{OLD RELIABLES}
Like the country villages that they once were, each island town boasts a small shop that the locals head to for their daily wants and needs. Some, like Cronig’s in Vineyard Haven, have morphed into several branches; others are smaller and hark back to times past. Up-island, Alley’s General Store is totemic. Located a few steps away from where Music Street meets South Road in West Tisbury, and hard by the town’s New England picture-perfect Congregational church, Alley’s bills itself as the island’s oldest operated retail business, boasting a history going back to 1858.
Step across the threshold of Alley’s and be transported to another time. The modern necessities of life are all there, as in any convenience store, but you’ll also find treats, ranging from kites for flying on summer breezes to hardware for fixing a squeaky porch door. Shelves are crammed with everything from kids’ toys and small souvenirs to oil lamps, in case of power outages, and suntan lotion, for the beach. There are fresh local fruits and vegetables, for those days when the nearby farmers’ market isn’t open, and video rentals for rainy evenings at home in front of a late-summer fire. This old-fashioned general store even houses West Tisbury’s post office, zip code 02575.
Down-island shops are more utilitarian and don’t evoke similar nostalgia. Yet on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs, Reliable Market has been just that—old reliable—for decades. Run by the Pacheco family for several generations, the shop is more than the grocery store that it appears to be at first glance. It has one of the largest sections of Brazilian goods of any shop on the island and also sells most over-the-counter medicines to a town that no longer has a pharmacist. The vegetable section gets better each year (arugula made an appearance a few years back, and occasionally even local greens can be spotted among the shrink-wrapped selections).
Bobby Pacheco, the owner and master butcher, can be found most days in the meat section, where he gladly cuts meat to order and advises about which steaks are best for barbecues. His wife is behind the cold-cuts counter, and for many years his mother was in front on the cash register.
When Mrs. Pacheco, the matriarch, stopped working the register a few years back, she could still be found straightening up the shelves, keeping her hand in the family trade. As I was writing this book, I read in the Vineyard Gazette that she had died. An era has passed, but I know that everything is ship-shape in heaven because Mrs. P is up there in her white cotton gloves tidying up and making sure things run smoothly. At the same time, she knows that her family will keep things reliable down here in Oak Bluffs.
