Meet Your Neighbor
David Vincent
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
You read about islanders who are in the public eye all the time, but what do you know about your neighbors - those you see at the supermarket, the gas station, at school or just in passing on the street? Everybody has a story about how they came to be here, what they have done and how their experiences have shaped their lives and added to the fabric of Nantucket's unique character. When David Vincent was asked to come to Nantucket in August 1999 and fill in temporarily for the former A& P manager who left on short notice, he was in for a surprise.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

"I've been here ever since," Vincent said laughing his wonderful, hearty laugh that can be heard from one end of the store to the other. "The first weeks of August are the busiest time of the year so they kind of threw me into the fire."

Vincent was born and raised in a neighborhood of Providence, R.I. known as Fox Point, for which he has fond memories. After graduating from high school in 1976 he attended a year of business studies at Bryant College, but had begun working in supermarkets when he was still in high school and decided it was a vocation he wanted to pursue. In fact, his resume lists positions with five different markets in 50 locations throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. He was co-manager of the A & P supermarket in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard from 1996 until he was called to Nantucket.

"This is the most challenging of all of them," he said of the island's former A & P, now Grand Union, which has changed little except for its name. "We have no parking lot, so people struggle to get in here, and with getting the product here and putting it in this little store, and with the visa problems. I always try to bring in customer requests, but then you've got to find a place to put it."

Though Vincent initially commuted between the Vineyard and Nantucket for six months, which he liked because he had the best of both islands interchangeably, he finally acquiesced and settled down here. It is not surprising to learn that the primary reason Vincent favors his line of work is because he genuinely enjoys people.

"I've met quite a few people in the store I never would have met," said Vincent, a really affable and approachable guy with a core of dedicated employees. "I get invitations to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic - they invite me to come visit them. You meet a lot of interesting people and learn about their cultures and how people do things."

Vincent has traveled to Brazil three times with friends on the Vineyard and has also been to Hawaii, but the last few years have kept him busy with his job, which commands a seven day schedule even in the island's tiny store. That is partly because storage space constraints require frequent deliveries he helps unload. If he had more free time Vincent would like to travel to new places and visit often with his father and a sister who live in Rhode Island and another sister in New Jersey, but for now he is content with his lot in life and his quiet, laid-back existence.

"I just keep to myself. I'm tired when I get home from work," he said. "I like to cook, and there's nothing more fun than having a nice, cold beer and watching my Red Sox. My favorite pastime is baseball. I was in several softball leagues in Rhode Island. I played up until I was 37, and that's

when I moved to the Vineyard." I