To the Editor:
Last Friday, my car broke down in front of Cumberland Farms in Vineyard Haven.
No problemo. I called AAA, and they promised to send someone out within the hour.
An hour and a half later, Buck from AAA showed up to give me a jump: “Listen, lady, your battery is fine; I’m not a mechanic, I just jump batteries, I will call and have a tow truck take you to your garage. Meanwhile, I will keep the hood up so that you don’t get a ticket.”
An open hood with a sweet little old lady at the helm is too much for any self-respecting car guy to pass by. People are kind. I can’t count how many asked if they could help. Some were unstoppable, even after I told them that AAA was on the way.
Roy, whose mother used to own a restaurant across the street, took a gander at it before he went into the store, but he simply could not pass it by when he came out.
Ed, who went to high school on the Island and married a woman from Edgartown, offered to drive me home, even though he had a car already full of loving relatives.
Michael Johnson, whom I know, offered to go home and bring back his electric battery gizmo, but understood when I said that it was not a battery problem.
Bobby, my buddy-o, who works at a car place in Oak Bluffs, was Mr. Efficient, and had a street mechanic go to my house in Oak Bluffs to work on it right away, since it was Memorial Day weekend and finding a garage with time was not likely.
The women were less mesmerized by the siren call of an open hood, and more concerned with me. Alyson from Aquinnah offered to bring me water, Susan from Chappy said she would talk to the owner of the store to let me use their bathroom, and Johanna said she would send her husband, who knows a lot about cars.
Then, when it was starting to get dark, and I had been sitting in the hot car for more than four hours complaining about my knee and back, Kevin came along. He politely asked if he could take a look; he did, then he sat in the driver’s seat, twisted the gear shift, and BAZOOOM! It started up.
Kevin had just come back from dialysis, which he has three times a week, and there was no way I could complain to him about my knee or my back.
People are kind. There is hope for the future. We make the future, we make the day brighter … not them, us, you and me.
Bells of Vineyee
In the style of “Bells of Rhymney”
Oh what will you give me?
Say the loving bells of Vineyee
Is there hope for the future?
Said the Oak Bluffs booster
Who makes me happy?
Say the clear bells of Chappy
And who’ll make your dinner?
Ask the bells of Aquinnah
Oh you don’t need a weapon
Say the bells of Saint Kevin
We’ll make lemonade from lemon
Shouts my Kevin from Heaven
Abigail McGrath
Oak Bluffs
