Vineyard Vista

My wife and I made a decision in 1985 that continues to confer blessings to this day. After renting houses on Martha’s Vineyard for brief summer vacations, we decided to purchase a modest summer cottage (for a song!) outside Edgartown on a quiet road near Sengekontacket Pond. Thirty-five years later, we still love spending time there kayaking, biking, hiking, and relaxing. During the pandemic, my son and his fiancee have worked from there to escape their Manhattan apartment. Life passes quietly in our cabin; we have internet access but no television. In the evenings we read.

Unlike Newton, the Vineyard is naturally air-conditioned by the steady sea breezes. Our cabin has no air-conditioning, just two overhead fans, and that suffices to keep us cool. When the temperature hits 90 degrees here, it routinely reaches only the lower 80s there. In this summer of Corona, that at least is a blessing.

In many ways experiencing the pandemic on the island resembles living in Newton. I have been disappointed in both places when it comes to testing for Covid. Here in Newton my health plan flat out denied my request after I completed a questionaire that revealed that I have no symptoms, am not a frontline worker, and have no special claim to be tested. On the island, in contrast, everyone who wants it can get tested at the regional high school, thanks to sponsorship by Quest Diagnostics. So we both were tested. Sadly, almost three weeks later we still haven’t received the results. At this stage they will be meaningless. So much for the idea that all Americans should be tested early and often to control the pandemic through quarantining and contact tracing.

Vineyard residents and visitors, like those in Newton, are less than vigilant in practicing social distancing and wearing masks. To be sure, everyone wears a mask when going indoors to shop or work. In all Vineyard towns, people routinely don masks when walking about and seeing the sights. Not so when socializing on the beach or in back yards. Some neighbors up the block held loud parties. From what I could see, no one was wearing a mask. The same held true on the beach. Groups of young people, sometimes as many as fifteen, huddled as if we weren’t in the midst of a crisis. Admittedly, those outside face less danger than those inside restaurants and bars. Nonetheless, all of us should worry about the apparent indifference of so many to common sense. It should not surprise anyone that the nationwide surge in Coronavirus cases is hitting a younger demographic.

Political signs are less present on Martha’s Vineyard than in Newton. Markey signs far outnumber those for Kennedy, a curious fact given that the Kennedy clan used to spend serious time on the island. It appears that the Joe Kennedy campaign simply hasn’t caught fire there (the same goes for Newton). He seems to lack the charisma and personality of the Kennedy brothers, and the generational pitch isn’t resonating that well.

I was troubled by the sight of white men on the island driving by in pick-up trucks with American flags waving. I fear that these folks are supporters of the President, whose vision of America seems not to include most other categories of people. One can hardly call Donald Trump, an admitted drafter dodger, a patriot. He laughed off his own intelligence agencies’ reports that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban fighters for killing US soldiers. Still, there is hope. Unlike past summers, I am happy to report, I haven’t seen Confederate flags on those pick-ups flying alongside Old Glory. It bothers me, however, that the flag of freedom has become a symbol for a xenophobic nationalism, and not just around the Commonwealth. 

On the drive home, as we approached the final traffic circle before the Bourne Bridge, we saw a disconcerting sight: eight or nine Trump supporters waving flags and chanting “Four More Years” as we drove by. Some held signs proclaiming, “Blue Lives Matter” and “Keep America Great.” Need I add that though they stood close together, no one was wearing a face mask?