From the December 31, 1976 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

While the Vineyard may have its problems at the moment, what with oil spills and the threat to fish and wildlife, 1976 was a year full of good news about people and places, about kindness and memories.

The good news of 1976 did not follow any particular order; it was scattered throughout the year.

In May George W. Adams of the Gazette explored the Island’s own little corner of the sky and wrote of the meaning of star gazing: “Watching takes patience and humility: patience to learn the ways of what is being watched, and humility to recognize it is worth watching. Star gazing requires little of either though — the locations of the stars and the rules governing their motions are easily learned, and the celestial spectacle itself will teach all the necessary humility and more.“

In early August, Phyllis Meras, a contributing editor of the Gazette, took a Sunday morning walk and found only good news to report:

“It felt rather like fall on Sunday. There was a good breeze stirring the treetops. A birch bobbed and gleamed white from the underbrush by Tashmoo when I finally got there. There were the familiar little pines soughing softly on the hillside above Tashmoo, and blue chicory, and Queen Anne’s lace fluttering, and children’s laughter tumbling out of the windows of a house by the lake.”

Henry Beetle Hough looked at the heat of the summer and offered us a thought to cherish: “Whatever happens on the typical summer day may be said to happen because this is what summers are for.“

“Then the lingering afternoon and heat persisting into twilight, and insects strumming as the stars come out. There’s a breeze now, if only a zephyr of a warm southeaster, and in the privacy that comes again some adventure or interlude of the summer day.”

And throughout the year there were all those reports we received that were part of 1976 and worth remembering. Under the headline AT LAST, THE FIRST, S. Bernard Issokson of Vineyard Haven called in the first crocus sighting on Feb. 20. The first Mayflower of the season was sent to the Gazette on April 9 by Mrs. Abner L. Braley of Edgartown. The first pinkletink reporting began March 14.

Fast Ed Lopes, after two spectacular escapes from the Dukes County jail, was finally caught and locked up in early April.

A horse backed through the front window of the Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Agency the day before April Fool’s Day. The incident brought good humor and traffic congestion to Oak Bluffs.

The agricultural Fair in West Tisbury attracted more people than ever before. The kite festival in Oak Bluffs was a smash success, as was the seafood festival in Edgartown and the Tisbury Street Fair. Art exhibitions on the Island were never better, children’s programs were in abundance, and the regional high school did a marvelous job with the play Carnival.

The Vineyard school system got a new superintendent, Rufus B. Shorter, out of New York City.

Remember Kojack, the East Falmoith cat that hitched a ride on the ferry to Vineyard Haven? After a night on the Island, the family of the Rev. Donald H. Lyons discovered a dog (sic) tag with proper address and telephone number. A phone call placed the missing cat, and the Steamship Authority delivered Kojack back to the mainland free of charge.

It was in late May. Three times the alarm rang. Three times West Tisbury police chief George W. Manter rushed to the school. Only on Mr. Manter’s final trip did he discover the culprit. Thumper, the school’s pet rabbit was loose in the classrooms.

Osprey returned to the Island. Toulouse the Goose came over from Chappy to shop the main streets of Edgartown for several days this past spring.

A group of women from Vineyard Haven produced a beautiful bicentennial quilt and the first women deacons were installed at the Federated Church in Edgartown.

The Bass Derby got off to a slow start but in the end even the fish cooperated to make the annual event a success.

Summer came and prompted Vivien Cook to write: “I swam this morning near the Chappy Beach Club, two snowy egrets and one gull as my companions.“ What better news than that for an early morning swim.

And then there was this unusual report: “Many a vessel has taken refuge in Edgartown harbor, but few have done so on account of holes caused by a swordfish’s sword.”

No year on the Vineyard is complete without Illumination Night in Oak Bluffs. The Gazette’s Lisa Grunwald set the scene:

“There were offerings of lemonade and cookies, a place to sit and rest a while, a slice of bread, a sip of punch. But the offering to accept and remember was the lights themselves. The 108th illumination of the lanterns at the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground took place Wednesday night — as marvelous and as mystical as it’s ever been.”

And so there is much to remember from the passing year and it is all not so bad as to sometimes seems.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

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