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Today was ‘Shop Small Business Saturday’ and so my daughter Deb and I went into the center of Denville to do just that.
We made purchases in these stores.
And then we saw the float for tomorrow’s parade. It is titled
‘Denville’s Back…What A Gift’
and it certainly is considering the flooding and devastation Hurricane Irene caused a few months ago. CLICK HERE to read that post.
It was fun walking around town, visiting stores we haven’t been to for awhile, and seeing so many stores reopened and ready for the holidays. Yay for Denville and small businesses everywhere.
Recently I attended a production of ‘STAGE DOOR’
at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ.
The cast was terrific but it was the scenery that I was mostly interested in.
The original mock up of the set looked like this…
and the actual set like this…
(CLICK ON CLOSE UPS BELOW TO ENLARGE)
Why was I so interested in the set you ask?
Because my granddaughter, Tiffany, was the scenic designer (cue applause).
It was a wonderful evening and I look forward to more of them.
The ninth of my series of Vineyard Trivia questions.
(Click here for previous questions)
1 – Which is further north, West Chop or East Chop.
2 – When was the Vineyard Gazette first published.
3- Why did Alexander Graham Bell visit MV in 1895.
4 – Which town is the only town in the world with that name.
5- What’s unusual about the Civil War Monument in Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs.
6 – What is the name of the local Portuguese sausage.
7 – What is the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs made of.
8 – What store is this.
9 – What town is this.
10 – What lighthouse is this.
11 – Before this was renovated and turned into a private home, what inn was it.
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How’d everyone do?
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1 – West Chop
2 – 1846
3 – To study the deaf community of Chilmark (click here)
4 – Edgartown
5 – It’s of a confederate soldier
6 – linguica
7 - steel
8 – Katama General Store
9 – Oak Bluffs
10 – Cape Poge
11 – The Daggett House
In my post of Oct 18th I eluded to a mystery birthday gift… CLICK HERE to read it.
This was the clue.
And for those who wondered what it was… voila…
A gorgeous one of a kind 100% felted llama hat. It’s as beautiful as Deb who might not have been very surprised after all since she wore it around Rhinebeck all day. Once we got home though the hat mysteriously disappeared for a few weeks and Deb developed some sort of amnesia concerning the whole thing.
Sometimes part of the birthday fun is knowing what you’re getting, but pretending you don’t, and then acting all surprised when you get it. That reminds me of another gift story…but I’ll save that for another time.
Last July I wrote a post about my mother losing her diamond engagement ring in the sand at Oak Bluffs. You can click here and read ‘Diamond In The Rough’.
In flipping through my memory bank I discovered that my mother had yet another ring experience years later in the 1960′s concerning MV, Oak Bluffs in particular.
This is my mother on her graduation day from Oak Bluffs High School in 1926.
(Oak Bluffs High School is NOT the regional high school. Before the MV Regional High School was built in the early 1960′s, each town had its own high school).
Each school had its own ring. I remember the ring clearly, it was gold with a flat black front with the emblem for OB high school on it… along the sides was the year, 1926. My mother loved that ring and was devastated when one day she couldn’t find it.
If you’ve read the post about the first ring my dad found you’ll know that my dad was determined to find this ring also.. he was the only hope. He turned our apartment upside down… inside out… searched behind every cushion and pillow… moved furniture… moved it again. He took apart the drains in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Went through every drawer, every closet, every pocket, every nook and cranny. But alas, his powers of ring finding failed him, and the beloved ring was decreed officially…. gone.
My mother was beyond upset. Her mother had gotten the ring for her though times were tough, and now, a tangible connection to Martha’s Vineyard and to her mother was gone.
But wait…. there is a happy ending…
… behold… an Oak Bluffs High School ring with 1926 on it ! How could that be? My mother contacted MV Regional High School and found out the name of the company who provided the school rings. She wrote the company a letter and got back a response saying that yes, they had rings but NOT the style of the lost one. However, they could make up a ring in the current style and put the OB emblem and 1926 on it. She ordered it. It’s a beautiful ring and she wore it occasionally… but of course it never replaced the original one.
I wonder what becomes of lost jewelry? Especially the sentimental ones that become enhanced to epic proportions in our memories.
Five days without power. It all started on Saturday, Oct 29th.
This… turned into this…
and this… into a total of 14 inches of snow
and there are these…
and then while I was doing this at 4:39
this happened at around 4:50…
It was a dark and stormy night
and then came the morning, all sunny and sparkly…
Thanks to Deb’s foresight in buying
a percolator and manual coffee grinder we had..
coffee, and the crumb cake she made before the power went out…
For most of the days Chappy did this…
Two days later, on Tuesday Nov 1st I took my first walk around the neighborhood. A lot of trees had already been cleared but it looks like not one tree was spared at least some kind of damage.
(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)
Fridge was pretty much cleaned out and waiting to be restocked… hmm, where did that bottle of vodka come from !!
Some of the devices used for light during the dark, dark nights…
Five days was a challenge but at least we had a gas fireplace… a gas oven/range so we could cook on the top of the stove…and a gas hot water heater.
It’s amazing how much we take electricity for granted, and how many things in our daily lives don’t work without it. I hope the thousands of people in the northeast STILL without power get it back as soon as possible.
Power to the people 
