I put this on my Insta stories earlier today, but what the heck, let’s put it here, too. Same person, same bar, different sign. 1974:
Friday:
Yes, it’s the dreaded vacation photo dump! If you haven’t figured it out, we were in the Upper Peninsula, nothing fancy, just a cabin at an old-fashioned waterfront resort. I have friends there, and a friend from Detroit was at the same resort the same week, so it was a very chill week of doing nothing much, drinking beer at lunch without guilt, napping after lunch ditto, sitting by the water in a chair thinking about nothing in particular, discussing current affairs with like-minded people, wondering if Dollar Island, which sits about a hundred yards offshore from where we were staying, would be a good place to wait out the zombie apocalypse. (It was for sale for $850K in 2019, the last listing I could find. Today, a faded For Sale by Owner is tacked to one of its buildings, and having learned they sustained a fire recently, I’d say that price is…ambitious.) The answer: Only until the ice comes in, at which point you better hope zombies can’t operate snowmobiles.
Funny to see this no-doubt-contemporary-but-looking-retro poster in a local bar, since this was our m.o. up here for many years:
Proof. One of the visiting tramps, in one of those years:
Here’s Alan in two of his happy places:
This garrulous pair of sandhill cranes could be heard every day. They hung out in the yard next door. The house was flying a Trump flag, so I hope their excrement was smelly and copious.
Much has changed since our last visit, even more since my first one. My friends sold their cottage (and that boat). But Mark, the surviving family member still lives there, in a different place, on the mainland. And he has a different boat, this lovely, triple-cockpit 1930 Dodge Watercar:
We went for a boat ride. Alan and I sat in the middle cockpit, along with Mark’s dog. Solo is an Anatolian shepherd / Great Pyrenees cross, which makes him both ideal for up-north living and very very big. One hundred forty pounds of big, in fact:
I couldn’t fit him in one photo while sitting next to him. He took up a lot of space:
After I left, Mark sent me a bunch of pictures of the old days. Here’s the last shot of a fall party, back in the day:
It was fun while it lasted. It still is. It’s just a different kind of fun.
A whirl of a week ahead. Expect light posting.
A different Connie said on August 24, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Anywhere in the UP is a good place to wait out the zombie apocalypse.
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Dexter Friend said on August 24, 2025 at 1:52 pm
I first heard about Sandhills from Norris Alfred of Polk, Nebraska, about 45 years ago, who went bird-watching every Sunday morning around the Platte River. Alfred owned and managed The Polk Progress until he had to retire years ago. He loved writing columns about tracking the Sandhill Cranes.
Lately, after all these decades, I find hunting them with guns is a growing sport, as hunters call them “ribeyes in the sky”, for the way the strong strip of meat looks. I was aghast…Mr. Alfred would be apoplectic indeed.
I discovered The Polk Progress in a Trib feature, subscribed for my Dad and myself. Dad enjoyed it immensely, writing letters back and forth to Mr. Norris. Of course…all gone, all of it.
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn95069341/
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Icarus said on August 24, 2025 at 3:05 pm
fu-king Mississippi
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Icarus said on August 24, 2025 at 3:06 pm
The house was flying a Trump flag My neighbor, who has a side gig being Santa Claus around the holidays because he looks the part, has flown a Trump Flag since before the last election. On our subdivision FB page, he always found a way to attack President Biden on any post, no matter how vanilla the topic.
he’s trying to sell his home, By Owner of course, and he’s having no luck. I’d bet someone told him to take down the flag just to cast a wider net and he’s likely refused. If and when he does sell, I’m not only gonna help him pack but I’ll probably drive the moving van.
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Dave said on August 24, 2025 at 5:04 pm
There is a home I drive by frequently that had a T**** flag up for about as long as we’ve lived here but it has disappeared in the last few months. I often wonder why.
We’ve only been in the UP a couple of times, one year we drove up to Wisconsin, did Wisconsin Dells, and then headed on up the Marquette, MI, drove across the UP, went to the locks in Sault Ste. Marie, and then Mackinac Island, a very enjoyable vacation.
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