Saving Grace

From Gazette editions of July, 1956:

I didn’t know that I would ever want to see salt water again,” mused Dr. Robert Boggs of West Chop as he and his family prepared for the beach. Dr. and Mrs Boggs, their daughter Barbara, 16, and son Robert, 12, are all survivors of the sinking of the Andrea Doria off Nantucket last week, and they reckon themselves as being highly favored by whatever gods may be, that they are together, well, uninjured and able to tell of their frightening experience.

From Gazette summer editions:

It’s one of those odd things that the northeast wind which, most of the year, produces three days — at least — of rain and wind, usually raw and bleak, can produce in late summer and early fall the beautiful phenomenon known as a dry northeaster. A northwest day is pretty fine, but the clear northeast day is finest of all, for its air makes the heart lilt and sing.

Birds of a Feather

From Gazette editions of July, 1936:

We went to the Farmers’ Cooperative Market last Friday. It’s held in the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury every Tuesday and Friday of the summer. Most of the individual stalls were run by women who could get away from their household duties during the day to sell their own goods. They had on sale substantial, home-made products, just the kind of thing you would expect a New England good wife to produce.

From a 1952 Gazette edition:

Since Thursday, when the Coast Guard building, three stories high, came towing into Menemsha Creek on a scow after crosssing Vineyard Sound from Cuttyhunk, people have exclaimed: “How unusual!”

But here on the Vineyard the moving of buildings by water is an old story. Not too many men are now living who have engaged in such undertakings, but there are many familiar with the history of similar movings who can point out houses and other structures that floated alongshore to their present destinations.

Pieces of the Pie

From Gazette editions of July, 1886:

Almost the last act of the state senate was to advance its pay from $650 to $750, by a vote of 16 to 15, Mr. Norris voting for the increase. It’s only a beggardly hundred but it will help pay election expenses next fall. By the way, we’re liable to need a hundred or so ourself, and would respectfully invite the honorable senator to divvy.

From Gazette editions of 1962:

Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven is the finest example of cooperative effort on the part of residents of every Island town. Its ten acres or so, reclaimed from swamp, marsh and actual open water, has become an Island landmark, a fitting memorial to war heroes living and dead, and is the scene of much activity on the part of old and young.