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Submitted by: Bob Neary, Feb 16, 2010 In the summer of 1974, the movie "Jaws" was being shot on Martha's Vineyard. Of course, there was no indication that it would become the big blockbuster it eventually became. Meanwhile, Meteorologist Charlie Taylor was no slouch. He managed to hustle a contract to provide special weather reports for the fim production company, so they could plan their production schedule. When I was doing the 6&11pm News, I had a pretty good summer routine. I'd get up late morning, go pick up my mail at the Mattapoisett Post Office (there was no delivery.) Aftewards, I'd go swimming by the lighthouse in Mattapoisett for about half an hour. The town beach was closer, but town regulations required proper attire, meaning a store-bought bathing suits, and I had been informed personally on several occasions that that specifically meant no cut-off jeans, like those that I usually wore. I remember one summer day when it was absolutely beautiful. The water was especially calm, but I noticed that there were no other swimmers to be seen at all. Strange...I thought, but I did my usual swim/float routine and then went into work. Charlie Taylor was there to meet me at the door to the newsroom: "Bob, Bob... did you hear....? There was a shark in Mattapoisett harbor today." Holy geez, that explained a few things. When I picked up a newspaper the next day -- there was a story about the shark --- and the fact that the last time a shark had attacked anyone along the entire New England coastline was in 1936 ----- and that attack took place in Mattapoisett harbor! |
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