Commentary
Diving for Dollars
From the Vineyard Gazette editions of August, 1983:
Every day during the summer a small band of young swimmers gathers at the beach near the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf. Wearing underwater masks, and fins in some cases, they tread water and await the arriving boats from the mainland.
Recently I was privileged to see a per formance of End Days written by Deborah Zoe Laufer and directed by Claudia Weill at the Vineyard Playhouse. This quirky family comedy underscores the vulnerabilities and aspirations of human beings who have survived trauma and the threat of annihilation. We laugh with the characters, who include a pious and ever-patient Jesus and Stephen Hawking as the marijuana-induced hallucination of Rachel, a disaffected, black-clad teen.
PIVOTAL CHOICE
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
The following letter was sent to the Dukes County Commission:
Speaking as friends of the county, we believe that the manner in which the county commissioners fill the unexpired term of Paul Strauss will be both pivotal and crucial.
The scene: a corridor in the Congress Hotel, Chicago. The time: mid-afternoon on a sultry July day in 1952. The cast: four or five radio reporters, a Chicago Tribune staffer, a photographer and a couple of reporters from the Associated Press and United Press. An air of expectation hovers over the scene.
There are times in our lives when incidents in the lives of people we do not know take on such profound meaning that we want to learn more. For me that came through a conversation with my husband, Bill Baker. He had heard the Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York city, speak at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.
The story the dean told in the church was so powerful that I felt an imperative to speak with him personally. I wanted to know more of this story.
From the Vineyard Gazette editions of 1934:
The Seaman’s Bethel, located on the waterfront at Vineyard Haven, is one of those institutions peculiar to the coast and to comparatively few towns and cities. Established and maintained by the Boston Seaman’s Friend Society, the Seaman’s Bethel is managed by Chaplain Austin Tower, who at once constitutes a clergyman, sea-going ambulance driver, harbor master, life guard and general friend in need to all who venture upon the water.