Summer Friends
Welcoming back seasonal friends is an annual joy that spans centuries.
This past week, each time I strolled along Vineyard Haven’s Main Street, I discovered yet another sign that “the season” is imminent. One day, it’s a favorite boutique, its curtains pulled back, display windows newly filled with tea-green sweaters, ivory blouses, scarves made for a warm breeze. The next day, it’s a corner café, shuttered all winter, with its door flung open and a petite chalkboard covered with a curlicued script urging passers-by to drop in.
And on Friday, while running errands up-island, I drove by a roadside flower stand, buckets overflowing with daffodils and tulips. (It’s the honor system here: put your money in the tin.)
When I got home that afternoon I found several new emails waiting, all from friends who spend winters off-island. I marked their return dates on my calendar and sent replies to their proposals for getting together as soon as they landed.
The annual return of summer friends: my favorite part of “the season.”
I decided to vary my walking route the next morning. Rather than head for Main, I turned in the opposite direction. About where the pebbly sidewalk of Spring Street turns smooth and pristine is the newly renovated Tisbury Elementary. And across the next intersection and through a set of weathered stone and concrete pillars is Oak Grove Cemetery.
Over the winter I’ve been researching a different set of Vineyard summer friends: a close-knit group of performers who came together at the summer arts colony known as Innisfail. One of the regulars was a young Greta Risley Casavant.
An actress and singer, Greta Casavant won a special place in my imagination—in part because of all the “Innisfailers,” she’s the one who’s still here.
One of her descendants, a neighbor, told me stories about Greta. Like, when asked how she wanted to be buried, Greta replied, “Oh, just throw me under a rock.” It’s that lichen-covered boulder I search out and find it in the middle of a grassy rise in Oak Grove.
After laying a small batch of daffodils at Greta’s boulder, I wander a while under the leafy maples before retracing my route home. And despite the cool spring wind, I’m warmed by thoughts of Greta’s “live for today” spirit.
When I ask my friends what they most look forward to about summer, answers vary. One person mentions picking up Friday dinner at the “lobster roll church.” Another can’t wait to hunt for treasures—wampum earrings or a handmade bowl—at the Chilmark Flea. And I imagine T. Elizabeth Bell—whose photos enliven this page—might be looking forward to the West Tisbury Farmers Market.
But if I pressed them to choose just one summer thing, I’d bet money they would say the same as me: reuniting with summer friends—as priceless now as a century ago.
This reminds me that it’s been too long since I’ve been to the West Tisbury Farmers Market. What beautiful photos. And what a fascinating history of “summer friends.”
Yes to summer friends - and that first chocolate malt frappe at the Galley in Menemsha!