Heard on Main Street: Under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
Take a Literary Walking Tour with our V.H. library on Sunday, Sept. 3, from 4:30 to 6 pm with historian Wayne Nichols. The walk starts in Owen Park. See the former homes of some great American writers in Vineyard Haven: William Styron, Lillian Hellman, John Hersey, Art Buchwald, and Mike Wallace. Enjoy stories of these amazing writers. Tour ends at the graveyard on West Chop, where four are buried. No sign-up required.
I wasn’t keen on the music I heard last Friday at 11 am, so I was pleased when the rain began and the music stopped. But it is not nice to have thoughts like that. I did hope it would stay quiet for a while, because that peace and quiet is one of the pleasures of living on the Island.
However, we were lucky. My son lives in central Massachusetts. They got two inches of rain in five hours, which would give us problems. I think we had about a tenth of an inch throughout the day and night.
It is funny how seeing an essay about hitchhiking brings back memories. When we retired to the Island, my husband and I made a deal: He didn’t pick up girls, and I didn’t pick up boys.
Here comes the memory — many, many years earlier we were living in Providence, where he worked for the state of Rhode Island, and I worked for a lawyer. Then my boss suffered a heart attack, and had to work from home. No one had computers then. All conversation was by phone. My boss had a summer house near the shore, so I commuted once or twice a week. (It was usually a lovely drive.)
I still had my first car, a pretty, light blue Morris Minor convertible with red leather seats. It was my dream car — until the wooden frame that topped the windshield began to leak. One very dark and rainy evening, I was heading home from the shore — using a washcloth to mop drops off that leaky wooden frame. The drops were blowing into my face and making it hard to see. There was very little traffic. Then, just before the Mount Hope Bridge, I spotted a young man hitchhiking — so in frustration, I stopped.
I showed him the pile of washcloths and said I needed help keeping the water out of my eyes. He was happy to help, and spent the entire trip telling me that a young woman should never pick up a hitchhiker, especially a man. But we both got home safely that night.
Sign up now for the 26th annual 5K Run/Walk to benefit the library; the race will be on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 10 am. A free half-mile fun run for kids will be held at 9:45 am. See runsignup.com for advance registration; $30 for in-person signup includes a T shirt. Or go virtual — run or walk 5k from the library to West Chop Lighthouse and back before Sept. 30 with a donation of $25.
Beginning in September, Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of Literature at Swarthmore College, will present a six-part seminar on Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” hosted on Zoom by Lifelong Learning Swarthmore. Professor Weinstein and Swarthmore have arranged for Martha’s Vineyard library patrons to take part at no charge. The class will be every two weeks on Mondays, from 7 to 8:30 pm (Sept. 18, Oct. 2 and 23, Nov. 6 and 20, and Dec. 4). Register at CLAMS: bit.ly/3su4UMw. Zoom login will be sent for the first session in September. Limited copies of the book are available at the library, or can be requested.
And, in January, Professor Weinstein will present an additional seminar with Vineyard Haven library, on “Known and Unknown Worlds: Fictions of the 21st Century.” Texts for this course will include works by Jonathan Franzen, W.G. Sebald, Edward P. Jones, Jennifer Egan, Ann Patchett, and Colum McCann. More about this later.
School will soon be open. Watch especially for little ones too excited to look both ways.
Congratulations go to Alma (“Snookie”) Lowe on her 90th birthday on Sunday. She was born and raised her six kids here, but now lives in Florida. Hope the kids will pass on our good wishes.
Big bunches of birthday balloon wishes go out to Jessica Dolliver today. Happy birthday to Edwin Gould-Hart on Saturday. Melissa Gold parties on Tuesday. Best wishes to Mike Ciancio on Wednesday.
Heard on Main Street: To ignore the facts does not change the facts.
If you have any Tisbury Town Column suggestions, email Kay Mayhew, tashmoorock@gmail.com.
