Home On Martha's Vineyard

On January 23, 1790 when Wampanoag Native American Robert Seaton put his “X” on the deed selling what became the Cottage City District of Oak Bluffs to Samuel Norton for 10 pounds[1], I’m sure neither had any thoughts of various American Presidents vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, much less our first African American one. On June 22, 1870, a Norton descendant sold this parcel of land to the Oak Bluffs Land & Wharf Company—for $1,613.40, about as much as a modest week here will cost.

The August 17-23 week prior to the Obama Family’s arrival is the busiest of our busy season when two of the largest and most anticipated events take place in Oak Bluffs within yards of each other. On Wednesday August 19 at approximately 9:00pm, several thousand people gather in the Tabernacle Grounds for Illumination Night—when the doll-sized, well maintained, colorful, Camp Ground Gothic Revival homes are decorated with Japanese lanterns—are all lit at the same time, following the lead of a secret family’s cottage who has been selected in advance. Singing follows in the campground and everyone smiles at one another and takes the children home. That description may suggest watching paint dry but Illumination Night can bring a sigh and a smile to the most jaded.

The Island’s largest and best -loved event is the Annual Fireworks display in Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs which is completely supported by donations to the Oak Bluffs Volunteer Fire Department. Of the 10,000 annual visitors, each who may have seen July 4th fireworks displays in New York, Boston or Washington DC will tell you this is the best of them all. Launched from a barge less than 100 yards off shore and from the rails of the boardwalk, this is the closest one can get to a 45-minute exhibition.

Up Island, is the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society’s annual Agricultural Fair in West Tisbury, our third largest event that takes place from Thursday August 20 to Sunday August 23. Anachronistically enough the Fair features the same blue ribbon events and demonstrations you’d see in the Midwest to include a midway and rides for kids. Over the years many Mom’s have been complaining that this relatively bucolic event is costing almost as much as Disneyworld per person.

On Sunday, August 23—just at the end of the busiest week—Air force One is expected to touch down and deliver the leader of the free world with his family. And entourage. And press corps. And excitement reigns.

Everyone who lives down Island is pretty much pleased that the President and his retinue plans staying up island. Indeed, living on or needing to use South Road from August 23 to 30 is not going to be much fun, despite the Secret Service’s long familiarity with the Island—it’s one lane each way the whole way, end-to-end.

The White House Press corps will be using the Oak Bluffs elementary school for its broadcasts and Presidential reports so you’ll be seeing “Oak Bluffs” at the bottom of your TV screen as much as well, when John Kennedy Jr. lost his life in a plane crash or when Senator Ted Kennedy almost lost his in a car crash on neighboring Chappaquiddick Island, or when former President Bill Clinton visited with his family or when then Senator Hillary Clinton and then Senator Barack Obama were here to visit and fundraise, not necessarily in that order. And the Professor Henry “Skip” Gates, Jr. brouhaha.

 So we on The Rock are familiar with the press. We do not like them—and I say that as a member of the fifth estate. They park outsized TV trucks in front of our beaches and raise microwave antennas in places where we have none—(no cell phone towers). They wear TV makeup in the daytime, they ask dumb questions—and of tourists who got here last week, not anyone who actually lives here. They want to cut in line, they expect favorable treatment and they think they are important celebrities. But the real important celebrities on Martha’s Vineyard act like us.

Skip Finley has spent 55 summers in Martha's Vineyard and now lives on the island year-round. We asked him to put the experience of MV in context for the First Family and those of us who haven't been.

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