Veterans Day is Monday, and Martha’s Vineyard will join its counterparts around the state and country in observing the national holiday.

Half the leaves are down now, littering lawns, sidewalks and farm fields, nature’s confetti ready for raking. Or not.

Tucked away off Cromwell Lane in downtown Vineyard Haven, the Caleb Prouty house is a vestige of a bygone era, one of the few survivors of the Great Fire of 1883 that destroyed most of downtown Vineyard Haven.

Seven states have done away with Columbus Day. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that liberal Massachusetts is not one of them.

Parked on the side of the road at the edge of a beach is not a bad place to be on a windy, rainy evening in early October.