Thanksgiving 2011

Rain and drizzle fell softly this week over the fields and lawns of November, still green from a mild fall that has seen Islanders out in their shirtsleeves right through last weekend. That’s when gusty winds finally blew the last leaves off the trees and sent them skittering around the yard. Raking at last! The warm weather has served to take the urgency out of fall chores this year, as if these days might stretch on forever with no hard winter ahead.

But of course we know better. Soon there will be sea ice forming on the shoreline and the gentle landscape will be transformed into an unforgiving frozen tundra that sends us scurrying indoors to shake the snow and ice from our jackets and make delicious hot soups for dinners by the fire while the wind howls outside.

Soon but not yet.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and today begins a festive weekend when hundreds of summer resident return to spend the holiday in their homes and the streets are more reminiscent of July than November.

The Island welcomes them with open arms and plenty of cultural events. The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society will hold its annual Thanksgiving concert tomorrow night in the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, setting the perfect mood for the season ahead. In West Tisbury Vineyard artisans will hold their stunning annual craft and art show at the Agricultural Hall beginning today for two days, the Island’s homegrown answer to Black Friday. Nationally someone has declared this to be Small Business Weekend, a buy-local initiative aimed at highlighting the importance of and boosting sales for independent retailers.

That’s pretty much all we’ve got on the Vineyard. And while many will choose to do otherwise — trips off-Island have a sort of wonderful ritual to them for many rural-living Vineyard families who revel for a day in the novelty of eating cheap fast food or buying enough dish soap at a box store to last the entire year — there is also a simple pleasure in shopping closer to home. The Island has two excellent bookstores, one excellent toy store and a wide variety of art galleries, farm and garden, home, gourmet food, craft and boutique clothing stores. They’re in every town; it’s fun to go out and look for them, see who’s still open. Fish markets specialize in shipping lobsters and bay scallops to your friends in landlocked places. In the weeks ahead newspaper calendar listings will be filled with announcements of community fairs and bazaars that sell inexpensive, lovely handmade things with the money going to benefit some Island cause.

And there are plenty of those too, beginning with the venerable Red Stocking Fund, which raises money year-round to help needy Island children. The need is higher than ever this year, longtime organizers of the fund report. The same refrain has been heard already from the Island Food Pantry and the fuel assistance program, which predict a hard winter ahead for many. In this way the Island is no different from the mainland.

What is different here is the scale, which is smaller and somehow more manageable. The Red Stocking can still count the number of children in need and buy them warm clothes for the winter and some new toys for Christmas. Advocates for the elderly can identify who requires assistance with home repairs and heating bills and look for private donations to cover what is not covered by government subsidies, which are dwindling at an alarming rate.

Nearly without exception, these organizations that assist the needy are run by volunteers who give selflessly and endlessly of their time.

They are the Island’s angels. And so this year, as the Gazette sends out its traditional warm Thanksgiving wishes to all its readers near and far, like that extra slice of pie we had yesterday (just a small one), we add a little extra helping of thanks to the volunteers who will help make young lives a little brighter and homes a little warmer when old man winter comes knocking at the door.