Nothing gold can stay

There's not much permanence here.

Oak Bluffs was once Cottage City. Vineyard Haven is actually Tisbury, but listed officially as Vineyard Haven in numerous instances. All kinds of restaurants and shops this year just opened, are in new locations, new ownership, new theme. Hearing locals talk about the island's past, almost all the places they're fond of have washed away with the tides and come back in different iterations. Another thing that would drive me crazy here. In a wedding story I did, the couple fondly referenced a post-nuptial brunch at Lola's. It doesn't exist anyone. (It's Mediterranean now, where I work.) I wonder what the actual turnover rate with businesses here is.

Et tu, Edgartown? One name couldn't pull you through three and a half centuries?

This all leads to a lack of community, as well. I'm sure any stalwart Vineyarder would tell you differently, but a place where people summer (using the season as a verb makes me shudder) inevitably is a place with a shifty community. You may live in a house year round, then be happy to have neighbors come June, then be unsettled when you realize, oops, they were weekly rentals, your new neighbors will be arriving shortly. Best of luck forming a true bond and sense of community.

There's certainly something here that draws people to come for a lifetime, as it's happened 20,000 or so times, enough to flesh out a year-round population. But I doubt it's the reliability or permanence of the place. More likely the isolation or eccentricity of island life that calls to some.