Even with the wind howling, this is actually the quiet time of year here in Aquinnah. Many of us see our work slowing down (or stopping) for the season. Visitors are infrequent. Gardens are fallow. Many of the houses sit boarded up and empty of human inhabitants. Sometimes you see people, bundled into hats and scarves, coat collars up, hands in gloves, clunky boots on their feet, walking the Cliffs and beaches, but mostly things are quiet. It’s beautiful. For some, this is the time when their creative juices really have time to flow. There are knitting needles flying, knives carving, breads baking. Kids are pushing aside the table and chairs to make room for learning breakdancing. Poems are getting written. Stories are being told. Paintings are being created. Songs are getting written. The place is humming with in-house energies.
The indomitable Kate Taylor and the talented Laura Decker have decided that it is a great time to harness all that energy. They have put out a call for as many of us as have the urge to come out to Town Hall on Saturday, Jan. 27, at 1 pm, and help to create the first-ever Aquinnah Variety Show. The 27th won’t be the show itself, nor is it a place for auditions. This is rather a place to say what crazy thing you’d like to contribute to a show that will take place later in the spring, before everything goes back to the craziness of summer. They have a vision of a vaudeville celebration of who we are, a chance for us to come together for a purpose other than a wedding or a funeral or a political meeting. If you’d like to be a part of creating this, participating as you can, it will be a commitment to meeting every Saturday that you can for a few hours for a few weeks to create and rehearse the show. Are you great at jumping rope? Do you have a dance routine that you’re working on with your best friend? Play the ukulele (or the harp, or the guitar or the kazoo, or any of the instruments in the orchestra)? Write poems? Can you demonstrate how to braid a perfect challah bread? Lasso? Juggle? What’s your talent? Come on out and share it. Kate and Laura will shape it all into a real show that will lift our hearts. For more information, contact Laura Jordan-Decker at laurajordandecker@gmail.com.
Birthdays this week include Ivan Vanderhoop on the 25th and David Vanderhoop on the 29th. You should also tip your hat to Carl Widdis on Jan. 28.
If you have any Aquinnah Town Column suggestions, email Kathie Olson, aquinnahcolumn@gmail.com.
