Live on an island?.... Not now, but some of the happiest days came when we lived on the island of Martha's Vineyard... in this house, long before it was a B&B. It had secret rooms and hidey places, probably added during the Civil War.
1720 House Bed & Breakfast - Home
It was my first job as a store manager for Sears Roebuck... (a catalog store).
I've written a bit about this before I think, but just a little more.
First of all, it wasn't a bed and breakfast then, but had been a summer home for William Randolph Hearst. When we lived there, it was owned by his niece, and hadn't been lived in since 1951, when W.R.H died. It was just an afterthought. We then rented it for a few years until I was promoted to a larger store in Falmouth Mass. (
BTW... check the rental prices for the 1720 B&B House.) Especially in August. (we paid $90/mo.)
Access by Ferry only, and a small airfield. When I had to go to Reserve meetings in Providence, I''d take the 3 P.M. ferry... and come back on the last ferry of the day, @ 10:45.
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Now, FYI, people who live on M.V. are a different breed. particularly those who were born there. As the story goes...
"A baby, born on the mainland moved with his parents to the island and as he grew up, became a valued citizen and a well know personage on the island... Later on he became mayor of Edgartown. When he passed away at age 99, the minister giving him the last rites, began with:
".... and now we say goodbye to this beloved stranger"."
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One more thing. When I was transferred to Falmouth, and on my second day, (jeanie was still on M.V.) our third son was born in the island hospital.
Ergo, Kerry IS one of a vanishing breed... a native born Islander.
Some of the happiest days of our life. I had a Sunfish, and with my two older sons... then aged 3 and 4, sailed almost every one of my days off. Even though we all had life preservers, and both kids could (by then) swim, we'd get the evil eye, and uncomplimentary remarks. Under the bridge, out into the Atlantic, and over to Oak Bluffs... our favorite beach.
Back in those days, as it is even now.... M.V. was a haven and a goto place for public personalities... Yacht would pull up to the M.V. Yacht Club (about 200 yards from our house. Constant entertainment in the summer. We used to drive to Jimmy Cagney's house in Chilmark, to see who might be there. We can remember when Frank Sinatra's yacht would dock in the harbor. Shortly after we moved, There was a nationwide scandal about a drowning from his yacht, when Mia Farrow was aboard. Big headlines at the time.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2014/07/31/star-struck
In retrospect, despite moving 22 times since those days, I often wonder what life might have been like, had we just stayed there.
