Surprise! August is suddenly here. With little warning we were hit with full-blown summer crowds, hot weather and traffic jams.

Seeing all that international attention broadcast for the Jaws 50th anniversary (even in the New Yorker) should have warned me. But, I figured, how could a movie made half a century ago cause this much excitement? Surely it was just hype.

But Jaws isn’t only a scary movie. Jaws is indeed a good story and, seeing the film again 50 years later, it is still entertaining and funny and timeless. But the volume of the crush was unexpected by me, and I believe by others who tried to find a parking spot this past weekend. Or tried to get in to the events at the museum.

A merchant friend told me months ago that people would come from all over (Europe in particular) for the Jaws reunion, but I didn’t expect they would all arrive at once, and on a shoulder-season weekend. A friend in Canada emailed me, asking how we are coping with the Amity revival. I happily replied that it is peaceful up here in the sticks, and except for having to go out and buy food and fetch mail, all is as it should be.

It was a shock though to see how elderly the movie people looked when they showed up for the festivities. My nearest and dearest friends, along with my family and I, happen to look exactly the same.

The early blast of heat did not hit the Island as soon as it had elsewhere. It felt on the weekend like a series of perfectly balmy summer days, allowing me to feel a little smug. Until Monday. We didn’t need to condition the air in our house but instead we re-introduced an old electric fan to blow toward the big bed. That method was adequate for two nights, before we succumbed to turning on the mini-splits. Not that long ago we never needed to cool our air on the Vineyard. And certainly never in June.

Marilyn Hollinshead has arrived from Lexington for a good long season at her summer home on Tisbury Great Pond. This summer Marilyn is sponsoring a concert of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. The program is in honor of her husband, Warren Hollinshead, who died last January. The musician-led orchestra, called A Far Cry, is a Boston-based classical music ensemble who will perform at the Old Whaling Church on July 20 at 4 p.m.

Nancy Hoffman and Bob Schwartz are enjoying a visit from son their Dan and his wife, along with their granddaughter Lois, who live in Princeton.

New Yorker Greta Mogel has arrived at her home at Deep Bottom.

Happy birthday to Anne Osmundsen on Friday, June 27. Birthday greetings are due to Harriet Bernstein on Sunday, June 29, and to Keith Maciel on Monday, June 30. Bouquets of birthday wishes go on July 2 to three lovely ladies; Marsha Winsryg, Sioux Eagle and Katie Morse.

Congratulations and happy wedding anniversary Friday, June 27, to Ed Levine and Vicky Bijur.