Opinion
Boy, six more days and I’m outta here . . . back to the real world! I’ve had it, ready to go . . . back to the real world . . . six days!”
“Where are you from?” (Boston? New York? Thailand?)
“Fall River . . . six more days!”
My check-out lady at the Stop and Shop is fast and cheerful, she’s the bagger as well as the checker; a lot of the young people have already left, and she can’t wait to be one of them. It’s goodbye to the Outback. “Thanks. Have a nice day!”
ILLNESS AWARENESS
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
My name is Rebecca Perkalis. I have bipolar disorder. I would like to have the community know that Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 2 to 8. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the United States Congress established the first week of October in recognition of NAMI’s efforts to raise mental illness awareness. NAMI is an organization that fights mental illness stigma and promotes advocacy.
Editor’s Note: The following story was published in the Gazette in February 2006. Basil Welch died on Sept. 24 at the age of 87. His obituary appears on Page Four in today’s edition.
If you want to find Basil Welch , just pull into his Chilmark driveway and follow the signs.
Pass the one on the right that says Caution: Old Hunter Crossing, tacked to the tree on the edge of the yard.
A single note plays for what seems an eternity, wavering in the ear of the fiddler. She tunes, walking the stage at the Katharine Cornell Theatre to greet each band mate, seeking perfect pitch. The guitar player entertains the audience with an anecdote. “It’s close enough for pop music,” declares the mandolin player. The fiddler surrenders.
Like most kids from suburban New Jersey, I grew up disconnected from the earth compared to the Native Americans that I’m learning to live like today. But I was not completely disconnected; I loved to be outside and despised video games. I would spend a lot of time “suburban canoeing” in polluted rivers and “party bagging” on the Vineyard during the summer. We would forage for bags of beer cans and redeem them for money at Our Market. The natural hunter-gatherer inside me was itching for the natural world and I didn’t even know it!
Autumn Days