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Tomorrow, Nov 6th, is my daughter Deb’s 43rd birthday.
As you know we just moved and so the celebration of Deb’s entrance into our lives is going to be a little different this year. Actually it’s sort of like when we moved right after her birthday 34 years ago and it sort of got mish mashed a little.
If I could I’d hollar from the roof tops about how wonderful, thoughtful, kind, smart, patient, creative and loving Deb is. If I could I’d bake her a cake, and make her favorite meal, and shower her with books, and yarn and anything that makes her happy and makes her heart sing. All I can do right now is to tell her how much I love her, how proud I am of her, how I love being her mom and friend, how I love laughing with her, how I love our Saturday coffee outings, how I look to her for guidance and encouragement and how glad am that 43 years ago she arrived here on Earth and made it a better place for all of us. And provided us with Chappy, one of the greatest granddogs in the world.
So… I cannot shower her with many presents this year, or hollar from a roof top but I can share a few recent pictures of my daughter and friend. I love you Deb.
We’ve lived in this house for 34 years and now it’s time to move onward. Hopefully a new family will be as happy here as we have been…
1975
2009
Watch for new posts as soon as I get settled. Maybe even some new additions to MV Obsession !!!
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(See my other blog: Through Jersey Eyes for more)
I’ve done a lot of these counted cross stitch maps of the Vineyard. Each one has been for a special person. This particular one, the 9th one I’ve done was for my daughter Patty for Christmas 2008. Imagine my surprise while packing things up recently to move, when I looked in a long forgotten box and found this done by a very special person in my life…
… my mother. She must have done this over 80 years ago and it is in amazingly good condition. Thank you mom for a beautiful surprise.
This is my 275th post and I am still, and always will be, obsessed with Martha’s Vineyard.
Feel free to click on any of the categories along the left side to take a peek at what I’ve written about these past 24 months.
Oh and today is also our 46th wedding anniversary, I had fun last year writing a doozie of a post about our wedding day… CLICK HERE and enjoy laughing with us. And please visit my other blog Through Jersey Eyes for more pictures.
This coming Saturday Sep 19, 2009, is Tivoli Day in Oak Bluffs. For anyone who doesn’t know, or remember the Tivoli building in Oak Bluffs, I’m reposting a blog entry below of my memories of it.
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Every year in September, Oak Bluffs hosts its annual street fair and block party known as Tivoli Day. Where did the name come from… and where can you find the Tivol on MV ! You can’t, only memories of it remain.
The two story, full block Tivoli Dance Hall stood from 1901 until 1964 where the Oak Bluffs Town Hall is today. The bottom floor housed shops and an ice cream parlor. My godmother worked in the ice cream parlor and I always enjoyed visiting her there… one time in particular jumps to mind. I was 3 years old and had newly mastered winking and was anxious to put it to use. Sitting at a table behind my mother and facing me was a sailor. Being that I was wearing a sailor dress I figured we had something in common and so I began winking at him… it did not take long for my mother to notice. She turned around and as she did the young sailor headed for our table. He smiled and said he was alone on the Vineyard for the day and wanted to tell my mother how charming he thought I was. (Blushing here). Not only did my mother invite him to join us at the table but she invited him home for dinner (this was the mid 1940’s). I was amazed at how powerful this winking thing was. I don’t know if we ever kept in touch with him but obviously I’ve never forgotten him… but I do keep the winking thing to a minimum.
The entire second floor of the Tivoli Dance Hall was just that, the dance hall. It was huge, at least in the eyes of a 4 year old being dragged there against her will for a dance lesson. I loved all the windows and how far you could see out of them, I liked the clicking noise my shoes made on the floor, I liked the brand new sundress I had on… but, I did NOT like the group dancing part. I remember reluctantly getting in line with the other victims, er children, but my feet did not move, they planted themselves firmly in one spot and stayed there. Everyone danced around me but I did not care to join in. My mother was not happy with me… not only didn’t I dance or even talk… but we didn’t even come home with a sailor for dinner.
I have a bunch of bags from MV. I know it’s a surprise that I, MV Obsession, would have a collection of MV bags 
Ok, let’s see what we have here. In the picture on the left – The Midnight Farm bag in the middle is straw and is surrounded by assorted paper bags. The requisite Black Dog bag. My favorite scone dealer in Edgartown, Espresso Love. One of the best books stores on MV, Bunch of Grapes. Our dog Chappy’s favorite store, Good Dog Goods in Oak Bluffs. And Sanctuary which is a wonderful spiritual store in Oak Bluffs.
The picture on the right is three sturdy cloth tote bags. The Secret Garden in Oak Bluffs is very large and holds all my MV counted cross stitch charts which I bought at the Heath Hen. The other great MV book store, Edgartown Books is the pretty blue bag and the Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm bag is in the right corner. Please click on store names to visit their websites.
Not quite as many bags as T-shirts (CLICK HERE) but I’m working on it.
The Island Theatre (Eagle Theatre) circa 1910.
The Island Theatre 2009 – Oak Bluffs.
The Strand 2009 – Oak Bluffs.
The Capawock 1996 – Vineyard Haven.
Movies have been a big part of Island entertainment since the early 1900’s. At one time there were as many as 8 theatres down-Island… of those only the Island, The Strand and The Capawock remain. In 1927 the Island theatre in Oak Bluffs was showing the talkie “Wings” starring the “It” girl Clara Bow. The price of admission was 50 cents on a Saturday night, 30 cents if you sat in the balcony.
For me, as a summer kid on the Vineyard in the 1950’s, a night at the movies was a very big deal. The movies I remember the clearest are the musicals, like “Summer Stock” with Judy Garland, and “Showboat” with Howard Keel. Before even getting to the theatre there was a stop at …
…Darling’s for popcorn. A bag would be fine for an afternoon treat but for going to the movies the choice was always a popcorn bar in such flavors as chocolate, strawberry,vanilla, caramel, and butterscotch. After the ’show’ a stop at the Frosty Cottage on Circuit Ave for a pistachio ice cream cone finished off the evening. Many nights on the way home I morphed into a singing, dancing movie star…at least in my head
This is me with my dad on Martha’s Vineyard. Notice how with most dads he’s letting his daughter crawl all over him. And notice too what a great seat a dads lap is.
My dad, at 6′2 was literally and figuratively someone I looked up to. He was born in Newark, NJ and became a police officer there. One of the memories of my dad is how handsome and proud he looked in his uniform. Part of his time in the police force he worked in the emergency squad, he loved helping people and was always good at it.
My mother grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and after his first trip to the Island my dad was hooked. Every summer my mom and I would head to MV the beginning of June and my dad would join us for the month of August. He seemed so happy and at home there… he did yard work, painted the house, cooked, read, went clamming and crabbing, relaxed, went to the beach… just simply enjoyed himself.
My parents made their last trip together to the Vineyard in 1975. My dad went back to MV a couple of times after my mother died but of course it wasn’t the same. Funny thing is that everytime I’m on Martha’s Vineyard I feel the closest to my dad and mom… I guess the spirit resides where it was the happiest.
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Just to show that the sitting and climbing on dad thing is generational, or inborn or just a fun thing … here’s a picture of my husband Bob with Deb & Patty when they were little.
Another Ferry Tale …
The Islander wasn’t the first of the ferries that plied the Vineyard waters to find its potential new lease on life dashed (read article from Gazette here.) There was the Nobska.
The Nobska was launched on March 24, 1925. She made her maiden voyage on April 9, 1925 and sailed the waters between New Bedford, Woods Hole and Martha’s Vineyard until 1973.
As this article from the June 2, 2006 Vineyard Gazette mentions, she was state of the art for her time and the Islanders immediately fell in love with her. The Nobska was one of the last coastal steamers in America, she made her last run in September 1973…the following May of 1974 she was listed on the National Register of Historical Places. In June of 1975 she was sold and stripped of everything except her main engine and became a restaurant in Baltimore. The restaurant failed and the Nobska sat alone and neglected for several years.
In 1988 the Friends of the Nobska acquired her and she returned to New England. During the next 10 years support for her ebbed and waned but eventually efforts to restore her came to an end. In 1995 the Nobska was towed from New Bedford to the Charlestown Navy Yard and there she stayed until June 2006 when the dock was needed for the Constitution.
The Friends of the Nobska changed their name to the New England Steamship Foundation you can visit their website and read about the Nobska by clicking here.
I remember trips on the Nobska and the Islander and to me they were vessels of dreams and promises of adventures to come. There’s just something about that 45 minute sail from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard that transports you not only physically but mentally to another time and place.
Last weekend I was in New York City and visited Grand Central Station, mostly to take photos of this magnificently restored building. I thought I had never been there before…but in looking around something clicked in my brain !
When my mother and I would go to MV every summer we would take a train from Pennsylvania Station in Newark, NJ to, as it turns out, Grand Central Station in NYC where we would change trains.
We would have to run from one end of the station to the other to board the New York/New Haven & Hartford’s train on the Old Colony line called the Day Cape Codder, which would take us all the way from New York City to Woods Hole, MA. That’s right, all the way to Woods Hole.
The train stopped at what is now the staging area for cars waiting to get onto the ferries. The tracks ran under the overpass in the left corner of this photograph. It was literally only steps from train to boat. A comfortable and luxurious way to travel in the days when lots of people didn’t have cars and the road system left a lot to be desired anyway. The trains had dining cars with each table dressed in fancy tablecloths and crisply ironed napkins. The waiters and conductors were always the same and seemed to remember me from year to year… made me feel special and grown up. Train service to Woods Hole ended in the 1960’s.
The ferry, the Nobska/Nantucket would take us to MV.
Landing here in Oak Bluffs our relatives would be there to greet us and three glorious months on the Vineyard would begin.
