Memory Lane - Holiday Doings (November and December 1982)

Time to head back to Memory Lane. With Christmas 2021 days away, I thought it would be fun to complete my sharing of 1982 memories with that holiday season 39 years ago. Life was simpler then.

When we left off on this saga, the Rise of the Magic Kingdom had been accentuated by a pretty fine Halloween party. That's where we'll pick things up.

As November unfolds, the specter of "The Holidays" usually looms large. 1982 was no exception (for a reminder of my warped view of the holidays you might review my three previous posts on the subject starting with The Holidays Part 1 - The Launch). 

However, one doesn't just saunter into major happenings like Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are preliminary activities. Aside from shopping and decorating, that usually includes visits to extended family to catch up and celebrate the year's memories. Our first such sojourn that November was a visit to Linwood to visit my parents. 

While there are no pics of that visit, I found this series of odd images taken during our trip up. They are of a phenomenon that residents of mid-Michigan should remember.

These are shots of the Zilwaukee bridge during troubled times. Note that in the second pic the bridge, then under construction, seems to be sagging a bit in the middle. Here's the story.

In the 70s and prior the I-75 bridge across the Saginaw river at Zilwaukee was a drawbridge which opened several times a day to allow passage of cargo ships to the automobile and other plants upriver in Saginaw. This caused traffic backups on the freeway that sometimes extended for miles.  

In 1982 the State of Michigan, mostly with federal money, began construction of the elevated bridge with which we are so familiar today. Well into the work a mishap involving the construction boom shown in the picture above resulted in one of the pillars cracking under the load. Ergo the sag.

While many people in high places pondered what to do about the dilemma, this monument to cost overruns became a tourist attraction. People would pull over at a viewing site close to the bridge and gape. Here are some familiar faces doing just that.

It was like having your picture taken in front of the Statue of Liberty, Michigan style. A real crowd pleaser. The State even put up a message board on the site for curious citizens to keep abreast of developments. Thoughtful.

Every time I cross this bridge - which is often as it's halfway between our home and the cottage - I remember its colorful past. And accelerate just a bit to get to the other side.

Later that month our little family took a trip to Toronto to visit the Canadian cousins. On the way we stopped off at Avon Rae, the LeRoy family cottage on Lake Huron just a few miles north of Sarnia. We wanted to check in on some renovations Nancy's dad Rae was overseeing. They involved expanding the kitchen and replacing the old wooden porch with one of concrete. Looking at these pictures of a household turned on its ear in the name of improvement brought me back to more recent memories of our projects at Wiser Times.

And one last shot of one of the younger members of the crew.

Our inspection of the job site complete, we headed on to Toronto. A main purpose of the trip was to meet the newest member of our extended family, Heather Bath. Here's a shot of the little cutie, still a little wary of all the attention it would appear.

And some pics of Aunt Ann and first-cousin-once-removed Nancy enjoying the visit.

Of course, I had to get in on the action. Heather was charmed, as you can see. Who is this guy?

There were also happy grandparents on the scene. Here's Nancy with her Uncle Ken, sporting some of the supplies he had laid in for his new role.

And Aunt Evelyn, caught here in one of her favorite venues - the kitchen. 

Back in Dearborn, we were getting excited about the holidays and trying our best to explain it all to our two charges. The first one of these didn't pay much attention. That would be our dog Heidi. The only thing that ever excited her was something she could eat or chew.

So we concentrated our efforts on Christine. She seemed interested from the get-go and always willing to hear more. 

She even took an interest in photos of past family holidays.

Okay. I know what you're thinking. What's with the hat? Was the child undergoing some kind of therapy or were we just clueless parents? Well, your guess is as good as ours. For some reason Christine glommed on to this old winter hat of Nancy's and wouldn't be parted from it. So, not wanting to stifle the child's development and self-confidence, we went with the flow. It obviously made her happy.

Sometimes I think it may have been like Linus and his blanket. Other times I think she was testing us. It may have just been that her head was cold. It remains a family mystery.

One particular event that holiday day season was a party we held in the basement rec room of our Dearborn home. Remember the Magic Kingdom? Well, it was going strong in December of '82. The managers and coaches had been working hard, and the revenue officers in training were starting to earn their keep. So, we thought it was time to party - again.

The following pix are excerpted from a larger library of photos from that night, many of which are classified. You've heard legends about the "office Christmas party"? It's sort of like that. But these shots have been cleared for publication. Just a few.

This first pic is innocent enough. I've included it to establish the fact that the menus at Burk family gatherings have always been top drawer - for nearly 40 years now. This early offering set the tone. 

Here we have a group shot of some of the attendees early in the evening.  

Notables in this pic that you might recognize are Tony C. on the extreme left (our host at the infamous Halloween party), Richie Hannum hiding behind a cluster of beer bottles, and George Kent on the extreme right (Papa Smurf at the Halloween Party). 

These next three shots are of friends that would remain close for many years into the future, bowling together for a couple of decades and founding the golf institution known as the Spinners, still going strong to this day. The first is of Bruce C., or Sledge as he was known due to his habit of smashing large vegetables at public gatherings. You could always tell when Bruce was having a good time - he had shed his eye glasses.

In this shot we have Al M., known as the bear for the gruff façade he often wore to conceal his big heart. Tripping the light fantastic with Al is Jackie Z., another of our coaches.

And finally Ralph S., another by-the-book coach letting his lighter side show.

This final shot from the evening is captioned "The Taxations", with yours truly joining Bruce, Al and fellow coach Dick M. for some intense - if not fancy - footwork. It was a memorable evening and a harbinger of good times to come.

With the prep and parties behind us, the family moved on to the main event. We were first back up in Linwood with my family. This time there were pictures. Somewhat deteriorated, but memorable. This first shot is of the tree at my parents' on Christmas morning.  

My parents were always "big Christmas" people as far back as I remember. Our family seldom took vacations when I was growing up (something I have way overcompensated for in adulthood). And generally celebrated birthdays and other gifting events with moderation. But Christmas - that was the time we loosened up and went for broke. And that tradition still stands.

In this next shot we have son Ted on the right sharing the awe with cousin Tristan. They knew they had to suffer through a couple of poses before being allowed to dive into the gifts. They're doing their best to look like kids on the "nice" list.

This pic is of cousin Jennifer, the oldest of sister Wendy's kids, helping Christine with a present. At 16 months, Christine was still trying to figure out what the fuss was all about. 

As the morning unfolded, the occasional controversy cropped up. Judging from the look on Tristan's face, cousin Dee Dee (my brother Jeff's daughter) had invoked seniority with respect to control over the castle set in the foreground. That castle set was one of a few toys that remained at my parents' home. It was always a kid favorite whenever any of the grandchildren visited Grandma and Grandpa. 

 

Here we have Melanie, sister Wendy's second eldest, thrilled with her new mighty big stuffed Mighty Mouse. Almost as big as she.

Finally a shot of sister Cindy enjoying the fun, especially the antics of her several nieces and nephews. 

A few days later we returned to our Dearborn home to relax and enjoy the booty. Our immediate family was small then. And what I remember most about Christmas 1982 was Christine. Observing everything, slowly putting the pieces together, and developing her still evident appreciation of this favorite of holidays and all of its parts. In this shot, here with a new hat, she is learning to ride her little Volkswagon.

This popular toy has survived the test of time. It still hangs in our garage and is ridden up and down our driveway with glee when our grandchildren visit.

Here Christine is exploring the ornaments and the intricate nature of a decorated Christmas tree. Over time she has become quite the enthusiast, often "assisting" Nancy and me with proper light and ornament placement on our own trees. She has also instituted the concept of decorated trees for all holidays and seasons in her own household. She has morphed from a curious newbie to a true decorating pioneer.

And one last shot to wrap up the Christmas of 1982. Christine, kneeling in her new mini-rocker amongst her other newfound possessions, taking it all in - and making mental notes for the future. Even at this early age she was making the old man proud by embracing one of my most firmly held beliefs - pondering makes perfect.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Christmas past as much as I have. Have a joyous and safe holiday season. See you in 2022!

Grosse Pointe Charles

NFTL - RDate 110.29

So, like...where ya' been? Oh, wait. That's your line. Truth is, I took the summer off. Well, not really off. I took the summer off from blogging. I guess that's not really right either. I tried like h-e-double hockey sticks to blog. But kept getting pulled away by more insistent forces. 

First there was an aggressive hosting schedule at the cottage. We'd been shut out from hosting in 2020, except for a little family here and there. And we were anxious to get back into seeing our friends and showing them all the neat improvements we had installed at Wiser Times. But as we're not yet really back into large indoor group gatherings, we spread the fun over several weekends. That meant more company prep and recovery time and more total time in the presence of others. It was great fun having smaller, more intimate groups at the cottage. Nancy and I feel we really caught up with people after the long COVID-driven absences. 

In between hosting gigs I mowed, helped Nancy upgrade the game room at the lake, traveled to Florida to visit my mother, mowed, took a nose dive into a trash barrel, recovered from cracked ribs, chased critters out of the cottage...and mowed. But I mostly remember this.

Before I knew it, it was September and I hadn't posted anything since May. 

So enough whining. Those were all choices that I made. Time to revamp priorities. As I laid out at length in one of my earliest posts, Labor Day Renewal is part of our American culture. But before I proceed with this heavy exercise, I'd like to catch up a little more.

More than a year has passed since my last Notes from the Lab post. And even though the streets, ballparks and restaurants were empty or near empty while we hunkered in our bunkers, stuff did happen. Like the virus-related stuff noted in my January post 2020 - Big Mistake or Bad Idea. But other things happened, too. Things that weren't just about surviving COVID. Good things. Well, mostly. That's where I'm going with this edition of NFTL.

Music Night (8/6/12, Last Updated 5/13/20): In my last update on this subject I explained how our little music club of now over 30 years was planning to go virtual to survive in the world of COVID 19. I and others were concerned that the sometimes tedious nature of mega-zoom calls might not mesh well with the leisurely, open style of our in-person gatherings. That, and would we be able to overcome the technical challenges? 

Well I'm happy to report that everything worked out fine. With strong support in the early days from our tech team, and a couple of adjustments to our methods, we were able to  continue our group activities without skipping a beat, so to speak. This is what our sessions looked like during COVID.

Of course, the pandemic impacted the lives of our group members much as it did everyone else. It was on our minds constantly, as reflected in some of our recent group topics - Social Distancing, Searching, Recovery. All fine collections, and more than a little therapeutic I would say. The move to virtual gatherings also had a silver lining that we didn't anticipate. Increased participation. 

Our group is widely distributed around the tri-county area. Over the years, depending on our venues, it's been difficult to get everyone together. Not so on Zoom. We were very glad to see some of our "outliers" more frequently. And based on the energy often displayed during the Zoom calls, it was apparent that all of our group were very happy for the opportunities to visit with humans outside their immediate households.   

And now I'm happy to report that - in our post-vaccination world - we're expecting to return to live Music Nights with our Christmas edition in December. We're all looking forward to getting our old groove back. Like not having to log in, check our mics, adjust the room lighting and wait our turn to make fun of each other. Exciting. With the Delta variant running rampant these days, nothing is certain. But hope springs eternal.  

Up North (8/15/12, last updated 5/13/20): The big news at our cottage the last year has been the lake itself. It's been busy. Here's a shot of our beach in the summer of 2019. As you can see, even then much of our beach had been reclaimed by the lake since the title picture of this blog was taken circa 2010.

But in 2020, the lake took more. Almost all of it. Here's a shot from August last year.

My poor grandkids had to build their sandcastles on this meager piece of shore. And as you can see in the background, it wasn't only the beach that took the hit. The lawn receded about six feet which was enough to take out two trees. Our beloved twin-trunk "slingshot" tree on the south side, shown above. And my hammock shade tree on the north side, shown below.

They both suffered the usual fate of such disasters, as shown in the following few pics. 

However, the scariest day of the summer of 2020 was when the wind came up suddenly and pushed the already high water up over the berm and flooded the badminton court, also known as our front yard.

At one point we had to put a plank out to get from the deck to the gazebo without wading.

This summer, the lake has been more generous, giving back our beach to about the size of 2019. A far cry from our largest beach, but quite an improvement. Here's a shot of the Kuhlman men enjoying the restored sand castle area.

The other story at the cottage was the retirement of our builder. In past posts you've seen the handiwork of this able craftsman. He built our gazebo -

Designed and built our "barn" -

Rebuilt the floors in the family room and sunporch bedroom - 

And most recently rebuilt the entire front of the cottage including the new deck. 

In summary, Dave the builder has been the key to the restoration and major upgrade projects for our little piece of paradise. Not to mention several other smaller repair and improvement jobs he did for us - new shower, new bathroom flooring, some roof repair and new living room carpeting. We wish Dave a happy retirement, of course. And we will miss his contributions. 

We are also a bit sad about Dave's retirement. Mainly because we have one more big project on our list - remodeling our game room. It needs new flooring, new walls, a new ceiling and maybe even a new door wall and back patio. Pretty major. Aggravating the situation is the fact that other builders are fully booked with work for months due to the post-COVID home renovation boom.

We still plan on finding a new builder eventually, and moving ahead with the reno. But likely not until the industry and the price of building materials return to normal. A year or two maybe. In the interim, we decided to upgrade the game room where we could without reconstruction. Here's what we did.

We started with this.

And went through this.

After ripping out the old carpet, installing a new oversize area rug, replacing the closet doors with drapes, changing out the large window drapes, assembling a new bed headboard, purchasing a new queen bed along with bedding, side tables and lamps, assembling and loading a new "wall of sci-fi/fantasy" shelving unit, upgrading the key table and - trickiest of all - installing wall-to-wall hospital curtains for privacy, we ended up with this. Who needs Dave?

Hell Month (6/29/13, First Update): In this early post I described in detail our family ritual of spending the month of May grooming the house and the yard for the summer. So that we would be motivated to accomplish the necessary tasks, we invited all our friends to a picnic on the first Saturday after Memorial Day. We've done this now for over 30 years. And while we still plan on hosting the picnic as long as we're able (or until someone else takes over the franchise), Hell Month has run its course. 

The most arduous tasks involved with Hell Month was maintaining our backyard deck, where most of the picnic action takes place. Sure, there were other activities, like prepping the lawn, planting flowers, laying in provisions, that sort of thing. But the big nasty was power washing, digging tree droppings out of the crevices and re-staining/refinishing the deck originally installed in 1969. Here's a couple shots of the old deck in its glory days.

A few years ago the deck began to show its age more, so we had the top surface boards replaced in an effort to pretty things up. 

But the weather and the big honkin' maple tree in the middle of the deck took their tolls. The cedar planks weren't spaced correctly, resulting in unwelcome standing water in some spots. And the wood began rotting. Making matters worse, the maple tree began shedding limbs with increasing regularity. So in the spring of 2020 we had the tree removed. All but the last 14 feet of the main trunk and the stump. Couldn't get the equipment necessary to remove those pieces in until the deck itself was removed, which we weren't quite ready to do. 

A couple of months later we decided to move forward. We had the deck and stump removed except for a small section of deck left to facilitate access to our back door. This reduced the back yard to dirt and wood chips.  

Finally, this spring the ground had settled enough for us to replace the deck, but not with another deck. We opted for a patio. Concrete. Durable. Attractive. And very low maintenance. While we were at it, we also replaced the driveway as it was as old and tired as the original deck. Here's the new look of the place. First the new party patio, complete with new planters.

And our new drink patio added at the end of the new driveway.

So without the deck work, Hell Month has officially been retired. And replaced with a little gardening, a little mowing, setting up a few chairs, and a trip to Kroger's. Well, not quite that simple, but pretty close. Beginning of a new era.

Feeling Good (1/30/17, First Update): In the original post I explained how important I think it is to have times where you feel really good. The way I described it was a feeling like "ooh, life is fabulous, can't grin wide enough, please let me do this forever". Since the beginning of the pandemic, it's certainly been more important to generate such feelings, and likely more difficult given the steady diet of horrible, scary news. 

Everyone's first goal, of course, has been to stay safe. That remains paramount. But once you're safe, what do you do? For me and I believe many if not most others, those "feel good" times often involve being with other people. During this period of reduced human contact, alternatives were needed. 

Zoom and other virtual meeting tools have played a huge role in helping us overcome our isolation. But while I like the Zoom experience, it seldom gets me to "ooh, life is fabulous, etc." For that, I turned to old hobbies. You know, those things for which one never seems to find time? For the last 18 months, I had much more time than normal not in the presence of other human beings. So I spent more time on music projects, photo projects, reading, catching up on my "must-see" movie backlog, and at times just sitting quietly contemplating the universe. The latter usually with a cocktail in my hand watching an episode of Ancient Aliens. A lot to think about there.

I've even rebooted my career as a musician. I cracked the case of my nearly 70-year-old 120 bass Scandalli accordion and have been working my way through my old lesson books. This has made my mother - and my grandkids - very happy. 

With my waning fine-motor skills working overtime, I've even starting to wade slowly into the pop music world. At least what I define as pop music ('70s and '80s mostly). It's been invigorating. I'd forgotten the joy of making one's own music.

I won't claim that all of these hobby activities have taken me to new heights of euphoria. But when I reflect on the fact that I've spent much of my forced isolation making progress on goals that have lingered for years, I get to feeling pretty good. 

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Enough catching up for now, so I'll close and move on. And I hope everyone finds ways to "feel good" while staying safe. 

Grosse Pointe Charles