The New Year was announced at 12:01 am on Jan. 1 by Isaac Taylor regaling us with fireworks. I’m grateful to Isaac for giving us the New Year celebratory light. It was a beautiful, loud, and sparkling way to bring us into what is the quietest time of year on this Island. The New Year fireworks are a tradition that goes back many years. Usually they are fired from Lighthouse Park. This year, however, the little park is closed while the great lady gets a new and repaired hat, so the show was generated from the overlook on the Cliffs.
It is dark out there without the light from our lighthouse. I can attest to that darkness, because the lighthouse beams usually shine right outside our bedroom window. I’m glad that the repairs and rebuild are happening; I want that lighthouse to shine her light for another century. However, it is truly odd to look at her without her head. I’ll be glad when the work is done, and we have that nightly lullaby shining through our bedroom window again.
The quiet is obvious every time we have to drive somewhere. The big trucks and vans of workers headed up our way now outnumber the rental cars of tourists. It takes us a good 15 minutes less time to get down-Island than at other times of the year. As refreshing as it is to have quieter roads, it’s rather alarming that drivers seem a little less defensive and a little more lackadaisical, often wandering over the yellow line in their winter carelessness. I wish that I could issue a stern, grandmotherly warning to those drivers to stop that. Just put down your phones, wake up, and stay alert. Please.
I have a basket of projects that have been accumulating in anticipation of this time. Pants to be hemmed. Puzzles and needlepoint to be done. Greeting cards received that I need to respond to. There are books stacked by my chair that are waiting to be read. And my worktable has a new set of watercolors waiting to be used, and an unfinished painting of a cow that I must finish. I am not dreading this quiet. No, I am not.
There are lots of things out there to be done as well. There are still shops that are open. Plucky restaurants are still serving. The libraries are filled with wonders to be found. The bowling alley is open, as are movie theaters, the Y, the Ice Arena, Featherstone, the museum. The Councils on Aging have full calendars. And our beaches always call us, with sand washed away and rocks exposed, waves pounding, birds calling, wind blowing, and people to hail as we walk bunched up in winter coats and hats and scarves. No, I am not dreading this time of year at all.
This publication week holds some special birthdays. On Jan. 15, Faith Vanderhoop and Carol Mayrand share a birthday. Jan. 16 is a day to celebrate Tom Murphy’s birth.
As we begin this year, please make it a priority to let me know your news, your events, your thoughts. I’d like to let the community know. Write to me at aquinnahcolumn@gmail.com.
If you have any Aquinnah Town Column suggestions, email Kathie Olson, aquinnahcolumn@gmail.com.
