back at the Howes House/library parking lot on Tuesday afternoons between 2:45 and 4 pm. The first 15 minutes will be reserved for online orders to be picked up. Walk-up shoppers are welcome from 3 to 4 pm. Online orders must be placed by 5 pm on Monday evening at mobilemarketorders.square.site. You may look at the website, igimv.org, for more information.
Donna Blackburn is looking for volunteers who can knit, quilt, sew, or crochet to make and donate infant or toddler-size blankets for Ukrainian children. They can be as plain or fancy as you wish. It is a lovely idea, and a practical way to help these families, to make a cozy blanket to wrap a child in. Donna has friends with island and Ukrainian family connections who will make sure the blankets are delivered where they belong. The deadline for dropping off your finished blanket is Sept. 30. They can be left at St. Andrew’s Church in Edgartown on weekdays between 11 and 2. Call Donna for more information: 508-627-8747.
As usual, this column has turned out longer than I expected. I want to finish with a correction to last week’s column. Mike’s tractor is a Power King, not a Fire King, as mistakenly attributed. He just came up to tell me he may have found an engine he can repair.
If you have any West Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Hermine Hull, hermine.hull@gmail.com.
