Small Town Celebrations

The Upper Peninsula is comprised of many small towns that are dotted across the peninsula. I guess you could say there isn't one large city located here, because Marquette is even considered small at 20,000 people. Whatever the case, the U.P.'s many small towns help give the peninsula its character and honestly, it wouldn't be the U.P. without them. And even though these communities are small, the people within them definitely know how to have a good time. More often that not, each community has one or two town gatherings that allows everyone to get together and celebrate the community. Some communities may call it a founder's celebration or a homecoming event. Whatever the case, it brings everyone together and even gets people used to live in that one particular community to come back from time to time. It's an event unlike any other.

Several communities across the U.P. hold celebrations on the Fourth of July that bring many members of the community together. Marquette, Ishpeming, Big Bay, Trenary, Munising, Gladstone, Escanaba, Michigamme, and Curtis are just a few that hold Fourth of July celebrations that are great community-wide events. For many years, my family and I went to the small town of Trenary and took part in the activities there. Trenary is a small town of roughly 250 people made most famous for its Trenary Toast (made by the Trenary Home Bakery) and the Outhouse races in the winter. And it seems most recently, the Fourth of July celebration has taken a backseat to the more popular Outhouse Classic which takes place in later February. The Outhouse Classic draws thousands of people to this small town. And yet I find the Fourth of July celebration to be much more appealing. For one, it takes place in the summer season and you're not freezing your behind off. And it also incorporates a couple of my favorite things about a town celebration: a parade and fireworks. It brings together not just people from the Trenary community itself, but others from Chatham, Eben, Rapid River, Sundell, and Forest Lake. Just one example of what a community-wide event like a Fourth of July celebration can do.

And then there are "Founding"-type events held in a variety of U.P. communities. Following the Fourth of July, the city of Negaunee holds a week-long Pioneer Days celebration. Not only do they have a parade and cap the entire week off with fireworks, but there's also an alumni baseball tournament which helps bring members of the graduating classes of Negaunee back to take part in the tournament. I know there's two separate classes in the baseball tournament, one for the older graduating classes and one for the most recent graduating classes. Either case, it still looks like a great event had by everyone. I kind of wish they'd do something similar in our community, yet our area is so much smaller than Negaunee and our graduating classes weren't nearly as big. Still, I'm sure it'd be fun however we'd get it to work. Negaunee's Pioneer Days has all kinds of events tied into that one week so it's definitely a celebration everyone of all ages can enjoy.

In my hometown of Chatham, during July 31 to August 2, the Chatham Homecoming Celebration will take place in conjunction with the Alger County Fair. Years ago, both events were separate from each other and took place during different weekends. It was decided to combine both events into one weekend and help draw a bigger crowd to both events and that turned out to be a great idea. More people than ever attend the combined event, which includes a variety of activites in three days. One of the highlights for me is the Homecoming Parade which takes place along the highway in Chatham. It's not the biggest parade in the world, yet it's always fun to see the different floats that people put in the parade. And if you have kids, they'll certainly pick up their fair share of candy from the parade! More often than not, there's several old cars, horses, and old farming equipment that people put on display in the parade. And then you get to see many familiar faces on the variety of reunion floats. It's honestly one big reunion celebration and it's neat to see an event bring so many people back to such a small community. There's nothing like it, to be honest.

I just scratched the surface on just a few of many events that take place across the Upper Peninsula in its small towns. It you are interested in finding out about a specific event taking place in the U.P., please leave a comment for me after this blog and I'll try to find out some information for you. Either that, or you can search on-line and you should be able to find some information about a specific event. Whatever the case, it's quite easy to find something to do in one of Upper Michigan's communities. It's why I consider summer to be the U.P.'s best season to enjoy.

A Recap of Last Weekends Events

Around 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, I'll be heading down to Wisconsin for the weekend to visit my sister who lives about five hours away. It'll be our first visit down there in six months. Believe me, we've tried making it down there sooner, but a lot of different things came up. One specifically was my move into the new house back in June. I am really looking forward to the visit and being able to get away from the U.P. for three to four days. That's not to say I am sick of living where I live - I can't think of living anywhere else! It's just that any person, not just me, needs a breather every now and again to appreciate where they live and to be grateful about where they live once they do arrive back home. So, with the impending trip, I want to try and get in a few blogs before I go. Otherwise by the time I get back, it'll already be the middle of August!

So this week I'm on vacation from work - and let me tell you, it's been a long time coming. I was last on vacation over a year ago back in July 2008. So I was definitely due for a week off. This past weekend, I spent some time back at my parents place where the annual homecoming and county fair were being held. If you read my previous blog post, I'm sure you saw how excited I was to go back and be apart of the festivities again. I arrived on Saturday, plenty of time to take the walk down to the downtown area of the village to watch the parade march down the street. Like I said in the last blog, no matter how old you are, you never get sick of watching a parade. And there's something absolutely special about watching your own hometown parade. You see familiar faces and businesses represented in the parade and it truly makes it feel like home. What made it even special was my niece and nephew being able to watch the parade and to retrieve enormous amounts of candy. Heck, even my parents and I were picking up the candy off the street every time people from each float would throw some at us. It always helps to have kids with ya, cause as soon as they saw them, out flew the candy! I took a whole round of pictures with the kids and of each parade float as I'll soon be uploading them to my hometown website. As soon as I get the pictures and the time!

One of the activities of the county fair is a tractor pull that is held during the weekend. I believe there were at least 12 different tractors in the parade and a couple of them were pretty unique. One individual souped up his tractor and installed a V-8 engine in it! He was revving it up every so often and it was a pretty interesting piece of equipment to look at. Another tractor was a real-old timer. It was one of those old steam engine tractors, complete with a whistle you'd hear from a train back in the early 1900's. You could smell the wood burning inside the tractor as it went by. It was a cool sight to see and it's one of those things you don't often get to witness. There were also a countless number of reunion floats this year - probably the most I've ever seen. From the class of 2009 (which I had to admit was pretty clever - only 60 some days of being out of school, but having the least decorated float) to the class of 1949, there were a lot represented at this year's parade. And next year, it'll be my class, the class of 2000! Our ten year reunion will be held, and I just might happen to be in the parade. How crazy is that?

The parade is always the biggest highlight of the event for me, but it's always nice to walk the grounds of the fair as well. It's a small fair, so it doesn't encompass many acres. We checked out both exhibit buildings, saw my sister's and her kids' exhibits and variety of ribbons. Then the kids went on a few of the rides there. They were just those bouncy-slide kind of things and my nephew especially likes those. So they got their fill of those rides and then we went and checked out the animals in the barns. My niece loves animals and she even got to pet a baby calf. We got a few refreshments and took a final walk around the grounds until we headed home. And home for us is just a block away practically.

So now that that event is over, my summer is practically over with! No big occasions to look forward to, other than to enjoy the rest of the summer and to finish some of our big remodeling projects. I am hoping the end of summer and fall will end up being warmer than average. I mean afterall, I think we're due. And better yet, I have another week off from work in September to enjoy, so I'm sure there's plenty of nice weather left to enjoy. Better make the most of it, because it won't be long until the snow starts flying!

Hometown Celebration

It's been about three years since I was able to attend the last homecoming and county fair activities in my home town. The work schedule I was on didn't allow me to travel the short distance home to attend the festivities. This year, I switched work crews with another individual which allowed me to have this upcoming weekend off. And you know something, I'm pretty excited about it. Now don't get me wrong, this is a small-town, small-county celebration we're talking about. Year in and year out, things basically remain the same. But this celebration allows people to come back and reminisce about the old times, if you will. I like to refer to it as reunion-weekend, as well. Many class reunions from the high school are held during the weekend, so it's not uncommon to see a few old faces from the past. In ten years, it'll be my classes' reunion (which totally blows my mind). I wouldn't be surprised to see a few familiar faces from the class of '99 this weekend.

The homecoming and county fair celebrations have been a part of my summer for as long as I can remember. There have been a few family reunions and gatherings held during this weekend, as well. The parade through town is probably the biggest highlight for me. I've even been in the parade on a few instances when I was younger. Again, it's a small town parade but it seems like in the smallest of parades, that's when you get the most candy. And I'll tell you, candy is no longer a big priority when you're an adult, but my niece and nephew will be joining us at the parade in a few days and they'll get a kick out of being thrown all that candy. No matter how old you are, you can never get tired of a parade. And it typically features just about every local business in the area. I mean, this is probably the biggest weekend of the year to experience hometown pride.

As part of the county fair, we used to submit exhibits to put on display and to be judged. It was actually a really good way to earn money, because if your displays were awarded a blue (first place), red (second place) or white (third place) ribbon, you also earned money depending upon the ribbon you won for your respective display. The majority of the ribbons my sisters and I won through the years were blue. Heck, one of my sisters consistently won top prize ribbons for her sewing and for my mom's vegetables. It was actually a nice way to earn some money in the summer time especially if you're a young kid. Not only that, but it was neat to see all of the animals on display and to check out some of the vendors that had merchandise on sale. This particular county fair was never known for having any rides for the kids to enjoy as there's not a tremendous amount of space for such things, but they offer many different activities for kids. So it's not a total snooze-fest for the kids that do attend.

So needless to say, I am pretty happy about getting the opportunity to attend this year's homecoming and county fair for the first time in three years. Hopefully the management where I work doesn't decide to switch crews on me again like what has been rumored, otherwise this might be the last weekend I'll be able to attend the hometown celebration for awhile. And although it's a small town celebration and typically not much changes year in and year out in this town, its still always about the people. And this is one chance throughout the entire year for the whole community to get out and see what's going on in the community and to reunite with individuals they may not have seen in years.

A Shocking Death

I was surprised to learn about a car accident early last week that involved a relative in my family. I became shocked to learn that she had died. Her name was Vicky and was a second-cousin to me. We weren't all that close, but I remember her from the visits she made with her family during my town's Homecoming celebration each August. It was the one time of the year that I would see them, as they never visited any other time. She was married but had no children. But she is an individual I will never forget, and this blog will be a remembrance to her life.

I don't remember much about our visits anymore, but I remember her being a very friendly and outgoing person to talk to. She would discuss just about anything. One coversation I remember was quite vivid to me. Her father had just died less than a year or so (him being my great uncle, in fact), and she asked my dad what it was like to experience his father's death (since his dad/my grandpa passed away years earlier). Obviously it was still painful for her and it was kind of odd for me to hear my dad discuss the death of his father, because I could never recall him discussing his feelings about it. Because of this, it's one of those memories I will never forget.

She had already experienced a freak accident earlier in her life. I can't remember the exact details of the accident, but the car that she and her husband owned would not start. Unfortunately they tried using gas in the engine compartment and it exploded in Vicky's face. She had second and third degree burns on her face and was scarred for the rest of her life. She was lucky it wasn't as serious as it was and she wasn't seriously disfigured as you would think. But there were noticable scars on her face. Whenever my dad and I would visit her and the rest of her family, they'd always offer us candy, cookies, you name it. They were a family that liked to smoke and drink, so it was not uncommon to see them at the local bar drunk out of their minds. But they were fun people and liked to have a good time. You can't blame them for that. Just so long as they didn't get behind the wheel in that condition.

It had been at least three or four years since I had last seen them during Homecoming. Apparently they haven't even attended the town's celebration the past couple of years because of a family dispute. I think that's a shame, considering it was the only time they'd come to the U.P. during the year. And now Vicky won't ever be able to enjoy a U.P. summer's day again.

As I said earlier, Vicky was involved in a serious car accident sometime earlier this month and spent some time in the hospital recovering. She had experienced severe bruising in her brain, yet the hospital felt it was safe for her to recover at home. However, when her husband left and came back later, she was gone. I do not know the details as to why she died at home, but more than likely it was because of the injury to her brain. Either the swelling worsened or she experienced a sudden stroke due to the extent of her accident. I can't speculate because I don't know what really happened. But it's such a sad ending to such a vibrant person.

Needless to say, our time together was rather short, but Vicky is a person I will never forget. You hear about these kinds of accidents everyday. But when it involves a family member, it's even sadder to find out how vulnerable we all are.