In the beginning, there were 254 runners toiling up and over the hills of Middle Road.

The painted wooden sign resting on the base of the podium in Ocean Park read Savor the Moment, and when celebrated poet Sonia Sanchez stepped to the microphone to begin her program during Della Hardman Day on Saturday, it was impossible to imagine doing anything else. Words on a page are poor conveyors of the rhythms and intonations of Mrs. Sanchez’s commanding voice, which has been holding audiences rapt for decades.

The sign on Edgartown-West Tisbury Road is nondescript, as far as signs go. It is square, with a blue triangle painted on a white background; inside the blue triangle are pictograms of a tree and a house.

Lisa (Ben David) Scannell didn’t get five feet past the door of the Portuguese-American Club before the crowd came to her.

Although it occurs in the summer, the Feast of the Holy Ghost, which took place last weekend at the Portuguese-American Club in Oak Bluffs, transcends the seasons.

Moviegoers hoping to secure tickets to the Island premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 may have wished for a Time-Turner or two yesterday, after the lone midnight showing sold out less than 20 minutes after the box office at Edgartown Cinemas opened at 2 p.m.