From the March 6, 1942 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

In the most lamb-like manner, with overcast sky and high temperature, and a soft, gentle breeze from the south, March arrived on Sunday. If the tradition is to be credited, the end of the month may be expected to bring almost anything thoroughly undesirable in the shape of weather. For, says the tradition, if March comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion.

The older generation of Vineyard weather prophets has gone, but there are some who reason that, having passed through a winter of consistent low temperatures and high winds, the spring should come early. It is quite reasonable to believe that the majority of people hope that this is true.

About twenty-five soldiers from Peaked Hill and members of the Coast Guard at Gay Head were entertained Monday night by the West Tisbury Grange. An amateur show was presented and a dance followed.

The amateur show opened with accordion solos and community singing led by Mrs. Henry Hotchkiss. Greetings were extended to the grangers and the guests and humorous introductions made of some of the grange members in a parody sung by the In-harmony Twins, Reuben and Rachel, impersonated by Mrs. Daniel Manter and Mrs. Grafton King.

Cap’n Hank Cronig, who can’t keep out of trouble at any season of the year, figures in yet another incident characteristic of this well known Main street character. Hank returns from sojourning at Gay Head with Bob Martin, Jack Hughes and Al Brickman, to exhibit a hat shot full of bullet holes, hundreds of them. Which means a new hat, of course. The hat in question was not new, or particularly handsome, but it was in such condition as to be useful until Al tried out his new aircraft battery on it, which destroyed both appearance and utility as far as the hat was concerned. But the strange part of the tale is that Hank had already purchased this hat twice. Once when it was new and again after Iz Issokson had reclaimed it following another session at the fireplace at Gay Head. Hank sold the hat to Iz for four bits, and considered the incident forgotten, likewise the hat. But being in need of another hat, some time after, he dropped into Issokson’s and, before he realized what had occurred, he had re-purchased his old hat for a five dollar bill! They take him coming and going.

Tomorrow, March 7, Samuel Cronig, observes his twenty-fifth anniversary as a Vineyard Haven market proprietor. For a quarter-century, he has conducted his store at the corner of Main and Church streets, and although it has been called Cronig Brothers’ Market, and is, indeed, jointly owned and operated, yet the prestige and standing of the business has been largely built up around the character and reputation of the oldest brother, who was first on the Vineyard and who introduced his partners-brothers later.

Mr. Cronig is known as Sam to old and young, and he enjoys some unusual distinctions. First of all he is the first Jewish person ever to establish a permanent residence in Vineyard Haven. Once established here, he became a real Vineyarder as thoroughly as anyone born elsewhere could, for he came to the Island as a boy and was employed as a farmhand in the Eastville section of Oak Bluffs. Employed by one of the old Island sea captains, he lived a life of toil, but it had its compensations in the opportunity that he enjoyed for obtaining something of an English education.

Through the years every adult person on the Vineyard has come to know Sam Cronig by name and reputation, and everyone trusts him. When character among men is under discussion, it is an everyday occurrence to hear Sam Cronig referred to in a manner which places his honesty and dependability upon a high plane. This is explained by the business policy which Sam has pursued through all his years on the Island, supported by a character that was sound and true to begin with.

Because he was first of all a farmer boy, Sam has been able to go among the farmers of the Island to buy their livestock and produce and to speak in their own language of these things. Because he was a grocer while still a lad, he knows this angle of the business as well, and all this experience has been valuable to him in building up the fine establishment in which he takes justifiable pride.

So tomorrow he will observe the expiration of his first quarter-century as a proprietor of a New England market and grocery, a far cry from the birthplace that he knew, where today armies are battling. And because he deeply appreciates all that this change has meant, he will greet his friends tomorrow as an American among Americans, a standing which he has well earned. Many men have made a greater financial success of life, but in this little Island Sam Cronig built for himself a reputation second to none anywhere, and the congratulations of the Island people will go out to him on this occasion.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com