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My Martha's Vineyard Close Encounter
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
As Obama's holiday ends today, longtime summer resident Patricia Williams documents the upheaval his visit—and Sen. Kennedy's death—brought to the Vineyard.
Sunday, August 23
Till now, it has been a quiet summer on Martha’s Vineyard—fewer tourists than usual, much more rain than normal, so little sun that fruits have remained hard and small and vegetables have failed to ripen. All that changes the moment the president arrives. The sun breaks out. The ferry disgorges hordes of happy visitors. House rentals are hard to come by. Mopeds clog the little roads. The afternoon lull is broken by the heavy thwumping of military helicopters. People stand on their decks, turn their faces to the sky, and cheer.
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Monday, August 24
He’s golfing! The neighborhood is a-twitter. A small crowd gathers round the entrance to Farm Neck Golf Course, cellphones and cameras held aloft. A solemn police officer gently pushes the pack to the far side of the street. Down the road, a woman stands on her lawn putting the finishing touches on an enormous OBAMA sign made entirely of red and white balloons. Up the road, the Portuguese-American Society puts out a sandwich board advertising their weekly “Fish Fry Friday,” but adding, “First Family Welcome.”
A man enters the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore and loudly, aggressively, grandstandingly, demands to know if “you have any books by Ann Coulter. She’s a Republican. Do you people carry books by Republicans?” More quietly, Cindy Sheehan sails back and forth across the pond that the Obamas’ farm overlooks; she is protesting the very notion of a presidential vacation. Locals advise her to bring a pole to the enterprise, that the fishing is good over there. That night, I dream that Obama turns his weary face into his pillow and groans, “I just need a nap.”
Tuesday, August 25
Friends make dinner reservations at the Oyster Bar and Grille in Oak Bluffs. I drive up moments after the president and his entourage arrive at Sweet Life Restaurant, just next door. Circuit Avenue, the town’s main street, is blocked; the sidewalks, the side streets, the little surrounding parks are packed. I stash my car half a mile away, edge my way through to the front of the goggling crowds. I approach a police officer to ask how best to get to the Oyster Bar. He asks if I have a reservation. Yes, I say, and give him my name. He lifts the yellow police tape and ushers me across the street. I feel a small thrill of euphoria: it’s like getting past the velvet rope at some chic New York nightspot. I passed the test! I want to wave in modest condescension to the throngs pressed back behind me.
Our party is well-seated right by the window. We spend the entire meal with our noses pressed to it. The only time we turn our heads is when the chocolate-truffle mud cake arrives. It is at that precise moment the presidential party exits Sweet Life and is hustled into a large, black tank of a car. All we get to see are the tail lights of the president's SUV as he pulls away. After the police tape is taken down, hundreds and hundreds of people pour into the street, comparing photographs and stories. Circuit Avenue turns into a jubilant street party.
I meet a college classmate who was seated in Sweet Life only a few feet away from the president. We press around her for a firsthand account. She says that the president had steak, the first lady had halibut. Valerie Jarrett wore her hair combed straight back, “very beach-y,” and sported a fashionable pair of little heels. The president’s sister was there with her baby; Malia and Sasha were not. Another friend claims to have taken a good, clear picture of the Obamas with her iPhone, but when she tries to summon it, there is only a blank screen with a blurry spot of light, like all those purported sightings of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. The stores stay open late. We, the people, eat lots of ice cream and dance in the streets.
Wednesday, August 26
I wake up to the news that Senator Ted Kennedy has died. I am taken by surprise; I am heartbroken. I'd been in denial about this last of the Kennedy brothers. I'd been so irrationally certain of merciful miracles; he was supposed to live forever. The railing of August cicadas rises shrill and unbearable. My head throbs. It is a vivid green morning. The air is muggy and sad. It is 10 years ago this summer that John Kennedy, Jr.’s body was pulled from the sea off the coast of this island, his ashes returned days later. I feel a commingled grief; so much promise lost, the end of a legacy.
Flags fly at half staff. The cardboard signs welcoming Obama to the island are amended to include messages of condolence to the Kennedy family, as well as defiant messages of support for universal health care. President Obama expresses his sorrow with a short but eloquent statement that renders the island’s media center (otherwise known as the auditorium of the Oak Bluffs Elementary School) a steroidal hive of international satellite activity. Later in the day, he is spotted biking along the beach. The fact that his daughters wear helmets but he does not gives rise to some leisurely tsk-tsk-ing. A hand-painted sign by the side of the road welcomes—then warns—the first family to check their bodies for the Lyme-disease-bearing ticks that abound on the Vineyard. Life feels very fragile.
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disfasia
Was the purpose of this piece to serve as a somnifer? If so, brava! Mission accomplished. For the record, I wish The Daily Beast would shy away from what is nonsensical, non-journalistic and thoughtless sentimentalizing of a president's holiday and the passing of a politician. Where is Ms. William's critical acumen? Where is any interpretation of Kennedy's work and legacy upon our society?
Instead, we get "what would Laura Ashley prints look like in writing" and this rather smug writing that presumes that the reader actually cares about Ms. William's musings about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, her personal friends and her overstating pretty much every moment of her "encounter". What is missing from this piece is any type of critical thought and analysis. Kennedy, a major political figure whose work is relevant to the issues directly facing us today (ie. helathcare), dies and Williams writes:
"I am taken by surprise; I am heartbroken. I'd been in denial about this last of the Kennedy brothers. I'd been so irrationally certain of merciful miracles; he was supposed to live forever."
Did she take out her magic 8 ball to make sure it was really so? Did she call the psychic hotline to see if she could communicate with Ted Kennedy from the beyond? Or did she just order "The Kennedys" for her coffee table from Amazon to give her solace?
Come on Ms. Williams, this is journalism not a Danielle Steele novel! Where is any cogent reading of Kennedy's life as you vacationed just six miles from Chappaquiddick? Was there any mention of Kennedy's support of some rather terrible legislations like NAFTA, GATT, "No Child Left Behind", and worse of all was Kennedy's work on the deregulation of trucking and aviation which was a catastrophe for organized labor and the working conditions for people in these industries. And let us not forget that it was Kennedy who killed Nixons' efforts in 1971 and 1974 to create a Comprehensive Health Insurance Act.
Oh, but that was the idea of this piece: to help us forget all facts and focus on Patricia William's "encounter".
ed1214
Bitter, party of one!
disfasia
Not really. Just tired of drivel pawned off as "clever journalism". Sometimes we just don't need to have detail of what passes through someone's head put down for the record. It is simply boring and trivializes what is already a trivial affair: a holiday.
exploora
I think they want us to go back to nature while they get to eat cake or chocolate moose.
And why does moose remind me of Sarah Palin.
It is the power of media. It gets into your mind, whether you like or not.
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onefastskater
The president sets a poor example for children. Why is he not wearing a helmet? His daughters are.
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lmktacwa
disfasia: boo... get over yourself.
I for one enjoyed the piece. There are all types of writing on the Beast, so stop complaining disfasia, (though sometimes the headlines are a bit sensationalistic)... but the subtle irony of the Obama's being on the Vinyard, and the passing of Kennedy was ironic and bittersweet and especially touching, I'm sure, for a local African American...
go hang out w/ Cheney this weekend disfasia, he's in a foul scowly bitter mood and you two would be good company...
How many vacation days did Bush have in at this time in his first year?? 30 I think. Good grief, the prez needs a respite... everyone does. Leave him be.
As for Kennedy's human failings... so? I bet your sin-to-atonement ratio doesn't even register... and surely doesn't compare to Kennedy's. His good works would atone for the sins of millions.
disfasia: Go stick your finger up your butt... it would be much more amusing and relevant than your whiny little comments...
prettyscary1
whoa i was following along all zen like and then WHAM finger up the butt! ouch..
ursprung
lmktacwa
Interesting how when you disagree with somone you insult and offend. The only posting here that comes off as whiny is yours.
Aside from your whininess, you are illiterate--disfasia never mentioned that the idea of Obama on holiday was the problem but the insufferable ramblings of Patricia Williams.What you try to pull of here, albeit unsuccessfully, is a not so clever racialisation of all things Obama. We have seen it before and it is patently boring and ineffective. Ramblings about any president's day to day on his holiday is just not that interesting in general and it takes a good writer to make it interesting. Williams is not that writer sadly.
And be clear on one thing: there is no irony for Obama being on the Vineyard outside of your racialist mind which seems to posit race as the paradoxical undertanding of Obama's presence there. When you can come down off your planet of insulting people, take a loot at your ramblings here. You come off as quite mad.
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penscott
Anyone wonder about the total news blackout of a picketing
Cindy Sheehan? Are reporters aghast that she would picket
THE ONE?
exploora
I would think most of these wonderful human interest stories, related to the Obamas, and Kennedys, are distractions. Like chocolate mouse would be to forget the very real risk of obesity.
disfasia
Exactly. So much non-news in this article. It is how things get spun today--few realize that Obama did more to extend gun rights than any other Democrat in a hundred years. And we get bicycle helmet and the sentimentalizing of days at Martha's Vineyard.
exploora
It is sort of like comparing the risk of having a bicuspid valve related heart murmur and not wearing a helmet.
What risk would you prefer to control today?
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exploora
Why can't people enjoy a bike ride without getting told off for not wearing a helmet.
I see all kinds of people wearing helmets who ride like fools on a bicycle.
The roads, well here anyway, have a real authoritarian, social engineering design to them, so they flow against the natural flow of the people, and people either have to cross under a bridge, or ride on the side walk or the wrong side of the road, to to get onto the bicycle path.
Sure we have a law to wear a helmet. but we have no law to stop stupid road design which encourages people to ignore the laws of the road because the design of the road is so stupid.
In one case the entrance to the shop driveway has a no entry sign, the entrance (the official one) is often blocked by either careless parkers (no not porkers parkers), or road construction, and they make it so hard for people to follow the rules, it is easier to ignore them, especially if you feel protected because you are wearing a helmet.
People are driving in the wrong way, and driving out the wrong way. But the new authoritarian design was supposed to make it safer. Just like war.
The fight against terrorism is supposed to make the world safer. Maybe the risk related to terrorism is less in airplanes now, but now there is another risk, which appears to be aging equipment and possibly not properly maintained airplanes due to lack of revenues related to the 911 spin off disaster.
The same with the oil related derivatives.
What did they think was going to happen? Of course someone was going to make alot of money at the expense of lots more people losing alot of money.
The world is so dangerous, if you really wanted to be safe, you would driving around in an armoured car, wearing full protective gear, and of course a helmet, a full faced one of.
exploora
This article is great :). and really funny. I can just see this stuff happening, and it probably is the way it is.
I bet a lot of great pictures are missed when desert arrives.
prettyscary1
damn ex ... get the menu mousse dessert :o)
speekup
"...nonsensical, non-journalistic and thoughtless sentimentalizing of a president's holiday and the passing of a politician."
This is actually a beautiful, atmospheric life-affirming little piece that allows the reader to share in a time, place and perspective they'd otherwise never know. I suppose the sarcastic first commenter, who only sounds sad, angry and bitter to me, would want to entirely do away with the New Yorker, which often offers such personal, nostalgic work. There is plenty of "critical analysis" out there (although everything is ultimately subjective) as well as the constant battle for supremacy of opinion. Allow us a little "summer vacation" from all that yelling negativity, please. (And I hope Obama did get one nap--poor man deserves it.)
ursprung
I don't need critical analysis when I read articles about the president of the United States on holiday. But certainly some distance, journalistic or otherwise, would have been appreciated.
This piece comes off as what my children have to write when they return to school: "What I did on my Summer Vacation". Only Ms William's piece lacks the honesty of most childrens' essays: it is pretentious in its constant need to focus its attention on how great Ms Williams is and how our dear president is weary. I really don't see the value in such masturbatory writing.
exploora
It is the same process and being told to smile be happy.
It is the same process and being told to take one day at a time, cause you don't know what God has in store for you.
And you better believe these people have the power to look into the long term. They will have money to put away for the future, and obviously don't have authoritarian hillbilly city planners blocking off their driveway for their work, with a no entry sign, while blocking the other entrance with road construction right before schools starts.
Municipal government can really effect people too. And the results of what they do isn't in the news either.
The process of social engineering is considered natural, as if nurture and opportunity have nothing to do with anything.
It is not about mood, it is about a situation and the dictatorship of process that gets missed when people are looking out for process of dictatorship.
And patronizing people, with stories of holidays and meals, and places they will never get to go to, and if they did get to go, they will be stared at, and be reminded how out of place they are.
Nuld001
Enjoyed your article, Ms. Williams. Thank you!
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