You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2008.
Here comes August, the busiest month on the Vineyard.
MVOL August Calendar of events
MV Chamber of Commerce calendar of events
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Some of the main events you won’t want to miss:
*Aug 4th leads off the month with the Possible Dreams Auction.
*Aug 4th is also the All Island Art Show and Junior Art show at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.
*Aug 10th The Martha’s Vineyard Festival at Ocean Park… The Boston Pops, Gladys Knight, Kate Taylor, the Neville Brothers and Entrain are just a few of the performers this year.
*Aug 20th is Illumination Night in the Campground in Oak Bluffs. This special night starts with a rousing community sing and band concert, followed by the lighting of thousands of lanterns adorning the gingerbread cottages. It is Americana at its best and a fun night for everyone. Martha’s Vineyard Campmeeting Assn
*Aug 21 - 24th is the 147th MV Agricultural Fair... this is a chance to enjoy everything from livestock, beautiful handmade articles, flowers, Island grown produce, sheep shearing, dog contests, rides and the always popular skillet tossing competition.
*Aug 22nd is the night for the Oak Bluffs Fireworks at Ocean Park. This event is one of the last of the summer and it is a great night out for everyone.
These are but a few of the many events going on during the month of August, check out the above links and see what MV has to offer for her summer finale.
Ocean Park, the jewel of Oak Bluffs was designed in the late 1860’s.
The seven acre park is criss-crossed by paths which are dotted with benches. From the days when women with parasols and gentlemen in suits strolled through the park… to the present time when fireworks and concerts are performed. From the days of baby parades with the little ones riding in brightly decorated strollers and carriages… to today’s kite flying, frisbee throwing and sailing boats in the pond, Ocean Park has always been a popular place for people to congregate.
Ocean Park’s beauty changes with the seasons… colorful and vivid in summer… golden hues in autumn, stark black and white in winter and eager with budding flowers in spring.
You may notice a new addition to my side bar. It’s our website for Inhale Now.
If you’re worried about the air quality in your house… mold, allergens, pet odors, smoke odors or germs, and if you want to dramatically reduce them, then take a look at the Fresh Air by Eco-Quest unit. Think how important it would be to allergy and asthma sufferers to have an allergen-free environment.
We know it works from personal experience. Only days after we got our Fresh Air unit our daughter’s friend (Dawn, from my previous post) was here to visit. We have a dog and usually after being here for less then 30 minutes she’d need to use her inhaler or take medication. She was in our house for nearly 6 hours and she was fine the entire time. That’s just one example of how powerful the Fresh Air unit is.
And then there’s the Heartland Select health drink which is brand new and we’re very excited about. Heartland Select is made from the Muscadine grape which originated in the southeast United States. It provides the highest ORAC (antioxidant) score known anywhere. Heartland Select fights inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, colitis, diabetes, heart disease and gout just to name a few. It also has anti-cancer properties. And in the words of Lucy Ricardo… it tastes good too. Really. If you’re interested, go to the Nutritional Supplement page and click on the Heartland Select banner at the top.
One other quick thing I’d like to mention is POWERWORKX… if you’re interested in saving on your energy costs take a look at this whole-household management system. It slows down your electric meter. We have one and it’s a savings.
So, take a look at the website and at some of Eco-Quests other great products and if you’re interested contact us.
bboyken@maximumsuccess.com
In July 1984 I took my daughter Deb, and her best friend Dawn to Martha’s Vineyard.
Dawn and Deb - July 18, 1984
Dawn and Deb - December 29, 2007
The trip was a new experience in so many ways. I had never gone away without my husband, so that was different. I had never gone away alone with two teenagers, so that was different. I had never driven to MV by myself, so that was different. What I discovered was that I liked being different.
We stayed here at the Kelley House…which, by the way houses the restaurant/pub, Newes From America one of the best places to eat on MV.
We did a lot of things together but the girls also spent time doing their own things while I did mine. It was a nice mix of togetherness and apartness (is that a word). We went to South Beach, to Aquinnah to see the cliffs, shopping, the girls rented bikes one day while I went to the kite festival in Oak Bluffs, we had great weather and we laughed a lot, which is not hard to do around Deb and Dawn.
One incident that sticks out in my mind is dinner one night at The Wharf in Edgartown. We ate early and the restaurant was almost empty. We were in the middle of our meal when our waitress came over to us and said.. “you might want to eat slowly as Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley are on their way in and I thought the girls might get a kick out of seeing them.” GIRLS… forget the girls, I was the one getting all excited. So we nibbled and waited, and waited… and then THEY walked past the window next to our table and into the restaurant. We wondered if it would be possible to say hello to them (it wasn’t), but as we left the restaurant and walked past their table Billy Joel smiled and waved. We giggled all the way back to the hotel and then called home to share our exciting news.
Twenty four years later Deb and Dawn are still best friends and they still laugh A LOT when they’re together. I’ll never forget that trip and hope they haven’t either.
I love this picture of a Campground cottage.
Unlike the t-shirts in the previous post, this t-shirt has a story. Oh, okay, some of the others have stories too… but not quite like this one !
Walking down the street in Edgartown about 10 or so years ago I spotted this t-shirt in the window of a store. I liked the cartoon depictions of MV landmarks and also the cute characters enjoying themselves. It seemed like a perfect shirt… I wanted it badly but alas it was around 8pm on an early May evening and the store was closed up tight. I obsessed on this shirt all evening… I could see it in my minds eye… the Flying Horses, the cliffs at Gay Head, Martha’s Vineyard spelled out in semaphore flags, the airport, the lighthouses, the ferries, the gingerbread houses… just about everything was there.
The next morning we got to the store just as it was opening. But wait, the t-shirt was not in the window… where was it ? We dashed inside and I explained to the ladies there that I had seen a certain t-shirt in the window less then 12 hours before and now it wasn’t there. They looked perplexed ! Neither of them knew what t-shirt I was talking about, they’d never seen a t-shirt like that before and would certainly have remembered such a different sort of one. I wondered if I’d entered the Twilight Zone ! They reiterated that it couldn’t have possibly have been in their window… they closed the store up the night before and had been the only ones working in the store all day ! I know my dreams are vivid but I didn’t think I was that good.
Oh well, as long as we were there we decided to browse. With a sigh I headed off to half-heartily look around. Cute stuff but… hold on a second, something caught my eye. It wasn’t even with the other t-shirts, it was mingled in with, I don’t remember what, all I knew was that I had found IT. I grabbed my prize and ran to show it to the ladies. They were stunned, they had never seen that t-shirt before !!!! So, I ask you, was it in the window the night before… did someone move it out of the window and onto a rack without their knowledge… is this story made up and… does the t-shirt exist for certain !!!
According to the Summer issue of Vineyard Style Magazine in their What’s Hot section… this is the hottest T-shirt on MV.
Trendy I’m usually not… but I’m proud to say I have this t-shirt because it’s from the MV Fiber Farm and I got it at their first fiber festival in April of this year.
I got to thinking about my other MV t-shirts of which I have a few… ok, more then a few.
These three are from events that I went to. Illumination Night in Oak Bluffs which takes place this year on Wed, Aug 20th. The Harry Connick Jr/Carly Simon concert at the Tabernacle on Sep 16, 1990. And also at the Tabernacle, the Boston Pops on Aug 4, 2001.
This grouping is of places on MV. The Flying Horses in Oak Bluffs. Espresso Love in Edgartown. Midnight Farm store in Vineyard Haven. The old Tivoli building in Oak Bluffs.
The Black Dog is one of the most famous t-shirts. The red shirt however is from 1987, which is before the well known image of the black dog appeared.
Miscellaneous shirts including the Vineyardosaurus designed by Ronni Simon. A Chappy shirt because our dog is named Chappy. The “It’s A Vineyard Thing” shirt because well, with me everything becomes a Vineyard thing.
My granddaughter Tiffany did this self portrait of herself at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs a few years ago. I love how she incorporated some of the things we love about MV into this painting. The Bandstand surrounded by its sidewalkof bricks dedicated by people who love MV (yes, of course we have one). Off in the distance is the ferry Islander which has since retired but all who ever sailed on her hold her close in their hearts. A bench for sitting and watching the goings on like - kite flying, dogs playing, children splashing in the wading pond and of course day dreaming and people watching.
These are some of Tiffany’s recent paintings..
This update is from the Tuesday, July 8th edition of the Vineyard Gazette.
*Article #1-Fourth of July Fire Cripples Vineyard Haven But Town Vows to Rebuild Quickly
Article #2 - Cafe Moxie
Article #3 - Bunch of Grapes/Ann Nelson
The devastating Bunch of Grapes/Cafe Moxie fire of last weekend was not the first disasterous fire in Vineyard Haven history. In December of 2001 the Mansion House hotel burned to the ground… it reopened in August 2003.
According to the book: The History of Martha’s Vineyard by Arthur R. Railton.
On Aug 11, 1883 a fire started at Crockers harness factory on Main St in Vineyard Haven. Within minutes flames fanned by northeast winds engulfed buildings on both sides of the street.
The fire was spotted around 9pm, church bells were rung to alert the townspeople. Vineyard Haven had no fire department. One of the few phones in Vineyard Haven was at the grocery store, from there a call went out to Cottage City (Oak Bluffs) which had two fire engines. It took more then an hour for the fire truck to reach Vineyard Haven as the heavy equipment had to be pulled by men on foot. In the meantime a bucket brigade was started in Vineyard Haven by its townspeople using leather fire pails that were required to be kept in every home. Despite their valiant efforts, after the fire raged for six hours, 60 or so buildings had burned to the ground.
The town of Vineyard Haven (Tisbury) wants it known that the street fair will go on as planned on Tuesday, July 8th.
“The annual street fair will not only go on despite the Independence Day fire, it will go on because of it, to help raise money for those affected.”
A devastating fire in Vineyard Haven this morning ripped through Cafe Moxie and into the Bunch of Grapes bookstore.
Vineyard Gazette original article.
Second Vineyard Gazette article.
Third Vineyard Gazette article.
Cafe Moxie itself has been around for a few years, it was just bought in May by a young couple who were realizing their dreams. Before it was Cafe Moxie it was The Linden Tree for a few years, named for the huge Linden tree which used to stand in front of the Capawock movie theatre across the street. But long before it was the Linden Tree it was a barber shop. My mother’s step-cousin was a hairdresser and the man who owned the barber shop let her use one of his chairs for hair styling. Before long she moved into a space behind the barber shop and eventually her beauty salon took over the barber shop. Those are my memories of that corner building.
The Bunch of Grapes…ahh… what can be said of one of the best bookstores in the United States. It was one of a kind and hopefully will survive this devastating blow. One of my first stops every trip to MV was the BOG and within the store my first stop was always, always the “Vineyard Table”. Every Vineyard author was on that table at one time or another. The table was filled with books of all kinds…fiction, non-fiction, mysteries, history, cookbooks, childrens books, art books… everything Vineyard that you could imagine in book form. Calendars, CD’s, DVD’s, newspapers and magazines rounded out the eclectic assortment. I can honestly say that I have enough books from that table that I could probably start my own “Vineyard Table.” The Bunch of Grapes was the anchor store in the middle of Main St… whether you were a book lover or not it drew you in to spend some time browsing around. A few years ago the Bunch of Grapes won an award for the #1 bookstore in the United States… quite an accomplishment and honor for the store and its owner Ann Nelson. Sadly there aren’t too many independent book stores left anymore, the Bunch of Grapes was the epitome of what one should be like.
I hope with all my heart that both establishments will flourish again.
Happy 232nd birthday America
