We are rapidly approaching the moment when an SSA ferry reservation will reach all nines across all seven digits.

I think the reservation issued as number 9999999 should be celebrated as an indication of persistence and reliability — what keeps us going as an Island-based community.

Perhaps a prize could be given to both the purchaser and the seller, both to the SSA employee applying that number of nines and the SSA customer who receives it.

A perhaps fitting prize is one where the winners cross the Sound to claim it, such as at a bed and breakfast on the Island or on the Cape.

Doug Goldsmith

Chilmark