October wins my vote for Favorite Month. Neither hot nor cold. Neither frantically busy nor dead quiet. There’s one long weekend in the middle and the month ends with a non-denominational dress-up opportunity for kids, which promises this year to offer tricks and treats right in downtown West Tisbury.
This is also the season when the trees are supposed to blush to crimson before stripping down to their bare bones. It doesn’t happen here, exactly, but over there on the mainland and away from the coast. On this island, the leaves mostly turn cafe au lait brown and fall off.
I have been looking for color changes around town. The foliage everywhere is 99.9 percent well-nourished, and intensely green. But the maples at the town hall are starting to look suitably embarrassed. North Tisbury always comes up with some satisfying color. Note the beetlebungs on North Road. Others – shrubs, really – show us a gaudy orange. Unfortunately, that shade of orange now has connotations of the up-coming elections, but that too shall pass.
On our street is one shock of authentic fall color. Three brazen, non-conforming red and gold branches of a big maple tree poke through the green leafiness to proclaim their genetic and cultural autumn heritage.
Those of us who reached our peaks in the 20th century were sent a survey produced by the University of Massachusetts in order to develop strategic planning for the Up-Island Council on Aging. As of Sept. 9, Caitlin Coyle from Umass reported receiving 600 responses, and this past week Caitlin was here to meet with focus groups in the up-island towns to talk about the wants and needs of the island’s fast-growing senior population.
I went with Leah Smith to the focus group meeting in Chilmark. Group members talked about the pleasures of living up-island as well as concerns about facing a future in isolation, loneliness, the long dirt roads, the extreme expenses of being here, lack of nearby family members. And another thing: they didn’t like the word ‘aging’ in the agency’s name. In sum, they opted for the opposite: starting with an imagined coffee shop and hang-out called the Wisdom Cafe. Ah yes, wisdom. “The Up-Island Council on Wisdom” – now there’s a program that might appeal to a few people I can think of.
Many who attended the Visioning weekend in April may want to read the final report which is now available on-line, by way of the planning board’s website. Much of the dreaming envisioned by the visioning groups – of all ages – matches the same wishes recounted by the seniors group: that is, community.
Happy birthday to my own dear husband Timothy Maley on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Happy birthday wishes to Ben Reeves, if he is still here, Sunday, Oct. 6. and to Soo Whiting, if she is still here, Monday, Oct. 7. Even if they’re not here.
Happy anniversary to Tom Hodgson and Christine Gault Friday, Oct. 4. I know they are still here.
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