JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
It turned cold right after Christmas, rained hard last Saturday and then turned to wet snow that promptly froze like a rock. Then it warmed up a bit to assist us in removing the large amount of ice from around our houses and driveways. It is expected to turn colder this weekend. Dick Knabel was about to host a cocktail party last Saturday but needed to buy a bag of ice, so he hurried to the nearest ice machine. He was heard to remark that there sure was enough of it around his house but it was not in cubes. The clerk at the store had to first break the ice, as a result of recent storm, before opening the machine to hand him his bag of ice.
Several parties were held around town on New Year’s Eve. The trend in recent years seems to be more toward family or neighborhood gatherings to welcome in the new year. Paul Magid and his wife Anita Botti of Pond Road held a New Year’s Eve dinner party for 60 of their friends and neighbors. Binnie Ravitch held her annual New Year’s Day celebration called Recovery Day at her Ice House Pond home and it was a well-attended affair. Her house was attractively decorated and there was a vast array of food. The hot buttered rum was tasty. The traffic in town Tuesday morning could be counted on the fingers of one hand. People stayed at home with family, watched bowl games and relaxed while some of us went to parties.
Joanie Ames is in Portland, Ore., helping out with her new grandson, Sylvan Hutchens, born on Dec. 22. Her daughter Alison and family are doing very well. She had quite a few people scurrying around to help out with Thunder Ben David, Randy and Rebecca Gilbert’s 400-pound Berkshire boar from the Native Earth Teaching Farm. On the afternoon of Christmas, Thunder got out of his pen at Joanie’s place at Seven Gates Farm, where he has been lodging on and off for several years. He chose that day to take off on a toot down Forest Road to the Revere homestead where he dumped out the contents of their compost bin. The Reveres are friends and neighbors and know Thunder, often bringing him leftovers when he is properly enclosed in his pen. West Tisbury police were summoned to the scene along with farm superintendent Charlie Pachico. A bucket of food was enough to lure Thunder out of the Revere garage and all the way back into his pen. Turns out Thunder’s electric fence had somehow lost current during the day, and was quickly restored to working order.
Lynn Christoffers of Edgartown Road visited her sister and family in Flemington, N.J., for Christmas. Lady Diana, the Siamese cat, came too and got along well with all her cousins, both animals and children, and did well on her first long car ride. Lynn returned home Friday.
Barbara and Bob Day of Willow Tree Hollow had a great Christmas in Los Angeles with their daughter Elizabeth, son in law John and grandchildren Freddy, Bobby and Lucy. They did not enjoy stepping off the plane into cold weather.
Sal Laterra of Providence, R.I., was the weekend guest of Phyllis Meras at her Music street home.
Sandra Caruso of Los Angeles spent the holiday on the Vineyard with her brother Tim Maley and sister in law Eileen Maley. She returned home on Thursday.
Sig Van Rann and his wife Susan Dickler of Music street and New York city were here last week and had their usual New Year’s Eve bash with friends and neighbors.
Pam Thomas and her family moved into Johnny and Shirley Mayhew’s homestead on Dec. 22. The Thomas household includes: Pam and Ernie Thomas; Anna Hill and her grandma Ruth Bowen, age 93; Charlie, a quarter horse Palomino; Sunnie, a Welch Cobb; Sophie, a Corgi; Sara, an aging Boston terrier; and Oliver and Eloise, two long-haired, orange tabby cats from grandma Doris Hamel in Aquinnah. Welcome back to town!
Community suppers began last Wednesday night in the church parish house. The suppers will be held each Wednesday night until March 31 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. If you can provide a dish to feed eight on any Wednesday, it will be most welcome. The Christmas Faire netted over $6,000.
Happy birthday to: Jake Estabrook and Mary O’Connell today; Ike Russell, Lila Griswold, Sam Hiser and Alexis Garcia-Holden tomorrow; Joanie Ames, Tad Crawford, Will Whiting, Sydney Blackmar and Oliver Becker on Sunday; Johnny Hoy, Joyce Capobianco, Ann Burt, Davis Solon, Jennifer McCann and Shuva Sellers on Monday; Sam Arruda, Sara Whyte, David Gaskill and Dorothea Arnold on Tuesday; Annabelle Brothers, Kern Grimes, Gay Nelson and Christa Fischer on Wednesday; Joe Eldridge, Pierce Kirby 3rd, Brian Athearn and Edith Baker on Thursday.
Well, that is all of the social news for this week. Trivia facts you can use at the next party: Western Union delivered its final telegram six years ago this month, and 101 years ago Sunday the first picture from an airplane in this country was taken. Please call or e-mail me with your news.
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