Although President Barack Obama will be staying in the remote town of Chilmark when he visits Martha’s Vineyard next week, it is the residents of Oak Bluffs — long a summer haven for wealthy African-Americans on the opposite corner of the island — who seem to be most excited.
“Oak Bluffs in particular, and the people that summer here, are incredibly excited,” said Gina Patti, a teacher and former assistant principal at Oak Bluffs School. “Every single storefront has an Obama T-shirt or some sign welcoming the first family to Oak Bluffs.”
Even her school is prepping for the prez. The school will serve as the filing center for the media next week, and school brass made sure to refinish the gym floor just in case a certain basketball player would like to use it. “It’s usually the last thing they do” before school starts, said Patti, but this year, they moved it up the list.
Tony Saccoccia, a 22-year Vineyard resident and chef at The Grill on Main in downtown Edgartown, said the mood seems to be “more relaxed” than when Bill Clinton first visited as president. “The first year for Clinton, it was over the top,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be as big of a hype” this year.
Other residents are showing some of that famous New England stoicism. John Thayer, a cabinetmaker in Vineyard Haven, said, “We stay out of his way. People of notoriety are allowed to come here and do whatever they want. … It’s always been a place where people can not worry. You can see J. Lo walking right downtown in Vineyard Haven. And it truly doesn’t make a difference to people who live here.” Except, for instance, “if we found out that Bill Clinton was coming to the [Agricultural] Fair at 3, we’d be sure to leave by 1:30.”
Not that the locals don’t appreciate the business. Dee Smith, a 14-year Vineyard resident and owner of Tea Lane Caterers in Chilmark, said the visit has “rekindled Martha’s Vineyard as a vacation spot and as a place for the president to visit. … It helps our economy. … He’ll drive business [next] week.”
Saccoccia added hotels are booked solid that week, rental car companies are out of cars and reservations at his restaurant “are coming in a lot stronger than usual.” He said the phone calls he’s getting are also from a “more worldly” clientele, with “many different accents.”
And what of reports that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan will lead a protest on the island? “We have a whole peace council and they often demonstrate,” Patti said. “There are already a lot of peace protests. It’s a pretty common sight.”
But Smith said she’d “pooh-pooh” the idea.
“We’re an open community and we want to support her, too, but let [Obama] go on vacation,” she said. “She should take that energy and put it somewhere else.”
With all that’s going on in the country, a real vacation from things for Obama seems implausible.
