Day: May 7, 2019

Extracted Pictures, Joe Kozo, and Brother Gerald Warner


It should be noted that the Salesian Boys Club of Columbus, Ohio, was also the home for the Salesian Society of Brother’s and Priests, who occupied the fourth and fifth floor of our facility. Brother Gerald Warner was the Executive Director of the boys club and once when he was at a Boys Club of America conference at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a few of his fellow executive’s played a joke on him.

His good friend, Joe Kozo, was the Executive Director of the Detroit, Michigan, boys clubs. Joe, sensing the inner purity of Brother Gerald, cut out all the racy pictures out of every Playboy magazine in Brother Gerald’s quarters so when he opened his magazine there was only reading material. The rest had to come from Brother Gerald’s fertile imaginations. Needless to say, Brother Gerald was more than just a little surprised when he found all that out and even today that is a running joke at many conferences with all that knew Brother Gerald when he was active with Boys Clubs of America.

And, on a one-time interview with the Detroit Boys Club, I heard all that first hand from Joe Kozo himself. Of course, Brother Gerald had regaled me with that story many times before as well.  By the way our picture is of a boys club in Detroit, Michigan.

Nolan Hauser and Foo-Ling-Yu


Nolan Hauser and I recently renewed our friendship as I located him in Hershey, PA.  I knew Nolan when I was with the Marion Boys Club while attending the then Marion College.  After I left that area for Columbus, Ohio, he and Kenny Huffman visited me at my new club, The Salesian Inner City Boys Club.  After a tour of that facility we went to the original Wendy’s restaurant to eat.

Then I took Nolan and Kenny to COSI (Columbus Ohio Science and Industry Museum) which was right across the street.  The three of us decided to attend a magic show there with Foo-Ling-Yu presiding.  But once Nolan heard that name he began to giggle and laugh with everyone in attendance looking at us.  He just couldn’t stop for a good five minutes as that name just struck him as being too funny.

He finally settled down and I am surprised that Foo-Ling-Yu didn’t invite Nolan up on stage to saw him in half.  I’m sure that would have gotten Nolan going again in full laughter mode.  Maybe Foo-Ling-Yu could make a command performance for Nolan and the lads he works with now in Hershey? 

What do you say, Nolan?  Maybe Nolan could even be his assistant, Laugh-a-Lot?

The Real Owner of Turtle Island by Tiberius Turtle


I am the only true owner of Turtle Island. All others are false. Some say the Manistee National Forest used to own this island and that is another false claim. I own it and I lay claim to it. My relatives also live here. Some Humans camp out here and leave their trash behind. This Means War. I declare war on those that despoil this island. I will fight them to the death. Those Interlopers are supposed to bring their own firewood otherwise my Island would be naked and would carry an X-Rating. I do not want that to happen. And please children don’t take us home to live in a fishbowl. This is our native land Turtle Island. Some have seemed to call this Pirate Island but they have pirated away our Island. If necessary we will call upon our cousins the snapping turtles for assistance. They will take a bite out of the crime here for sure. I am part of turtles United for freedom. Be forewarned.

Harper Lake Sunset


I once spent two weeks at the Harper Lake Resort On a vacation writing. I was working on a short story. I would always take a break at Sunset and take a walk Down to the lake. There were several Magnificent sunsets during my stay there. This was one of them. They were so inspirational that I finished my book in no time flat. I spent the last three days touching up the story but had a lot more time looking in Wonderment at the fantastic scenery. It was a very relaxing vacation.

A Morning Constitutional


This is the extent of League Lake of the Union League Boys and Girls Club Camp in Salem, Wisconsin, and it is about a one mile hike around this lake. This is the course that I took my campers each and every morning before breakfast weather permitting of course. Flanked on both sides of the lake by forest and the far side by a marsh, my boys worked up a good appetite for breakfast each day on this hike.

About ten years later the boys of the Hoffman Estates Boys Club would also take this jaunt with me but not before breakfast. They would take it as just one of their activities over the course of a long weekend at the camp during the fall and spring seasons.

It was ever so interesting to return to this camp that I had earlier served as a tent counselor. I always found the Union League forest fascinating and on the left side of the lake there were two separate trails, one high and one low.

I was very grateful to J A Markle and Al Mackin for allowing my club kids to have the same experiences in camping that the Union League Boys Club of Chicago enjoyed at this their personal camp. My kids were also part of Mackin’s Woodcraft Ranger program which we took back to our club at Hoffman Estates to practice and explore.

My Grandmother’s Kukalis Recipe


A few days ago I provided a recipe for Pasti from my grandmother and today I have another one of her prized dishes which is known as Kukalis.  Here is her recipe.

5 potatoes (medium size)
1 onion chopped
3 strips of bacon (cut-up)
1 or 2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cream (or undiluted evaporated milk)
2 tablespoons oatmeal (uncooked)
l cut-up chicken
1 teaspoon salt (
Dash pepper

Brown onion and bacon together. (Cool)
Grate potatoes

Mix all ingredients together in baking dish. Add chicken Mixture will be very moist.
Bake about 2 hours at 325 degrees.

My grandmother grated potatoes in a blender by adding some of the milk and eggs until blended.  She never used a blender in the old cabin but modernized her recipe upon moving to the new cottage about fifty yards away.

Enjoy this tasty dish! It would make for an excellent Christmas or New Year’s Eve meal.

Night of the Hunter’s Moon at Big Bass Lake


On a brisk July evening at Big Bass Lake I spoke of our indention on our farm field. The whole of that quarter-mile stretch of farm line was perfectly level with the exception of one area that was circular and about ten feet deep as each step took you down a notch. Why had that area also not remained level as the rest of our field?

Speculation had it that a flying saucer once landed in that very location. When I took the boys of the Hoffman Estates Boys Club to that very spot under a Hunter’s Moon, the wind began to pick up almost on que. Our farm field lies between Big Bass Lake Road to the west and our forest to the east. The boys had picked various spots around that circular area to sit while I told of the options of how that had been created.

Due to the chill the boys had worn windbreakers that evening and as the wind began to increase, the boys moved lower and lower into the crater to escape its chill. Soon they were all nearly at the bottom. Another thing had happened as they retreated lower into the crater and that is the distance between themselves got shorter and shorter until they were all lined up in one line together.

Just then something blew across the crater and the boys hugged the ground for dear life. It might have been some brush but on a Hunter’s Moon night, who really knows? And right after that occurred the boys asked to return to our wooded beach front. One of the boys suggested they had experienced a ghostly specter that night. Only the Hunter’s Moon knows for sure! And it wasn’t saying a thing!

A Campfire by Big Bass Lake


On any given camping trip, I think my favorite time was that first campfire. This was really the first time the Marion Boys Club kids experienced darkness settling upon Big Bass Lake and when fully dark the kids huddled around the campfire and got really silent for a few minutes.  For many of them, this was their first real camping trip away from their parents.  The sense of the unknown was all around them.

I recall Calvin glancing at the safety of his tent just a few short yards away from our fire pit.  Kevin and Eddie had turned around to focus on the dark shrouded Haunted Island where they would be heading to at midnight on another night on that trip.  Johnny was focusing in on his marshmallow dangling over the fire making sure it was just right before consuming it. 

Then I started in on a song, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and all the boys joined in as many moved their eyes to where I had docked our rowboat for the night.  Kevin remembered diving off of it in our early evening swim.  Some laughter followed his remarks.  The boys, both black and white, were sharing some of their feelings about that first dark night.  One was concerned about going to the portable potty before going to bed which also got some laughter. 

As the fire settled down to just a few embers, one by one the boys got ready for bed and other things that needed getting done before that time came.  The last boy who settled down that night was Johnny as he must have consumed twenty marshmallows that night.  Not a bad first evening campfire!

Faith Fellowship Church at Big Bass Lake


Just off the southeast shore of Big Bass Lake is this relativity new church called Faith Fellowship.  It is just north of the softball field on 8 Mile Road.  From the church you have an excellent view of the lake and the small island Grandma’s Hat.  Less than a half mile from the church is Lakeview Cemetary.   The church has only just recently had a change in its senior pastor position.  For those residents of the lake they now have a church building that saves them a trip to nearby Irons where both a Catholic and Protestant church are located.

Does anyone that reads our website attend this church and, if so, can you please leave a comment about this church?  I would take it that it is a non-denominational church.  Oh, and the area circled in black is where the church is in relation to Big Bass Lake-

Does anyone know the pastor’s name?  Do they have an organ or piano or do they play instrumental music? 

And, how long has this church been in existence?  How many members do they have?  From the photograph, it appears to be a fairly large church.

And remember, “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”  I’m now quite sure that the residents of this area are VERY glad to have a church right in their own backyard.