Tisbury A Pie Filling?
In an op-ed piece in today's Globe, Madeleine Blais publicly fails Vineyard history 101. She confuses the protective shell around Islanders as snobbery before name dropping dead businesses and Vanderhoops. She also thinks the word Tisbury suits a pie filling.
Ms. Blais is trying to give the Obamas some "fitting in" advice for the Vineyard vacation. The island is filled with hierarchies, an obvious one being the length of time you, and ideally your ancestors, have been coming to or living there. If you ever lived on the island year round, you have extra value. The more you can fold the names of defunct businesses (Feasts in Chilmark, Take It Easy Baby in Oak Bluffs, The Old Stone Bakery in Edgartown) and old-timers, deceased or otherwise, (George Mather, Henry Beetle Hough, Everett Poole, Bea Whiting, and anyone with the last name of Vanderhoop), the better.
First of all, the Obamas know their way around. Secondly, beurgeouis advice like this is exactly what makes the idiots stick out. When traveling, one should be courteous, gracious and polite. With those three things the Island will open up to anyone, as will the world.
VT doesn't have any advice for the Obamas but they could start with some of the following form the "You Know You're From Martha's Vineyard When..." group over on Facebook.
1.You refer to everything besides the Vineyard as off-island.
2.Walking through a pond to get to a beach party is normal.
3.Driving on the highway is scary.
4.Paying $3.00 a gallon is cheap for gas.
5.You've found out that you dated your cousin.
6.You know everything about everyone on the island.
7.You think Nantucket sucks.
8.You think Circuit Ave. is the place to be in the summer.
9.Giordano's opening means the beginning of summer.
10.You've been pulled over at least once driving through Vineyard Haven at night.
11.A tourist has asked you, "People really live here all year long?"
12.Up-island is so far away.
13.You've been pulled over by Trophey.
14.You've seen Bill Clinton at least once.
15.You've eaten at the famous Black Dog like twice in your whole life.
16.You refuse to drive through Vineyard Haven during the summer.