A tale of two islands: NY vs MV

When I was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was playing with ants. (Yes, I was that little girl.) As an amateur insect anthropologist, I conducted a number of social experiments with my tiny backyard neighbors. I did this not in order to draw some sort of conclusion about human nature based on ant behavior, but just because I lived in a small town, was bored, and had trouble making friends — which may not surprise you.

One of my favorite experiments involved pouring water all around an anthill to form a miniature moat, and then observing how the panic-stricken ants dealt with the situation. (The ants actually fared quite well. The one thing I learned was that ants can swim. None were harmed, except perhaps psychologically.)

Little did I imagine that one day I would be living on a virtual water-surrounded anthill myself. Now, lest you worry that this is going to turn into a treatise comparing the industrious, adaptable, community-minded ant species to the population of Martha’s Vineyard, fear not. I’m not going there. I wouldn’t. And I hope that no one else would. I hate that kind of thing.

Furthermore, there is no conclusion to be drawn. The ants would hardly have chosen to build their anthill in the middle of a puddle. Islanders opt to live an Island. Why? It makes no sense. Why would anyone choose to live in a place where you have to take a boat to buy underwear? Where the population is at the mercy of a demigod named the Steamship Authority, whose laws appear to be totally arbitrary? (Imposing arbitrary law, by the way, has been proven — through lab rat experiments — to be the best way to induce psychosis.)

Why is it that we don’t hear stories every year of some claustrophobic individual making a desperate, panicky circumnavigation of the Island, only to find that, like my insect experiment subjects, they’re trapped?

I have no answer to these questions. That’s why I recently moved back to New York City. However, I have to confess there are things that I miss. Not so much the sense of community, the serenity, the natural beauty, and so on and so on. More specific things. Little things. Things that others might consider inconveniences, like trash stickers and post office boxes. So I’ve compiled a list comparing the advantages that the two Islands — Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard — have to offer. You decide.

So despite the fact that the “most expensive city in the U.S.” has got nothing on the Vineyard’s astronomical cost of living (and by the way, Brooklyn is the second most expensive city and Queens is No. 6, according to DailyFinance.com), Manhattanites still flock to the Island every summer. And, as any year-rounder knows, all those cosmopolitans yearn to settle here permanently. Why else would they be constantly pestering the locals with the age-old question, “What’s it like here in the winter?”

Well, the next time someone asks, while trying to figure out if they can justify the price tag on their Vineyard dream home, assure them that while they may be giving up the opera, the symphony, Broadway, 24-hour food options, the Knicks, and the Nets, there is some tradeoff. 

“What do you do here in the winter?” “Karaoke!”

Of course.

The post A tale of two islands: NY vs MV appeared first on Martha's Vineyard Times.