It was a spectacular crash, the first I’d ever seen. Two cars, at the intersection of State and Old County Roads, hit like billiard balls and bounced straight backwards. Happy for all, the only injury was a young passenger in one car who sliced up his forehead. Pieces of cars were all over the road, and in typical Vineyard fashion motorists began stopping and running to assist. The EMTs soon arrived, calm returned, the debris was kicked off the road and we all went on about our business.

There it is, Five Corners — our Five Corners. It’s not the most elegant intersection on the Island. It’s rather scruffy, in fact. But, recently, in an effort to clarify where cars should go, the Town of Tisbury added a highway directional sign, actually two signs, one above another, atop a field of concrete brick pavers on the Post Office side of the road. Now every time I pass by I think of the hundreds of people on this Island who spend thousands of hours every month trying to keep Martha’s Vineyard special.