Book Review: The Vineyard We Knew by Kevin Parham

 

The Vineyard We Knew: A Recollection of Summers on Martha's Vineyard

by Kevin Parham

I was thoroughly engrossed by this recollection of childhood by Kevin Parham. In many ways, it reminded me of vacations in the country on my grandmother's farm, but in some appreciable ways it did not. 

Most definitively, a major difference for me was in how Kevin's grandmother turned to the belt to mete out punishment and ensure compliance in any order she gave the children. In part, this is a product of the time period and how children were raised then, but it is taken to extremes. Perhaps because she was a working woman and had so many children to keep track of and perhaps because that was how it was done in that time and place. Parham says that his grandmother was of the firm belief that to spare the rod was to spoil the child. 

That is only a fraction of the story though, Parham offers a wonderful portrait of a place that I have only heard about and pictured as a resort for well-to-do people. But he shows us that there is a whole other side to the Vineyard, more like what I remember growing up in Upstate New York - berry picking and swimming, and just surviving HOT summer days. 

As we strolled through the mist, I felt the heaviness of the humid air pressing down on my lungs each time I took a breath.

He also offers a bit of a window on the times through which he was growing up, the Civil Rights movement and political moments of import in the sixties, providing his perspective as a child and some insights gained through age. He describes how the life there seemed slightly detached from what was going on in the rest of America, and yet there was clear segregation between people there too.

The author's writing style is wonderfully descriptive as he picks a typical event and paints a scene that brings it to life through dialogue and setting. 

...cottontail rabbits hopped in the grass and nibbled on select varieties of vegetation, while green garter snakes slithered over the ground along the bank in a stealthy fashion, searching for small insects to consume.

Outings to the beach, diving for coins, riding around on his bike, and fishing for crabs are all clearly described in wonderful detail. An abandoned small house or shack nearby caught Kevin's imagination, just as an abandoned house on the next hill from my grandmother's provided fodder for my imagination. There are also numerous black and white photographs of the island and the family interspersed throughout the book. 

If you enjoy memoirs, I can heartily recommend this one.