North Country

Ruth and I traveled to the upper peninsula the first week of August.  All the kids were there so we joined them.  Sutton and Elizabeth were making one last stop in the mitten before heading west.  David and his family joined them to go camping. Mike and Kate flew in from California and camped a couple of days as well.  Ruth and my camping days are behind us.  A mom and pop motel is about as rough as it gets for us now.  Whenever the three kids are together, I want to be with them.  Lucky for us we have had the opportunity at least once a year for the past several years.

As we drove over the Mackinac Bridge I flashed back to the first time that I went to the U.P.  It was the summer of 1952.  I remember the trip for three reasons:  the Bridge didn’t exist, we took a car ferry across from one peninsula to the other, and my youngest sister wasn’t born yet.

The ferry captain, Frank Nelson, must have recognized trustworthiness and leadership when he saw it, because he took a break from navigating the straits and let me guide the ship through our one hour plus passage . When  I took the helm of the recently launched Vacationland,  I discovered that it was too large to handle using only my hands, so I used my feet as well.  This helped me gain the required leverage.  While I don’t actually remember the journey across (I was probably too busy dodging  smaller boats and dangers from the deep.), mom took a picture to commemorate the crossing.  Captain Nelson remained below deck counting cars.

Secondly, and I recall this very clearly, my sister, Sharron, and I didn’t take any toys on the trip.  We stayed in a small cabin less than fifty miles from the ferry port.  Knowing that we’d be bored with nothing to do, Dad stopped at a local general store and bought us a couple of toys.  Sharron got a small doll, and I got a Cootie game.

Cootie was relatively new.  It was invented in 1948 and taken to market in 1949.  We may have purchased the first game sold in the U.P.  Getting things between the two peninsulas took some doing.   The U.P. received some products from Wisconsin, but cheese heads from there were dealing with real cooties, not the new game. (Think Green Bay Packers.)

The object of the original 1949 game is to be the first player to build a “cootie” piece by piece from various plastic body parts that include a beehive-like body, a head, antennae, eyes, a coiled proboscis (mouth), and six legs.  Body parts are acquired following the player’s roll of a die, with each number on the die corresponding to one of the body parts.  

It may sound easy, but only a skilled dice thrower can achieve success in a minimal number of throws.  My dad shot craps in the army, so he beat Mom and me without any trouble.  Being only two, Sharron was focused on her new doll.

Over the years, Ruth and I have traveled to the north country several times.  We took our kids when they were young, traveled on our own, and now joined the kids in their adult years.  We’ve eaten more than our fair share pasties, climbed the log slide near Grand Marais (BZ, Michael, Ruth and I made it part way, while ten year old David scampered up and down like a spider monkey), walked the waters of Tahquamenon Falls, taken close-up cruises of the beautiful pictured rocks (twice), and made the ten minute drive across the bridge dozens of times.

All were memorable, but none were as personally satisfying as the time I grasp the helm of the Vacationland ferry.