Celebrating our 40th Anniversary!
Island Memories
Part of Our Love Story
We met on Nantucket in the mid sixties. My grandmother who was watching over me for the summer would only let me date “island boys” because she knew all of the Nantucket families. That’s how small the community was then. We married in 1969. 1970 was our first full year as a married couple. It was before children and our move to the “mainland.” It seemed like an extension of our dating days because our families, friends and daily life were pretty much the same.
Except now things were different, we had become adults overnight with jobs and commitments. My first job was at Nantucket Saving Bank on Orange St. That’s when it really was Nantucket Bank with only that one branch. My husband had just taken a position with New England Telephone in the Central Office on Union Street. We shopped at the A & P and The First National. We rented a small house on Bartlett Road for $80.00 a month. Our house number was 25 and at that time there weren’t many houses beyond that point.
My husband was excited about his first (and as it turned out only) motorcycle. At the time there was a town ordinance that motorcycles were not allowed to ride between 8 PM and 8 AM so I knew he would be home early.
I remember my first winter On Nantucket 1969-1970. It was very different from my days as a “summer girl.” The island in the winter was very quiet. I bowled on a ladies league at Young’s Bowling Alley. There wasn’t much else to do, except join some of the organizations like the Masons or the Eastern Star. We didn’t go out to eat much in those days. There were only a few restaurants such as Jared Coffin House, Cy’s Green Coffee Pot, Downey Flake (the old one) or The Knotty Pines.
Change was in the wind in the late 60’sand early 70’s on Nantucket and in the world. Change brings good as well as bad in all aspects of life. We are now in our early 60’s, husband and wife for 41 years and Nantucket still is part of our love story. Some of our family and friends are still here and we are working our way back to our little island to enjoy our later years with old and new family and friends.
—Kathy Grieder, Foxboro, MA
This season is Yesterday’s Island’s 40th year publishing on Nantucket. We’ve seen many changes on the island in those four decades, and over the years we’ve made many changes to our newsmagazine.
As part of our anniversary celebration, we’re printing memories of the island in 1970 that have been shared with us by readers. Jo Ann Hubbard saw our request on the Yesterday’s Island Facebook page and was the very first to respond. We’d like to thank her for sending in her story, and we hope that it jogs some memories of others on-island 40 years ago.
If you have a memory of Nantucket Island in 1970 that you’d like to share with us and our readers, please email it to yi@nantucket.net or mail it to us at P.O. Box 626, Nantucket, MA 02554.
