August & Everything After

Life is about transition; new job, new love, new place to live, new season. As August wanes, most people on Martha’s Vineyard anticipate getting a bit of their sanity back, slowing down after a chaotic summer season. So many people living year-round on the island have more than one job, but they usually change with the seasons. They transition jobs when their housing changes. Often, this is also the time of year when people find their ‘partners’ for the winter. After all, it can be a long, cold winter on the island.

The transition that happens during the end of summer and the beginning of fall has so many facets on this island; weather, traffic, housing, businesses, schedules. Personally, I try to recover from a hectic summer in the office while coaching kids at the high school. That pile of paper on my desk usually does not get touched until October. People I know move back into the homes they rented out for the summer season, look for jobs to replace their summer money-makers, and seek companions other than their summer romances.

As the leaves begin to turn, the island population settles into their patterns that they will try to make last through the off-season, for better or worse. Some will find that their choices were made a bit hastily; the apartment is cold and drafty, the boyfriend is a slob, their job is tedious and unfulfilling. Others will decide that their decision to stay was altogether wrong and they will abruptly leave Martha’s Vineyard, never to return. (At least not during the non-summer months, the offender explains.) Then there are those individuals that simply find themselves at peace with their situation and flourish.

Over the many years since I decided to call this island my home, I am never surprised to hear about a new twist on any of the aforementioned circumstances when it comes to our little island community. I have usually been the observer in these little fiascos, or hearing about it second hand, long after the fact. Once or twice I have been a small part of the story, or at least rumored to have been a part of the story. Seldom does one get removed by one or two degrees of separation on this island and off-season gossip.

What I mean to say is that most days on Martha’s Vineyard during the off-season are slow news days. Town meetings tend to be boring, unless beer and wine prohibition is at issue or a rogue rooster is keeping people from their winter slumber. So it goes that the island becomes a hot-bed for innuendo, gossip, and rumors gone unchecked, even promoted, in the long winter darkness. An off island trip with a friend becomes a tryst when they miss the last boat back. A few dollars short in the register becomes outright embezzlement. Okay, I might be exaggerating, but you get the idea.

If you are new to the idea of residing on Martha’s Vineyard during the off season, keep an open mind and a tight lip. You just might make it through until the warmer days of next summer… with a few weeks vacationing somewhere tropical in January and/or February.