Spring has sprung here in the top of Michigan. Today is the 30th annual morel mushroom festival — oh, yum!! Every restaurant features them on their menues this weekend and a huge carnival cxovers our lake side park!

And LATE DATE, my latest book is published and on the market. All about my challenge of society’s rule that we ‘old’ women must withdraw from the world into an isolated retirement facility the book is a great read. Fun, a tear jerker if you lean that way; a head shaker and hard to believe true story of my adventure out into cyberspace to find a man to have a great time with until the final door closes on us. I know you will find the story not at all what today’s media would have you expect. I truely believe it will encourage women to seek a meaningful lifetime as long as they canclutch it — and today that tends to be longer than any of us ever dreamed. Remember, I’m 90!!

Find LATE DATE on LULU.com (the publisher) in either book or EBook form. Sorry, but I amnot selling it thru Amazon as they chose to price it at $90.41. Don’t ask me to explain that — their reason is because its a potential best seller — great thought, but never at that cost!! Would love to read your take on the book and will try my best to answer all questions it raises. Good Reading –Anne

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

The line was eight persons long.  Once I stepped behind the last one I was number nine.  I methodically checked out how many of the eight ahead were actually purchasers and discovered there were only two pair.  The first appeared to be a mother in her late fifties and her daughter in her thirties.  Maybe the two women weren’t even relatives, but they seemed to share a family resemblance in a number of ways.  Only mother had a purchase in hand.  The other couple was a husband and wife duo, both white haired and he looked bored.  (Guess that is why I decided they were married).  She had a couple of sofa or chair pillows in her hand and he, nothing.  They stood silent directly in front of me.

Just as I was about to become resigned to a long wait to pay for my purchases two additional clerks appeared on the scene with big smiles on their faces.  I suspect they had just completed their lunch break with a good story.  With expert maneuvers the first intersected waiting purchasers in front of me at number three in the line and swept them and the woman behind her to a second cash register just as her friend motioned number six, seven and eight to follow her to a third cash register.  I was left to step forward behind the woman and her daughter.  Now we were two, so to speak.

As I stood waiting my turn I found myself entranced with what it was all nine of us were buying.  No two were similar; not even close.  This led me to compare the appearance of the other eight as they stood waiting.  Absolutely none of us appeared like any other. All women except for the bored husband we shared nothing in our appearances or our purchases.  No wonder the store was so large and yet packed with merchandise.  It had a much diversified clientele.  Today’s version of yesterday’s department store this large ‘box’ store was one of many outlets of a national retail franchise across our extensive land.

One of Boyne City’s outstanding features to its residents and visitors is the absence of the national ‘box’ stores.  Within our town the stores are almost entirely owned by local business men and women who take a very personal interest in the store’s inventory and the needs of the shopper.  There is uniqueness about those items that line the shelves, display cases and racks.  And the price ranges have been carefully selected to appeal to both the local and out of town shopper.

It is small wonder that upon entering a shop we feel that ‘small town’ welcome which accompanies knowing the owners and clerks by name.  They also may be near neighbors, belong to the same community group we do, be a distance cousin a couple of times removed, a member of our church or even a close friend.  Recently I had need to go to Barden’s Lumber Yard for a hunk of shelving.  While standing at the large checkout counter waiting for assistance I noticed the owner seated back in the office area busily talking on the phone.  His resemblance to his father, the Mr. Barden I met when we moved into Boyne back in ’61 struck me as amazing.

I suspect he saw me staring his way as he rose and come out to greet me.  We talked about the resemblance and he told me how much it had bothered his father that he, the son, had grown taller and bigger than his dad.  But then, that is so often the case in this day.  My grandsons are all taller and larger men than their fathers were. Our Nancy is taller than I am and her niece, my granddaughter Laura is taller than both of us – each generation has gained at least an inch.  And I was considered unusually tall at 5’9” in my youth. I suspect the regulation height of 6’8” for doorways used for so many years by builders will become a thing of the past.  It already has disappeared in many public buildings.  Seven foot and even eight foot door openings are becoming common.

More and more shopping is done on line as time passes by.  Perhaps it is the congeniality and help I find in Boyne City’s stores that causes me to do very little online shopping.  I am at my computer every day but for writing and research.  Once in a great while I will web hunt for information about a product and where it is available.  Admittedly what I seek may not be found here in our small burg, but such a possibility is rare.  I am constantly amazed at the great variety of goods that is here at our fingertips.  Add to this the beauty of the trees, flowers and walkways that wrap themselves into and around our shopping area which, although it has expanded both north and south off its main area on Water Street remains edged with the beautiful water and shore of Lake Charlevoix, the banks of the Boyne river and all its peaceful parks.

With two ice cream shops only steps away there is always that invitation to take a few minutes to sit on a park bench while happily enjoying a cone and watching summer evolve right before your eyes.  The recent Thunder Boats were such an addition to this opportunity that Ray and I found ourselves content to spend a number of hours in the midst of it all.  And that night, during the Stroll the Streets festivities in the SOBO District we were transfixed with a group of musicians which played at the corner of South Lake and Main Street.  The air was permeated with the feeling of peace and pleasure.

While listening I found myself engrossed in ‘car’ watching.  I was transfixed as one after the other autos of all makes and designs slowly passed by.  One three-wheeler was so unique I wanted it to park so I could examine it more.  There were antiques and the latest models, one passing after another.  An ancient Rolls-Royce drove by like a mountain in comparison to its companions.  It was of a lasting beauty.

The easy moving breeze off the cold lake water found itself up into the town and without intrusion brought to each of the evening’s spectators the perfect ‘air-conditioning’ as they strolled the sidewalks until dusk enveloped.  Someone that evening observed, “This little town has really changed in the last ten years.  I can’t believe how much.”

I nodded in agreement but disagreed mentally.  Boyne City has been in the act of ‘changing’ since its first days.  The dirt streets, sidewalks, non insulated wood frame homes, rock foundations and Michigan basements with their dirt floors, outdoor biffys and artesian wells have all but been replaced.  Ed called Boyne the miracle of vinyl siding and I had to agree.  To me it was the national observance of our country’s two hundredth birthday in 1976 that prompted its residents, businesses and community groups to begin the ‘beautification’ of its streets,  water front, parks and private yards.  I am certain no other town in this great country has done a more thorough and beautiful job, no matter its size and resources.  I have been impressed at the bit of reforestation that has been accomplished throughout the downtown as a result of the small tornado which passed through just a few years back taking down a swath of trees.

We are so fortunate to have the leadership we do in both the city government and our Chamber of Commerce. Over the years they have had and remain working with a vision that maintains those qualities about our town which generate these fantastic feelings of pride and satisfaction we share as well as the enjoyment that is with us all.  How have they done it?  I believe as the old adage charges; taking a stitch when it is needed has saved us all from having to roll up our sleeves and plunge in to mend the mistakes lack of foresight so often generates.  It is then that the proverble ‘nine’ stitches must be taken; wasting both time and money.

-Anne

For more of Anne’s writing, visit www.boynegazette.com

Rain, Rain, Go Away and Come Back Some Other Day

One of my grandsons, Tim, is so concerned about the future of the Great Lakes that he has chosen to embark on the study of ecology as it relates to them with the goal of spending his working life on their behalf.  An ardent outdoors man, he has chosen to live in the Upper Peninsula where great fishing and hunting are at his back door as he studies at the University at Marquette.

I have been on numerous trips up into the Upper both for recreation and because our son, Tom, attended the University at Houghton. To stand on the shores of Lake Superior, whether rocky or sandy during a summer storm is a memorable experience.  Even more so is swimming in those ice cube waters; so clear and deep. In was only last year that I met a person who lives in California who thought the Great Lakes were sourced by the Atlantic Ocean rather than the reverse.  He found it all but impossible to believe me when I told him that those immense bodies of fresh water were the result of rain and snow falls as well as ground springs which supply water to creeks and rivers that flow into them.  All his life he had seen photos of the magnificent falls at Buffalo, New York but the pictures had never been identified as to what point of the compass the rushing waters were directing themselves.  So his deduction was quite logical from his point of view.

With today’s instant communications from one side to the other of our globe it is easy for us to become completely unaware of its tremendous girth and diverse coverings.  Great rivers such as our Mississippi and Missouri gather water into their banks to carry it to the sea from all the continents worldwide. Their winding courses traverse all types of land formations from mountains and forests to fertile farmland and vast deserts.

The steady increase in the number of inhabitants in our world is having a silent impact on its lands.  A friend who lives in a small town south of Los Angeles inland from the Pacific Ocean is witnessing this as the increasing number of residents is slowly moving the desert west of his home further east into the foothills of the mountains.  This in turn is lowering the area’s water supply.

Both China and India are large examples of the affect large populations have on their areas original natural state.  Not only clean drinking water but air quality is decreasing life expectancy.  We are fortunate here in Boyne City that to have not only a beautiful clean lake but the spring fed Boyne River that constantly pushes its waters into it.  In addition, there is a rich source of artesian wells in this area that pull the water which lies below our land to the surface.  The drinking fountain down by the water front in Veteran’s park and near the ball park is a fine example of such quality drinking water.

It is difficult to accept the fact that as our country reels from the disasters caused by recent floods that there are those lands on this earth in which the residents can’t obtain enough water to drink and that which they do have is badly polluted.  Yet it is here in the United States where no such shortage exists that there are those of us who buy bottled water to drink without a second thought.  Despite all we are taught we luxuriate in long showers and expend gallons of water thoughtlessly as we flush toilets, wash clothing and dishes.  Yes, and even cars.  Here in Boyne City we dismiss the lowered level of Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan as just a natural cycle of the climate.

In ’93 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Inner Waterway of Alaska and two of its Pacific Coast cities.  At the end of the passage our boat anchored across a small bay from an active glacier and we stood transfixed against the rail watching small and enormous chunks of the ice break away from its water’s edge. Eighteen years later I wonder how much of that particular glacier remains as I read article after article about the warming of our earth, the disappearance of glaciers which have covered sections of our northern regions for centuries and the concern about the shifting polar area.  There are those who believe this latter trend may produce a global tragedy which could cause an event like Japan’s 2011 tsunami to appear as a mere flicker of an eye.

This morning I drove for a half hour on M32 as our area was hit by drenching rains, fierce lightening and in some areas hail.  The day was in the eighties and the frigid rain condensed into a mist ‘white out’ which rivaled any snow storm I have ever steered my car through.  Traffic slowed to forty mile an hour as drivers sought to find the road ahead.  It reminded me of a time when Ed and I vacationed at a lodge on the ridge of the Mountains above Gatlinburg, TN.  We ventured out of our tiny cabin early in the morning one day to see the sunrise from our lofty viewpoint.

The view down the mountainside to the valley and the city was infused with a pre-dawn rosy glow when suddenly without warning the view vanished as a huge sun colored cloud filled the air below us.  The early morning warm moisture which hung in the air undetected by us in the fraction of a second had been hit by the warmth of the rising sun and increased in size to become visible.  We watched this mountain phenomena for over a half hour as night turned to day and the earth’s moisture and the sky’s warmth created one enormous cloud after another there in front of our eyes.

During the three years I lived in Fresno, California I never saw a cloud in the sky.  Oh, the valley had its three month season of rain annually, but never a thunder storm with its booming and flashing streaks of light across the dark sky.  No, the rains were umbrella carrying kind with gentle drops falling from a gray sky.  There was no moisture in the air in that vast desert area where crops were grown only because of immense irrigation systems supplied with water by ditches from the Friant River and its large dam.  Despite summer heat up into the one hundred and twenties the dryness of the air could not put together even one small cloud.  I am certain those years are the reason I watch our cloud studded sky so intently.

-Anne

For more of Anne’s writing, visit www.boynegazette.com