2019 Life Logs, Day 155: African American Heritage Trail Tour on MV
2019 Life Logs, Day 155: African American Heritage Trail Tour on MV
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Weather: Sunny and Breezy; High 67 (MV), Low 47 degrees
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Martha’s Vineyard (MV) has a population that goes from 17,000 during the winter to 200,000 by August. There are many reasons that it is such a popular vacation destination, but one of those reasons is the beauty . . . the Aquinnah Cliffs (formerly known as Gay Head), peaceful countryside, dramatic ocean views. I have seen all of those things before, but today I went there to do a tour of the African American Heritage Trail. The markers on the trail are just simple plaques, but the stories behind those plaques are fantastic. It all started when a woman from Ireland, Elaine Cawley Weintraub, was a high school teacher on the island and saw a need to give African American students a sense of their history from the days of slavery to the present. Twenty-seven Falmouth Newcomers made the trip to Martha’s Vineyard today for this tour. We got off the ferry and piled into three mini-vans with three different tour guides. Elaine Cawley Weintraub was one guide, but the van I got into had a Christie Vanderhoop as our guide. Christie is part African American and part Native American. Her husband is also both African American and Native American and he is the post master at the Chilmark Post Office on the island. Chilmark is part of the island where the ‘rich’ people live. It is where the Kennedy property is located, where Carly Simon lives, where John Belushi lived and where he is buried, where Alan Dershowitz lives during the summer, and on and on. As Christie said today, everyone has to go to the post office, so her husband knows all of these people and as a result, he and Christie often get invited to special affairs with the rich and famous. So not only was she knowledgeable about the Heritage Trail, she added all sorts of interesting tidbits about the island and its people. It was a five-hour tour and I certainly came away knowing more about Martha’s Vineyard than I had anticipated learning. African Americans I had never heard of were honored, as well as more familiar people like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Senator Edward Brooke, politicians from the 20th century, and the Obamas who vacationed their while in the White House. The Kennedys and the Clintons, neither African American nor Native American, also hold special significance to those groups on the island as the Kennedys have owned land there for years and the Clintons also vacationed there while in the White House. It was a fantastic tour, but the highlight of my day was at the end of the day when we when visited the Aquinnah Cliffs overlook. I was last there with Mark in July of 2016 and the photo of us has been the photo on my blog site since that time. I have never updated. But today I had a fellow Newcomer take a photo of me in the exact location where Mark and I stood almost three years ago and that will become the updated photo for the blog site. It is time to update from ‘we’ to ‘me’, and I feel good that the photo keeps the same background, same connection. I think that would make Mark smile.
Today was the 2019 East Falmouth June Jog run by the East Falmouth Elementary PTO. The great thing about this race is that it is low key. Some people run or walk 4 miles, others run the 10k, all along the beach and then up Davisville Road to the school. This year all of the Goldstones ran while Oma watched with pride. Sam, Jonah, Jed, and Ollie did the 4-mile walk/run, but Heather ran the 10k (approximately 6 miles). My friend Meghan Hannawalt, the ‘goat lady’, was the first person I knew who came in. In the Goldstone family, Sam came in first, then Jonah, and then Jed and Ollie who did a combo of walking and running and finished strong. Heather was the last Goldstone in and was extremely pleased with her time, the fastest she has ever run. Many Goldstone friends ran, so it was a social event as well as a race. After the official race, there is a Fun Run for the kiddos in grades K through 4. Ollie ran the quarter mile with the first graders and Jonah blew away the fourth-grade half mile race. He got in the lead early and then just kept it up. Sam, his good friend Ethan, both in sixth grade, and a girl in fifth grade, all East Falmouth alumni, talked the organizers into letting them run as well. Like Jonah with the fourth graders, the young lady got the jump on Sam and Ethan and almost lapped them. But they ended up with a freeze pop, the award for running the Fun Run, which made them happy. This is a great event. Everyone is so supportive of all runners, regardless of age. Maybe I should walk it next year. But then there would be no one at the finish line to take photos. Good excuse.
I got across the Tappan Zee Bridge with no problem, but then my GPS headed me in what I thought was the wrong direction. Then five miles later, it had me turn around and head back the same five miles. I carefully set my GPS before leaving Lynne’s, but I struggled with it all the way to Hartford, Connecticut. When I get a chance, I’m going to retrace the trip to see what happened, but even with the confusion, I arrived at Alan and Helaine’s new home in Dedham, near Boston, by 12:45 pm.
They live in a Hebrew senior life center called Newbridge on the Charles. It is known as one of the most successful senior living centers in the country and is celebrating ten years of success this year. It is associated with the Harvard Medical School, has a variety of living situations—cottages, villas, apartments, independent living, assisted living, and continuing care. It has a K-8 school on the grounds, a fantastic central building that has restaurants, a state-of-the-art gym, an inside pool, a theater, meeting rooms, and an auditorium. And the Charles River runs through the grounds with nature walking paths alongside it. In fact, Helaine and I took off to walk on those paths having no idea where they headed. We enjoyed the walk and eventually we found our way back home. There’s even an area on the campus where residents can claim a raised bed to plant. I was quite impressed with what I will call the village and, in particular, I was impressed with Alan and Helaine’s cottage. Compared to my little cottage, it felt HUGE. It has vaulted ceilings and lots of tall windows making it light and airy. And most importantly, both Alan and Helaine already love their cottage and their new life at Newbridge. We had lunch in one of the restaurants and while there saw many people that Alan and Helaine have met. Everyone is friendly and the staff helpful. It is easy to see why Newbridge has been so successful. It was 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon when I was ready to leave, not the best time to head south to Cape Cod, so I drove through Dedham to a shopping area that had both a Whole Foods and a Costco and did a little shopping while waiting for the rush hour traffic to calm down. From my little explore of the town, it seems it has unlimited shopping opportunities. In the future, I’ll drive to Dedham for my off-Cape shopping trips and include a visit with Alan and Helaine.
