Jane N. Slater
The indignity of fire — it struck on a sunny , hot and cheery summer Monday at about 3 p.m. The first warnings were muffled explosions and the sound of running feet on the sandy pavement in front of the shop. I was soon closed up and had joined the runners. We, typical humans, were running toward the fire, not away from it. Fire trucks from all over the Island were arriving one after the other, all so carefully driven and parked in the available spaces in that crowded end of Menemsha near the Home Port.
Editor’s Note: Jane Slater has been writing the weekly Chilmark column for the Vineyard Gazette for decades. This is a column she prepared specially for the arrival of President Obama this weekend.
Mr. President, Chilmark welcomes you and your family. Tradition has it that you are the third president since John Adams to spend time in Chilmark and we are honored to have you.
Chilmark is a rural community at the southwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard where farmers and fishermen have made their home since 1694.