Chilmark is anticipating the usual wonderful Fourth of July weekend and hoping that the fine weather of this week past will continue through the holiday. If last weekend was a preview, then the holiday weekend should be a blockbuster — people, cars, sunshine and many activities involving all of the above. Bring it on; it was a long winter!

Tom Langman of Reston, Va., is at his Chilmark home for the seasons to come. His sister, Betsy Schulberg, is visiting him from New York city.

Katie Carroll sends word that Chris McLeod is home from a Boston hospital and recuperating at his Chilmark home. Katie wisely suggests that some prepared meals will make life easier for the family while Hope concentrates on helping Chris recover. Katie suggests that some heart-healthy meals for four can be dropped off at 88A Murphy’s Road. Cards may also be sent to that address. Please contact Katie for more information at squidrow@vineyard.net. We all send best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Harvard law professor and longtime Chilmark seasonal resident, Alan Dershowitz, will discuss his memoir Taking The Stand: My Life in The Law at the Chilmark library’s Wednesday program at 5 p.m. on July 9. The Friends of the Library sponsor this program series and all are welcome at no charge. Professor Dershowitz is a popular speaker, so early arrival is suggested.

The Chilmark library will present a program by the Jim Thomas Spiritual Choir on July 10 at 5 p.m. This group sings and explains the United States slave songs and their origins and meanings. The U.S. Slave Song Project is a nonprofit program that Vineyarders have been working on and presenting to the public under the direction of Jim Thomas for a number of years now, and it is a most interesting program. Folks from across the Island join in the music making and singing. The program is free to all.

The annual Chilmark Community Center booklets are in the mail and if you didn’t get one, stop by the center and pick one up so that you can keep track of the many interesting events scheduled to take place there. The booklet’s cover is a striking photo of Lucy Vincent Beach by Helen Neumann.

Please note that by the time you read this the center will be open and activities will be underway. The 2014 Author Lecture Series will feature Ward Just and his new novel American Romantic. The first of this series will be Thursday, July 24, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the series are available at the center or at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven. Books are available at all events. The author lectures will be on Thursdays and Sundays. On July 27, Sunday, at 7:30 p.m. The Beekman Boys (Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge) will discuss their book The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook.

The research submersible called Alvin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute turns 50 years old this month. I thought it is of interest that Conrad Neumann of Durham, N.C., and Chilmark, made 31 dives in the Alvin during the course of his active career as a professor of geological oceanography doing research in many areas. He relates that one surprise was finding coral structures growing at 2,000 feet in the dark Straits of Florida.

The Chilmark Church continues to prepare lobster rolls and more to go on Tuesday evenings from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the church, and the Vineyard Sound will entertain at the church on Tuesdays at 8 p.m., at no charge to the public. The church continues to sponsor and run the twice a week flea markets at Jenkinson’s Field on North Road. The sales are on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and parking is free. Primo Lombardi is conducting yoga classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the church. The church members are planning on having repairs done on the top of the steeple in the fall, so fundraising is a must this summer. Donations toward these expenses will be most appreciated.

Congratulations to Leslie Arffa of Flanders Lane who is joining the family this week for a two-week visit. Leslie just graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude and was admitted into Phi Beta Kappa. She was a history major and will be studying at Cambridge University in England next year. Leslie is the daughter of Allan Arffa and Kay Matschullat, who with Leslie, son Travis and daughter Kathryn, have been longtime seasonal residents of Chilmark. Leslie has worked at the Chilmark Store, the Chilmark Tavern and at the community center in past summers so will be known to many. We all send her cheers for her successes and best wishes for her future.

Bob Conway tells us that it was 50 years ago on July 1 that the Conway family first came to Chilmark for the summer. They met David Flanders at the Chilmark Store — a vacant building in those days — and were taken to the Parker property overlooking Stonewall Beach. Bob estimates that since that July of 1964, the shoreline has eroded a full 175 feet. In the years that followed, Bob and his family purchased a building on the farmstead and created their year-round home where Bob lives today and will celebrate his 93rd birthday on July 16. Cheers from us all!

We wish you all a happy holiday weekend and please, if you wish, share the good news with us all by emailing me your news, guest list or whatever you’d like to share with the rest of Chilmark!

Send your Chilmark news to:  slaterjn@comcast.net