Tara Keegan
Memorial Day on the Vineyard is always a crowded scene, but this year’s crowd brought with it something extra — an overwhelmingly good mood. Merchants across down-Island towns stressed the friendliness of first-time vacationers, summer residents and year-round residents.
The first summer weekend began with hordes of passengers crossing the Sound.
Alzheimer’s disease is a rapidly growing concern for the U.S. health care system. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the world’s leading voluntary support base for Alzheimer’s research and coping, the estimated cost of the disease in America will be $200 billion this year. Out of that figure, $140 billion will come from Medicare and Medicaid. By 2050, the cost could increase by nearly 500 per cent.
Excitement filled the soft summer evening long before the first lantern was lit in the Camp Ground on Wednesday night. Runabout children with glow sticks and the constant flash of cameras created a parade of lights as early as 7:15 p.m. at the Tabernacle, where a large audience had already gathered. The growing crowd seemed almost to be in competition with the stunning summer weather as to who could deliver the best performance.
It was hard to believe the witty and talented musician who played at the Yard last Tuesday night to promote the release of his first CD heard his own music on the radio for the first time that very morning. The artist, Ollie Childs, and his wife and manager, Alix, had been out driving around the Island when WMVY radio debuted a song from All in Good Time.
It was an emotional moment for the young couple, and, as Mr. Childs put it, quite “surreal.”
Even for an established weaver with 45 years of experience, it seems the essence of tapestry art is best explained by the reaction of an outsider to the art. While at a tapestry show in Philadelphia, Julia Mitchell witnessed the raw and pure reaction to her craft. A man passing by stopped in front of one of her woven linen tapestries and gawked momentarily before approaching the piece. Then he took the cloth in his hands, thrust it to his nose and sniffed deeply.
Eleven-year-old Sophie Donohue doesn’t have far to travel for the Community Sing each week. During the summer she lives with her family in the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground. Sophie’s Vineyard experience could be described as a time to swim, sail and, of course, sing.
On Wednesday, July 20, at the third Community Sing of the summer, Sophie mingled with the crowd. “I’m waiting for my friends,” she explained. “We come every week to sing together.”