Four Winds Island

Do you know how lucky the owner of Four Winds Island is? He’s sitting on a museum of the history of Camp Martin Johnson. Seven buildings remain intact from those days. Can you imagine the graffiti on each of these buildings? It would read like the memoirs of those campers. Even the campfire area remains intact. Just think of the combined memories that are stored in those buildings. Just think. A true history museum of the camp can still be found?

Aerial Beaver Island by Sawyer

Here is a photo of Beaver Island that shows how desolate the south end is. This island has a year round school and it’s history is largely Mormon. Joseph Strang colonized those that followed him here into almost an island nation. St. James is the major city on the island. He almost started a war with Michigan. The guy even had a wooden crown. A real nutcase. I will detail this joke of a war another time.

St Ladislas School Building

Part of my position as Program and Physical Director of the Salesian Inner City Boys Club of Columbus, Ohio, was to serve as a physical education teacher at St. Ladislaus School and from the onset I was very popular with the boys there.  At lunchtime, a blur of blue shirted boys could be heard scurrying to where I was sitting as their black oxfords could be heard squeaking across the floors to see who would be seated next to me.

Names like Timmy Flannery, Mike Jones, Mike Myers, and Steve and Whitey Meier were boys that I would come to know.  Over the course of time there I even served as their baseball coach.  I also liked to come early most days to hear the children sing at chapel.  I also remember Sister Andrew Marie (Principal) and teachers Sister Wilma, Mr. Fowler, and Mrs. Douglas (an ex-nun). 

The school lacked a gymnasium so I used a blacktopped area behind the school building for gym programs and in the winter they came to the boys club to use both the gym and pool there.  I have very fond memories of this school that is today now closed down and used for other purposes for the parish.  Sister Wilma, who I used to call the Singing Nun still works there.  She always had a guitar at her ready to break into song.

If any members of this school would care to comment please do so.

Easy Rowing on Big Bass Lake

This is the time of year when row boating is fun on Big Bass Lake because you can cross nearly any stretch of the lake leisurely without having to outsmart a speedboat. No wakes to worry about either. All this is especially true on weekdays since weekends still might have an occasional speedboat come your way.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, even summer time was not that difficult to take a rowboat excursion around the lake. But make no mistake about it, lake traffic has increased on Big Bass Lake with bigger and better boats not to mention jet skis. I have noticed a few kayaks docked on the lake now. That might rival the rowboat in popularity.

Sunny weekdays for those out on the lake can be fun now. Even those that like to take their pontoon boats out for a spin on the lake don’t have to worry about speedboats darting in and around them. One doesn’t have to be quite as aware as in the summer time of where they are situated on the lake.

Going to Irons Today

I remember my dad telling me about trips to Irons when he was a boy. Irons was about 9 Miles from our farm. First the horses had to be hitched to the wagon to start off the journey on the wide bumpy road. The roads in that day were all sand and gravel. His mother took her sweet time trying to get the best value she could get. We did not need a lot as vegetables and fruit were grown on the farm. Dairy products came from our cows and meat from the pigs and chickens. The woods were full of game and the lake provided fish. By the way, Irons then and now is a small town. But a place of big doings in my Dads day.

The Fun Spot at Sauble Lake

Of course, our photo above is not the actual “Fun Spot” near Sauble Lake, but I can’t seem to find any of the original. You remember the “Fun Spot” for it featured some warped bowling lanes, some pinball games, and the food. Remember the food.

I bowled there a few times and had a great deal of fun. To find a bowling alley in the north woods was a novel idea. Almost like finding a roller skating rink at Loon Lake. I heard that the Fun Spot burned down some time ago.

When you come to think of it, both the Fun Spot and the Loon Lake Pavilion offered that area something most rural areas don’t have. It makes me wonder why Big Bass Lake didn’t have something like that somewhere around its shores. Oh, yes, our fun spot was the lake itself with five islands to dart around in speed boats.

Any other memories of the “Fun Spot” out there? Provide a comment and let us know.

A Classic Location to Live

Not that I’m not satisfied with my current home near Scottville, Michigan, but I’m always looking for that certain place within the Manistee National Forest to build my dream house. And this piece of land is on my high list. Of course, after this extremely hot summer, those fall leaves appear refreshing to say the least.

The actual house itself is not all that important to me but the land is. Darlene wants the house to be perfect but I need for the land to be that way. I need to build near water and it can either be a lake or river. I’ve always dreamed of stepping out my front door and being able to cast my rod into water within fifty feet. I revel in fishing on dry land. In that way your feet are always secure and fishing can be enjoyed it the maximum.

Well, this place will certainly be added to my number one list. The great thing is that within the confines of this national forest there are always better locales to come around the next bend. I’ll be keeping you posted on my progress.

Salesian and Sunoco

I took a Salesian Boys Club group of kids to our property in In Michigan. The director gave me his Sunoco gas card. I was getting low on fuel about forty miles into Michigan so I had the kids watch for any Sunoco gas station. I finally pulled into a Shell station and asked where the nearest Sunoco station was. He told me probably somewhere back in Ohio. He then told me there were no Sunoco gas stations in Michigan. What that meant was fewer side trips because food money would be going for gas. To top things off that was the trip that rained every day but one out of eight days. Doomed from the get go.