The other day Cam Bergeron was standing in line at the grocery store on the Vineyard talking to a friend about Gosnold town business when he was interrupted by a man standing behind him. The soft-spoken gentleman asked if Cam was from Gosnold and Cam told him that he was. The tall, stately black man said that he had never met anyone from Gosnold but had wanted to for a long time. He needed an explanation for something that had happened to him near there. He then told this story.

In reading some recent letters to the editor, I had to reflect on the existing gun laws of the state of Massachusetts, which already require that purchasers or possessors of firearms be licensed, that guns are registered at the point of sale, are required to be in locked cabinets or have trigger locks, and unfit individuals are, and have always been, barred from becoming licensed. Anyone who thinks that obtaining a license or buying a firearm in this state is easy and simple is someone who obviously has never tried it.

I was reading Eric Klinenberg’s article Adaptation in this week’s New Yorker and it occurred to me to wonder how this Island would have fared if Hurricane Sandy had scored a direct hit here. It’s worth considering that Hurricane Bob, the last major storm most of us remember, was merely a category two hurricane.

On Thursday, Dec. 27 at 8:30 a.m., I was driving on Lambert’s Cove Road and ran over some brush. There was no traffic. I pulled off the road just past Cottle’s. A Cottle’s truck leaving the yard stopped on the road beside me. The driver jumped out, pulled the brush out and headed back to the truck.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of January, 1955: The first of the three town meetings on the regional school issue — those in Tisbury and Oak Bluffs — are to be held tonight. It is to be hoped that voters on both sides will turn out so that there will be a really representative vote. The regional school question is vital to everyone. Discussion has been widespread. Summed up, we believe that they fall under two headings: those relating to education and the opportunities to be provided for Island children, and those relating to hard cash.

The first exports from New England to Europe were two cargoes of sassafras, gathered by Martin Pring and his company on Martha’s Vineyard and the neighboring islands, and taken by Pring to England in sloop Speedwell and bark Discoverer, two small vessels. They came over in 1603, setting sail from Milford Haven, April 10th. With the sassafras on board they sailed from the Vineyard August 9th and arrived at Bristol, England, Oct. 2, 1603. Sassafras at the time was held in high esteem for its medicinal qualities.