Not Quite a Riot
From Gazette editions of May, 1960:
Oak Bluffs harbor presented a scene yesterday which was comparable with that in any active seaport, with activities scaled to the area. The Bozo, Capt. Walter Manning, was just completing the discharge of a mountainous pile of freight. The Papoose, Capt. Alfred Vanderhoop, was warping alongside the bulkhead, her hold filled and her deck piled more than six feet high with more freight. The Southern Cross, Capt. Alton Tilton, was just shoving off, bound for the mainland for another cargo, and the Bozo quickly followed her. “The bulkhead is the best thing we ever provided,” observed an Oak Bluffs bystander, “and we installed it just in time.”
The first load of cars to be conveyed by scow since the Steamship Authority strike began six weeks ago arrived at the Oak Bluffs bulkhead in charge of Capt. Edwin Athearn of Woods Hole. The scow was towed by the tug Dick Mott of Falmouth. It carried seven cars, several of which were new ones, consigned to Bergeron’s and Leonard’s Garages in Oak Bluffs, and there was a speedboat on a trailer. Passage from Falmouth, with a head wind and head tide, took two hours, which time is expected to be much reduced with fair tides or in a calm. Once gangplanks were laid, the unloading consumed minutes only. Captain Athearn said that he and Joseph Gelinas were closely cooperating in the effort to move cars and possibly loaded trailer-trucks.
An impressive gallery consisting of people from every Island town awaited the arrival of the tow, and the comment was all in favor of the addition to the transportation system, adding up to the oft-repeated conclusion that: “Now we can hold out till Christmas if necessary!”
The huge scow chartered by John W. Walsh, carrying a load of bulk cargo, docked at the Vineyard Haven steamboat wharf. Although the arrival of the tow was after the hours that the Steamship Authority picketers normally keep, an estimated thirty to thirty-five striking steamboat men and an even larger number of other persons quickly assembled on the dock. The strikers protested the unloading of the scow and the crossing of their picket line by other union men. A union authority, Capt. Walter Kszystyniak, said to the Gazette representative that the picketers, as union members, were expected to make the protest, and that they further were expected to report union men who crossed the picket line.
Although there was a brief flaring of tempers, the scene was generally quiet and certainly did not develop into anything approaching a riot as gossip would have it. Non-union men operated a truck, others handled the cargo and the scow was unloaded. While rumor has hinted at many things and has spread tales of acute disorder, neither the town nor state police present corroborated anything of the sort. The Gazette representative overheard some of the conversation between union strikers and the truckers, and the exchange of remarks indicated that the sober-thinking men among the strikers merely want to “save face.”
Whippoorwills, as is generally known and easily demonstrated at this time of year on the Vineyard, have great persistence and endurance in making their calls. “Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill:” This sort of thing can go on for quite a while from a single bird. But for just how long?
Charles G. Norton of Greenwood, Vineyard Haven and the Mayhew Norton place at North Tisbury, was interested to know. On occasion in the past he has counted up toward 300 repetitions of the call without pause or interruption. This week he started counting and the total tally of calls in succession from a whippoorwill which may well be a grand international champion was 430. Mrs. Norton started the count when he did but, well, to tell the truth dropped off to sleep.
The first lawsuit in Massachusetts brought by private citizens to enforce the terms of a deed of gift to a public agency reached a decision, last week, and the citizens were upheld. The suit was that concerning Walden Pond, and like a certain famous shot, it may be said to have been heard around the world. The substitution of bulldozer ideas of county commissioners — who may or may not have read Walden — for the concepts of Thoreau and Emerson, will hereafter be prevented. The Supreme Judicial Court has taken judicial notice of a literary figure for the first time. Thoreau, of course, had been locked up in the Concord jail overnight because he did not want to pay taxes for the prosecution of the Mexican War. We think the recent case would have pleased him, not only for the sake of the pond, but because he was against arbitrary officials. At Walden the issue was not the use of the pond — no one wanted to stop swimming there. Thoreau swam there every morning. The issue was whether the county commissioners could cut down woods, bulldoze the banks and build a monstrosity of a bathing pavilion.
Compiled by Cynthia Meisner
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