Author Archives: Susanna J. Sturgis
Town Meeting 2015
It’s town meeting season on Martha’s Vineyard. Four towns held theirs this past Tuesday, including my town of West Tisbury. Aside: In Vineyard newspapers, ATM is shorthand for “annual town meeting.” We know it doesn’t always mean “automatic teller machine,” just the … Continue reading
April 15 + 1
This year I not only blew right by April 15, I barely noticed it approaching. What a wonder. Since I started freelancing full-time, in 1999, I have dreaded the approach of Tax Day. For an account of my annual angst, … Continue reading
March License Plate Report
Added in March: Kentucky, Ohio, and New Mexico. (Jeez, I just had a moment of panic: Did I color in Arizona instead of New Mexico? Whew, no: I got it right. Can you tell I’m a New England girl?) New … Continue reading
Sunderings
In recent months I’ve edited or read several books that deal with peoples and nations dispersed, usually by war, sometimes by political upheaval, often by a combination of both. The matter of community has fascinated me for a long time … Continue reading
Mill Pond Joe
Nelson Bryant grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, and from 1967 till 1998 he was the outdoors columnist for the New York Times. His tales of hunting, fishing, and general outdoor adventuring on the Vineyard and in many other places make … Continue reading
Bad Roads
Vineyard roads are pretty much like roads in any other small-town or semi-rural area, but there are some differences. One is that we have no traffic lights. Well, OK, there’s one of those red, yellow, and green thingies by the … Continue reading
February License Plate Report
OMG, February is over! It’s practically a cliché to say that February, the shortest month, is actually the longest, but this year February really did seem to go on forever. It also seemed to exist in a slightly different dimension, as … Continue reading
Snowy, Snowy
Around the middle of January the landscape looked pretty bleak. No leaves, bare ground, relentlessly gray skies. Where’s winter? some of us wondered. Complained, even. Some years we get through to the spring equinox still wondering when winter is going … Continue reading
New House: Foundation
Winter has socked us a good one this year — nowhere near as dramatic as what’s been happening in Boston and points west, but still it’s been weeks since I could plan my walking routes without thinking about how high … Continue reading
January License Plate Report
Here it is the third of February and I’m only now getting around to posting the January license plate report. Excuses? (1) Big editing job was eating up all my writing time and energy. (2) Winter. What kind of winter … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 