Tag: closed for the season

Well, it is now…but way back at the end of October, when I first started working on this painting, the Chilmark Store Porch was a ghost town.

So we have left the seaworthy sights and sounds of Menemsha and retraced our steps to Beetlebung Corner. But this time we are turning right. Slowly, slowly, just a few short feet more…and there it is. If you time it right, one of the 4-runners will be backing out just in time for you to pull in. But if you don’t, just wait a couple seconds more for the next satisfied customer will be exiting shortly.

Closed for the Season – 16″ x 19″

There is so much nostalgia weathered into the boards of this old porch.

Generations of up island travelers have stopped to set a spell in the heavy green rockers. Early on a summer morning the smell of roasting coffee mingles with the fresh ink on the Gazette.

The lazy mornings give way to the serious trekkers dipping in for their subs and refilling their water bottles.

Afternoons, the kids gather and scatter and gather again and if rain is in the offing it can be standing room only until the skies clear and the bikes can roll out again.

And then it’s time for pizza ! With Frank’s home grown veggies the pies are legendary.

Back before they decided that hydroperoxide and baking soda was the best remedy for skunk attacks I remember making it just in time to be the last customer to buy all the tomato juice cans on the shelf.

Oh, the gratitude, for the all the pleasures of an up island convenience store with friendly faces and wonderful short order cooks and a welcoming porch…full of rocking chairs.