Vineyard stories about friends…
Let’s begin with the two friends who pretty much started the Vineyard connection in my family. My mother Maude Freeman (on right) and her best friend Bertha Carter Jones (on left).
Childhood friends, they graduated in 1926 from Oak Bluffs High School (pre-regional high school). After graduation they moved to Newark, NJ and it was there that they met their future husbands.. who were also childhood friends.
My dad Al Freeman on the left, Bill Jones on the right.
They grew up together in Newark, NJ and remained friends their entire lives. The best times they had were on the Vineyard when both of their families were there for the entire summer.
For many years Bertha & Bill Jones owned a bowling alley in Oak Bluffs across from the Flying Horses. They did not have automated pin setters so the pins had to be set by hand, I even did it from time to time myself.
Then along came Will Jones and me… not only best friends because our parents were but because we knew each other from early childhood. How early you wonder ? We were only a few months old when we met, Will is a month older than me by the way and I never let him forget it… even now :)
The above picture has to be around 1947 or 48, it was during the month or so that I was taller than Will.
Will and I were always looking for things to keep us busy and out of trouble. Someone showed me how to make little flowers by using yarn and forks… I immediately showed Will. We set about our tasks, me at my house, he at his.
The next morning Will’s mom called my mom asking if he was at my house ? Seems she went looking for a fork and couldn’t find any !!! A few minutes later Will was at my door, and yes, he had all his mother”s forks with him and they were filled with yarn. Seems I had neglected to show him ow to get the yarn off the forks to make the little flowers. Oopsie.
Will had carried those forks from his house on the other side of Oak Bluffs by the harbor.. up Circuit Ave to my house where we freed his mother’s forks of their yarn. I have no recollection of what we did with the yarn flowers.
Last but not least my daughter Deb and her best friend of 40+ years, Dawn Green
Dawn & Deb, July 1984
Deb and Dawn, April 2015
In July 1984 I took the girls to Martha’s Vineyard, just the three of us. The trip was a new experience in that I’d never been away alone with two teenagers and I had never driven to MV by myself.
We did a lot of things together but the girls also spent time doing their own things while I did mine. It was a nice mix to togetherness and apartness (is that even a word)!
Breakfast by the pool at the Kelley House.
Aquinnah to see the cliffs.
Out for fancy dinner one night.
One incident that sticks out in my mind is dinner one night at the Wharf Pub & Restaurant in Edgartown. We ate early and the restaurant was almost empty. We were in the middle of our meal when our waitress came over and said…”you might want to eat slowly as Billy Joel & Christie Brinkley are on their way in and I thought the girls might beg a kick out of seeing them!” THE GIRLS… forget the girls, I was the one getting all excited. So we nibbled and waited and waited and waited and then THEY walked past the window next to our table and entered the restaurant. As we left the restaurant and walked past their table Billy Joel smiled and waved at us. We giggled all the way back to the hotel.
Whether with family or friends, Vineyard memories are always extra special.
:)
Inside the vestibule tied to the staircase railing was the thickest rope I’d ever seen. The rope was attached to the bell way, way, way up in the steeple and the longer we stood there and pondered the situation the higher up the bell seemed to get.
