It’s official: Martha’s Vineyard is among the country’s most desirable places for second homes, according to Barron’s. This year, the Vineyard ranks third, behind the Hamptons, N.Y. and Kauai, Hawaii. Not that this will send most year-round Islanders into self-congratulatory dances in the aisles of Stop & Shop and Chicken Alley. Particularly in these trying economic times, many Vineyarders are pressed to afford the next tankful of gas, rent or first mortgage payment, let alone a second home.

What do we know about the proposal by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to locate a casino in Southeastern Massachusetts? Almost nothing.

Two weeks after tribal chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais caught even her own tribal council by surprise with a flurry of public statements indicating the tribe wants to compete for one of the state’s new gaming licenses, the most basic questions remain unanswered. Where would the casino go? Who would the tribe’s partners be? And where is the money coming from?

From time to time, whenever inspiration aligns with respiration, I will be contributing a column to this paper. It will cover some aspect of moving to and living on this Island, trekking toward retirement while reducing stress and making mole hills out of former mountains. Welcome to the Washashore Chronicles.

I grew up in a small town in New Jersey back when close community was the norm and when people became old, they were still very much a part of that community in their own ways. “Old Mr. Barton” was the kindly man with a cane. He’d walk to town slowly two or three times a week, occasionally patting us on the head in passing. “Old Mrs. Wheaton” was the woman down the block who yelled at us when we ran across her lawn, but still invited us in for hot chocolate when we came back from sledding. Both Mr. Barton and Mrs.

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Editors, Vineyard Gazette: