Michigan

[Guest]

Ask John Osborne but don't 'look back in anger'.

Gauche, why not ask Anne Brontë?

Perdita


("The Cottagers" is a chapter of Agnes Grey; you might at least give folks better clues. Cottagers, indeed, Yorkshire. )

 

[gauchecritic]

Ok then. Ask George Michael instead.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Ok then. Ask George Michael instead.

Awk! You've just ruined my day. Well, lunchtime anyway.

Perdita

 

[blndEE]

I grew up outside of Muskegon

I currently live in Florida. I can't handle the long months of winter with no sun. But I love Michigan in the summer. It is so beautiful. I would love to live there through summer and here in the winter. Unfortunatly my job wouldn't like that too much so I guess I am stuck here for a while.

 

[sweetnpetite]

You make us sound so "quaint" I almost want to gag (no offence)

Seriously, yes the weather and the scenery is pretty nice- especially up north. You kinda gotta leave to appreciate it. I remember, as a kid talking to a tourist who was impressed with the trees. I was like- It's just a tree, what's so great about that?

Now Iive in Lansing, which is like a big city to me, but country to the rest of the world. We may be country- but we don't leave our doors unlocked, lol.

The problem with the quarter isn't so much that it's *bad* but it's just the outline of the state and the lakes. You can see that on a map! No cheries, no cars, no mo-town, no brigde, no nothing- not even a wolverine.

And just to kill your nastalia Those beautiful lakes of ours our poluted with murcury and who knows what else. We are surrounded by toxic chemicals on all sides except one- and in our water no less. We have guidelines on how much fish we should eat (especially pregnant women and children)

Sorry to be such a buzzkill, but just to add to it- tell me a little more about this serial killer. Sounds like a soap opera! What town was that?

Locals: Like every tourist mecca, there's a love/hate relationship between those who live there and those just visiting, but it's not too bad in comparison to some places I've seen. For one thing a lot of the 'locals' are really transplants who come North to get away from the traffic and the noice and the social ills of living in the big city. Of course eventually they realize that those things exist up north too, but with a lot better scenery. In the nine years I lived 'above the forty-fifth' (parallel) we had robberies and plane crashes, tax issues and bad government. And for one horrendous eight month period, a serial killer stalking young women.

Still, most people lose their house keys, because it's hard to keep track of them when you don't lock your house. The schools don't use metal detectors or have cops as hall proctors and the kids manage to stay alive and get an education too. Most nights you can turn on the news and when it gets to the local reports the lead story is what's new at the Cherry Festival because, as the announcer has already stated solemnly, "There has been no significant crime reported today in the region."

And then there is that scenery. Turquoise water and pale, butter colored beaches, small towns full of white clapboard houses, big woods with deer and fox and a bobcat or two. Wetlands that are so quiet. Birds of prey, falcons and hawks and the bald eagles who teach their young how to fly over a house I once owned. Dark nights lit up by bright stars because there is no city to block them and the only things that ever do are the Northern Lights, which are sometimes so intense it feels like day again.

There are four seasons in the North. Summer is Sweet William by the side of the road, driving through a cloud of butterflies, the cool, clean smell of the lake that cuts through the heat of the day. The cold snap that last week in August that signals fall and then the slow inexorable change of color from greens to red and orange and yellow. The last night of Fall, when the air is still and warm and the trees glow and you know that tomorrow the winds will pick up and a week from now the trees will be grey and bare, but on that night it is beautiful.

Snow, lots of snow, and Winter arrives like the bully it is. Heavy and drifting masses of snow, making roofs collapse and roads disappear. But it is beautiful. The stillness of fields where the only sound is the hiss of your skis as they glide through the crunchy crust of snow. Watching the lakes slowly, inexorably turn grey, then white with ice. Spring is lilacs and bridal veil and robins making nests in the eaves of your house. Black squirrels and chipmunks come to the door and beg for food and you give it to them because the winter was hard on all of you. And then it is summer again.

Good lord I'm making myself nostalgic!

Jayne

PS. Thanks Dita, I love the quote too and it's really true, at least for me.

 

[jfinn]

Sorry to be such a buzzkill, but just to add to it- tell me a little more about this serial killer. Sounds like a soap opera! What town was that?

Charlevoix. A young man, 19, from a well-liked and well-respected local family killed a thirteen year old and attacked three others before finally murdered a young mother, which thank God, was when he was caught.

Geez Sweet, you really know how to kill a mood! I was talking about up north, which is a whole different thing than downstate, but yeah I was jazzing it up a bit. So okay Ms Curmudeon, you want to hear the rest of the story about living there?

Flies the size of baseballs. Bats, lots of them and all trying to take up residence in your attic. Suicidal deer playing chicken with your car. Wild turkeys that seem to know what we do to their domestic brethren and wreck revenge at every oportunity. Coyotes after your cats.

Winter means wondering if the nine cords of wood you split is going to last, and if it doesn't, how you're going to pay 350 bucks to fill up the propane pig. Gurgling drain fields and frozen water pipes. Always more fucking snow. Calling friends during a blizzard to tell them you're going to the mailbox so they know where the body is if you can't find your way back. Snow in June. Frost in August.

Spring in July. The season of mud and the time of year when you finally know just how much damage all that ice did to your roof. Summers that last three days. Falls when you have to wear orange to the grocery store so some drunken hunter doesn't think you're fair game.

Bad roads with axle destroying potholes. Grinding poverty made worse by inflated prices for the tourists. Rusted out trailors with cars and old washing machines as lawn ornaments inhabited by people who make the guys in Deliverance look as sophisticated as Cary Grant. The Michigan Militia.

Working four different jobs in one year because everything is seasonal. No health insurance, no vacation pay, no retirement funds, just boring, stupid jobs. If you're local, the only thing a holiday means is a twenty-four hour work day. Restaurants you can't afford, cottages you'll never own, lakes you never swim in.

How's that for nostalgia?

Jayne

 

[Guest]

No, no, no!!!

Don't take my U.P. fantasies away!

First - I know I can never stay there again during the winter. Nope. Can't do it.

But the summers - ahhh. If you can handle the mosquitos (isn't that the Michigan state bird?) and the black flies, and the spiders, and the caddis fly hatch (I think we still have some of those damn bugs in the grill of our car) you've got it made!

Crisp clear water, beautiful sand dunes (and we still have sand in the trunk of our car from last summer) kids chasing minnows in the shallows, eating smoked fish warm off the smoker, drinking beer iced in one of the cold water springs -

Hell, that's all I need!

 

[Pure]

Full

Hey, Sweetnpetite, why don't you clear your PM box.?

 

[sweetnpetite]

Cuz if i did that, I'd be full of hatemail.





*******

I used to live up north- by Traverse City. Sorry, I didn't make that clear.

 

[kasmier]

Don't take my U.P. fantasies away!

First - I know I can never stay there again during the winter. Nope. Can't do it.

But the summers - ahhh. If you can handle the mosquitos (isn't that the Michigan state bird?) and the black flies, and the spiders, and the caddis fly hatch (I think we still have some of those damn bugs in the grill of our car) you've got it made!

Crisp clear water, beautiful sand dunes (and we still have sand in the trunk of our car from last summer) kids chasing minnows in the shallows, eating smoked fish warm off the smoker, drinking beer iced in one of the cold water springs -

Hell, that's all I need!

Fresh walleye, trout, pearch grillin

 

[Guest]

Fresh walleye, trout, pearch grillin

Mmmmm.

Nice thread to resurrect!

(I'm making fish for lunch at this very moment!)

 

[kasmier]

Mmmmm.

Nice thread to resurrect!

(I'm making fish for lunch at this very moment!)

Picked up some nice smoked salmon as a snack
and yes the fudge shops are open