When fall comes down off the shelf

In early August on a Saturday night this past hot summer, I wanted to go dancing at the Portuguese American Club.

I am rummaging around in my past in Tallahassee, Fla., here for a memorial service for Ned Stuckey-French, a former professor and friend who died too young.

Seven states have done away with Columbus Day. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that liberal Massachusetts is not one of them.

From the Oct. 12, 1934 edition of the Vineyard Gazette: