On Hollywood and Vineyard

Finally, on the afternoon of his 47th birthday, seven months after he took the oath of office, the President came to rest on a New England island so small it has no traffic lights. Martha's Vineyard, a 100-sq.-mi. haven of quaint shingled houses, quiet country gardens, yacht-studded harbors and stunning beaches, has many attributes to recommend it, not the least of which is that its inhabitants are sufficiently celebrity-trained so that no one stares into opera diva Beverly Sills' grocery cart at Cronig's or gawks at Jackie Onassis riding her bike near her house in Gay Head. A President -- no big deal.

A live-and-let-live attitude toward the famous is one reason Martha's Vineyard won out over a number of other possibilities, like Jackson Hole, Wyoming (too isolated); Florida, where Hillary's brother Hugh lives (too hot); California (too shallow, although Hillary and Chelsea vacationed in Santa Barbara for a few days on the way back from the Tokyo summit); and Telluride, Colorado (too small). Not that the decision came easily, or could have been carried out if seven-day-advance-purchase airline tickets were a factor. Unlike most Presidents, Clinton is a man without a country house -- no + Kennebunkport or Gettysburg farm, no Pedernales or California ranch. Moreover, like most Democrats, he doesn't seem to kick back as well as Republicans. Richard Nixon had no trouble repairing to San Clemente for 31 days in one sitting, and Ronald Reagan clocked 200 days at his spread by the first year of his second term.

Clinton doesn't even take off weekends, and he delayed making holiday plans as if he were putting off minor surgery. Some people wondered if a man who had not got away for four years on a regulation vacation would make it five, and if the dreaded word "working" would be appended to "vacation" even before one began.

Enter Vernon Jordan, a man determined to have fun, as press secretary Dee Dee Myers put it. Jordan had vacationed on Martha's Vineyard for 20 years, and he pointed out that it met all the First Family's requirements: it has beaches (Massachusetts is one of the few states that permit private ones), a golf course (18 golf carts were shipped in for the Secret Service), a good price (former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara donated his house), populism (the Clintons could eschew the main residence for the guesthouse), and enough celebrities to be interesting without being rarefied.

But while the Vineyard might be perfect for the Clintons, there was some apprehension that the First Vacationers would not be perfect for a tiny community already stuffed to the gills with artists, writers, journalists, psychiatrists and academics so set in their reverse-chic ways that no newcomer could hope to adapt. These are people who congratulate themselves for not choosing to vacation among the canape-consuming classes in the Hamptons but use summer as a verb. Hunting, fishing or networking without a license is punishable by a $300 fine and deportation to the mainland.