Author Archives: Susanna J. Sturgis
July License Plate Report
Hawaii showed up when July had barely started. The month could have ended there and it would have been all good. West Virginia came about two-thirds of the way through. Not a big haul, especially considering the number of cars … Continue reading
The Wedding
Why did it take me almost 20 years to find my way to The Wedding? It’s not as though I didn’t know it was there, and it’s certainly not as though I didn’t know of Dorothy West. I read her first … Continue reading
Sonnets on a Planning Board Meeting
In “Small-Town Journalism in the ’80s,” guest blogger Eileen Maley recalled covering “West Tisbury’s planning board meetings, where much of the action took place. Overflow crowds showed up to hear proposals to chop up large plots of land for housing … Continue reading
Small-Town Journalism in the ’80s
Guest blogger Eileen Maley was the first Calendar editor of the Martha’s Vineyard Times. I was the second. If it hadn’t been for Eileen, I wouldn’t have wound up at the Times at all: at a West Tisbury town meeting ca. 1987, this woman I … Continue reading
Martha’s Vineyard Basketball
Slightly adapted from the review I just posted on Goodreads . . . No, I’m not a sports fan, but my fascination with the Vineyard and anything related to race and class is insatiable, so I had such hopes for … Continue reading
June License Plate Report
A good month for the West and Midwest: South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, and Arizona. South Dakota and Iowa never did show up last year, so snagging them both in June is a minor coup. I had a strong assist … Continue reading
Measles on the Map
Measles came to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this month. An off-island child, presumably here on vacation, was taken to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and diagnosed with it. Before, measles was deep background for most of us. Now it occupies a prominent … Continue reading
Singing After Charleston
I wrote this for the little blogsite I maintain for the U.S. Slave Song Project. I sing in the project’s Spirituals Choir, and yesterday we traveled off-island to sing at a Unitarian Universalist church in Canton, Mass. A moving and … Continue reading
Gay on MV
I started this post last fall, after the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce blogged about “LGBT MV.” I’ve been poking and prodding it ever since. What used to be called Gay Pride, then Gay and Lesbian Pride, then LGBT Pride, … Continue reading
When I’m 64
That would be today, and for the next 364 days until I turn 65. I love birthdays on Facebook. People from all the nooks, crannies, and corners of my life check in with birthday greetings and remind me of all … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 