Archive for the ‘Local Personality’ Category
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
 By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” — Theodore Roosevelt
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, a day honoring the American worker can be traced to Sept. 5, 1882, likely the result of a suggestion by one Michael Maguire, a machinist and union secretary of New York City’s Central Labor Union. In 1884, the “workingmen’s holiday” was adjusted to the first Monday in September, and became a national holiday through an Act of Congress in 1894 with public parades, speeches by community leaders and picnics.
Labor has changed in the 21st century, as the United States has shifted from a manufacturing to a service-oriented society, and as some (notably economist Richard Florida) have argued, moving toward a “creative class” that encompasses artists, engineers, thinkers and entrepreneurs of all stripes.
Leelanau’s laborers hold an astonishing range of jobs, determined to make a living in a place of immense natural beauty, but less abundant in year-round, permanent employment. They include workers in tourism, agriculture, the arts, health, education, and the trades. Many are “locals” of long standing, while others have moved here more recently. Most cited family as the most important factor in their work life. All contribute to their communities through the “sweat of their brow,” and not all is paid work. Here are some of their voices:
Tom Shimek, age 61, Farmer, Kasson Twp.
“I grew up here, graduated in ’68 from Glen Lake, and started farming right away. I had a scholarship to play football in college, but a month before I was set to leave, my father Charles — he was a farmer — had a heart attack, a bad one. My brother was already in college. I told my dad I would take care of things.
“In 1973 I married Linda [Stachnik], and we had Amy, T.J. and Liz, three beautiful kids. Linda and I milked cows together for 23 years. We got up every morning by four o’clock. Milking took eight hours a day, from 4 to 8 a.m., then again in the afternoons. The rest of the day was crops; it wasn’t hard to spend 12 hours a day working! It was ’89 or ’90 when we gave [dairy farming] up; I was wore out.”
Their farming operation shifted to raising Holstein steers, which arrive at the farm weighing about 500-700 pounds, and are sold at about 1,700 pounds.
“We feed ‘em hard with haylage (chopped alfalfa). I’m chopping the sweet corn now so none of that goes to waste; we lost, probably, three-fourths of our sweet corn this year — no rain … We planted 18 acres of sweet corn, 209 of field corn, 100 acres of alfalfa, 30 acres of oats for the straw; we sold half the grain, and keep half to feed the steers. It’s not as rich as corn, but still good.
“Dad died in ’75. I’d planned on going into law enforcement. But I have great kids, a great wife; two of my kids were All-American athletes. All the kids did 4-H.”
He looks around the farmyard, ready to head back out to round-bale his alfalfa.
“Farming — I’m self-taught, a jack of all trades: mechanic, welder, fabricator,” veterinarian and nutritionist, as well as father and husband.
He laughs. “I’ve slowed down some; some days I take an hour of ‘speed nap.’ I’m usually up by quarter to five listening to the weather, out feeding cattle by 6 o’clock, usually through feeding about 7:30. And again at night. Currently we have about 200 steers.”
He’s proud of the values instilled in his three children, who have returned to live in the county. “I give all the kids five acres; they all live on the farm, they all pitch in and help. It’s harder for T.J. — he works off the farm,” a VP of sales at Britten Banner, which markets events products nationally. Linda too works off-site, most recently as financial assistant for a doctor in Interlochen, but she labors on the farm as well.
“When the doc took his week off a while back, she was here, picking sweet corn,” her husband says.
He thinks about retiring. “I want to, maybe this fall, but don’t know if we can do that. I’ll be 62 this fall. It’s pretty hard for a young one to make a living at this — a lot of hours. They don’t understand. They grew up with the farm, but they haven’t lived the work.
“Still,” he adds, “they know much more than a city kid. And it’s still one of the greatest places to live.”
 Sean Barr, 50, Bar Tender, Empire.
“I’ve been at Art’s Tavern for about 20 years, mostly bar tending. I work the day shift. I’ve worked over at the Friendly in Empire, worked with both my brothers Tim and Sam there [Tim and wife Bonnie Nescot own Art’s]. My dad was the superintendent of Glen Lake School, and taught too, until he retired, about 1974-75. I lived in the Thumb area for awhile in high school, and worked at a state park there a couple of summers in the early ‘80s, until the state put on a hiring freeze.”
He and his wife Janice, a Cedar native, have four children ranging in age from 32 to 16. “This is it,” he says, “my work. I used to cut wood, did construction. In winter, I do maintenance here two or three days a week: plumbing, electrical, you name it. I’m the one that decorates this place and puts up all the lights,” at holidays.
“It allows me to live around here,” he explains. “I work five days, get my two days off. I try to forget about work when I’m done. I like to play golf, mushroom hunt — about the only time I get out in the woods. Summer’s kind of a drag; it’s busy all the time.”
At this point, retiring is a distant thought.”1961, [near] the end of the Baby Boomers, had the most births recorded, I hear. Social Security — it is called insurance, earmarked for people as subsistence. Anything based on the future is just foolish. I don’t worry about that just yet. It’s 15 years away, at least. I try not to worry about too much of anything — I’ve got enough gray hair as it is!”
Maggie MacLellan, 23, Waitress, Empire Twp.
“This is my fourth summer working at Art’s. It’s a good place to make money, laid back, good people. I’ve worked a lot; it’s not corporate, like some I’ve been in. I’m here through the fall. I went to Glen Lake. I live up here spring through fall; in winters, I move away — a different place each year. This past winter, I was in Austin. I’ve lived in Colorado, New Mexico, Florida too.”
She moves away; it’s the end of another long summer day shift.
 Sara Kellogg-Wikle, 41, House Cleaner, Maple City.
“I feel like a million years old!” she hits the punch line. It’s the beginning of another workday, seven days a week in the summer months. Five-year-old Maret rests on her hip, and she’s already driven her two older children to their jobs in Cedar and Glen Arbor.
“I’ve been cleaning houses for about 15 years. I’m originally a Howard, from Northport. I started working when I was about 12; my mom worked at the Bluebird in Leland as a cook, so I guess I was ‘under the table’ then. Most of my life, I’ve worked two jobs, so by the time you’re 25, you’re worn out. It’s stressful but develops a work ethic.
“I started cleaning through my brother. Later, I put a couple of ads in the paper, and I was swamped. I clean about six hours a day, max. Saturdays, I have weekly changeovers. In the winter, I clean about three days a week. I’ve also worked at the Hayloft, Western Avenue Grill … Cleaning is nice because it affords me to be where I need to be, for the kids.”
“I went to (Central Michigan University) CMU for a couple-three semesters, but I was too attached to my mom and dad,” she laughs. “I married at 20 years old, too young. Try to go to school and work at the same time? Too hard!”
She sits for a moment with her child. “Retire? My chaotic life — never! Sometimes I just surrender and nothing gets done. If I didn’t have to work, I’d clean my house. I would be surprised [if Social Security was around] — or it wouldn’t be much. I haven’t got that far yet, it takes some planning. My husband and I are working on a new business right now that would help with retirement.
“If not working, I’d be sleeping!” she jokes. “And spending time with my kids. I do a lot with my church, Immanuel Lutheran in Leland: planning committee, secretary, youth board chair. All volunteer jobs. I also clean there!
“I have huge amounts of family here, I’m probably related to about 90 percent of the ‘locals’ in the county: Garthes, Steffens, just for starters. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, with the support system here.”
Doug Hart, 49, Duck to Swan Art Gallery Co-owner, Cedar.
“Michelle [Hart Jahraus] and I opened Duck to Swan Gallery a little over five years ago. Liz Saile was already here with her jewelry, and there was a little antique shop. We did a consignment thing [of Michelle’s landscape paintings] and it just took off. The gallery is a lot of fun! This year, through word of mouth and repeat business, we’ve had a phenomenal year.
“We also have a vacation rental: Stonebanx, and a day-trip business. We plug into this whole tourism thing, that’s what drives everything. We love it, absolutely love it!
“We met eight years ago; she did decorative murals in high-end homes,” while raising six children as a single parent.
“We’ve both got deep roots here; we found out that our great-great grandparents, the Rineharts and the Thurtells, both homesteaded about three miles from each other,” where Pollack Lake lies, off M-72 in Kasson Twp. Doug grew up in Traverse City, and was a heating and air conditioning salesman and designer for about 20 years.
“I did distribution of products, driving long hours, lots of miles. In 2005, after a serious car accident … I did not want to get into a car and drive 10 counties again! The plumbing and heating thing was a means to a paycheck. When you wake up every Monday morning with a stomach ache … I was dreading going back to that. Michelle wanted to do more fine art — she’s on the cover of this year’s Manitou magazine. We both took a huge leap of faith.”
He concludes, “I’m not making all the money I made, but we’re learning. We look at it as, ‘God is going to surprise us,” and we’re looking forward to that surprise!”
Dorothy Barker, 70s, Educator (retired), Empire Twp.
“We had a vacation home and moved up here. I do a lot of volunteer work, for the Leelanau Democratic Party, the Glen Lake Library, others.” She is standing outside Deering’s Market in Empire, inviting customers to donate to the Empire Area Food Pantry.
“I was a public school speech therapist in … Ohio and Pennsylvania, would often cover several schools in large school districts. Speech defects were … sometimes physically based, but often developmentally based. [Then] I stayed home with my children. Downstate, I did academic advising in the department of psychology, and later, alumni fundraising. That [work resulted from] going back and seeing what I could do with skills I had. I was always interested in young people.”
Between shoppers coming and going, she reflects briefly on her life as a busy retiree, “Volunteering — how did we have time for work!”
 Lance Roman, 59, Computer Engineer, and Dana Roman, 50,
Deputy Clerk and Election Chairman, Glen Arbor Twp.
“I always wanted to build things. I was playing with my Erector set, couldn’t have been more than seven years old. Someone said I could be an engineer. I said, “I don’t wanna be a choo-choo train driver!’ My dad went out to the garage, got me a bucket of nuts and bolts. He was the dentist in Empire.”
He is full of zest while on his family deck with his wife, and good friend Mike Deering, Dana’s first cousin. About work, he quips, “If you don’t get up in the morning, you’re probably dead!”
Dana Pendleton Roman was an engineering arts major. “I was a programmer for 20 years, mostly COBOL and BASIC — who ever hears of those anymore! After I got established, I could do it from home.” Several years ago, she became the deputy clerk of Glen Arbor Twp, as well as its election chair.
“It’s always a constant influx of people — I get to work with a good bunch — it’s easy to work with my township board. I like what I do. I’m very lucky to be able to have part-time jobs that allow me to work and raise three kids. It’s the perfect ratio of fun and work. I’ll never retire!”
Son Marek and daughter Mackenzie are following the “family business” as engineers, while Mitchell is in human resources. The couple has worked hard to instill their sense of values into their kids.
Lance says, “They’re sharp, they have a good work ethic, they’ll be able to cope. They’re doing what they want to do, and they’ll make it.”
Mike Deering, 50s, Service Technician, Traverse City.
“I’m a laser printer technician, on the road a lot in northern Michigan. I have fun, I enjoy my work. It’s another facet of life’s journey. I was a plant manager for 10 years; before that, I worked in the plant as a general laborer. I’ve done all kinds of work! My father, Mark Deering, Sr, is 95. He works six days a week, about four hours a day, at Deering’s Market. He takes Sundays off, that’s all. His dad worked as a butcher.
“My dad said, ‘If you don’t get up and use it, you’ll lose it!’ He’s the last of his siblings; they were all long-lived. I guess I’ll be living into my 90s, too; I’ll have to follow his example! I have no desire to retire; I always want to keep busy, have a new adventure every day.”
This GlenArbor.com exclusive was sponsored by the Martin Company, which is on top of the changing local real estate scene.
Posted in Business Feature, Local Personality | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
 By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
Back in Empire for a recap of another successful mission, Endeavour shuttle pilot Greg Johnson oooed and awed his audience at the township hall on Aug. 19 with new photos and a video from his STS-134 mission in May to the International Space Station (ISS).
Endeavour, the newest of the space shuttles, flew 25 missions and 122 million miles before being retired in June by NASA, which closed the door on the shuttle program after a total of 135 missions to the ISS. (Atlantis, which launched in June, was the last shuttle to dock with the space station.)
Johnson said he had the privilege of flying on two of Endeavour’s shuttle missions: STS-123, his first mission, and STS-134, the last mission for both Johnson and Endeavour.
“I was really happy to get a second crack at it,” he remarked.
Space shuttles have acted as trucks, transporting both humans and cargo — such as food, equipment and scientific experiments — in their bus-sized bays to the ISS. Russia’s successful Soyuz rocket program continues to bring astronauts of all nationalities to the ISS, but the Soyuz’s capsules are small, leaving no room for large cargo. Johnson said the space program is still vibrant and four contractors were competing to design the next U.S. spacecraft which will take passengers into space from here. Whatever the new spacecraft’s capacity, from four persons to eight, it will probably be more like a mini van, he said, designed to do one job instead of two. (The Falcon 9 rocket developed by SpaceX proposes to send humans to the ISS via its Dragon spacecraft and deliver cargo via the rocket’s second stage nine days later, pending NASA’s risk assessment. A Nov. 30 launch date is planned.)
“As a shuttle pilot, you know, I’ve got my resume in at Wal-Mart,” he quipped, not sharing what might be next for him in his NASA career.
The STS-134 difference
Johnson said his last mission proved more stressful, and the entire crew was affected, as a result of the tragic January shooting of Commander Mark Kelly’s wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). He added that he “took on a stronger role as a pilot” and another person was groomed to be the commander, in the event Kelly couldn’t be there.
Everyone on the STS-134 mission was a space veteran, Johnson explained, and added that astronaut Mike Fincke logged a total of 382 days in space. Though he had experienced one other shuttle launch (at night), Johnson said he was “surprised” by the vibration, sound and light surrounding the May 16 event. He attributed the difference to the contrast of seeing the sun rise and watching ships out the shuttle’s window, a calm scene before the sensory storm.
On the shuttle’s approach to the football field-sized space station, Johnson enthused it was “like Luke Skywalker on the Death Star.”
He shared some highlights of his second mission, with the help of a NASA video. As the lead robotic arm operator, Johnson helped position the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion cosmic particle detector which measures anti-matter, dark matter and dark energy — helping scientists uncover the origins of the Universe. Endeavour’s crew also brought a full payload to resupply the ISS and complete its construction with the ELC 3, including a robotic arm extension for “Mr. Dextre,” the space station’s grappling tool. On board the ISS, he met Russian Col. Dmitry Kondratyev, who flew “enemy” MiG-29s Johnson had studied as part of his F-15 fighter pilot training. He and the rest of the ISS crew (including two Italians) greeted the Pope in a live broadcast.
His day-to-day duties included “making food for the guys and (taking) a lot of pictures.” Johnson marveled at a photograph taken by European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who captured the only image of the 200-foot space shuttle attached to the ISS. The picture was taken as the Soyuz, with Nespoli aboard, maneuvered away from the station.
Johnson and others on the ISS took turns with the video camera.
“I love watching this,” he said. “It’s like watching a movie from your vacation.”
Filmed first were the astronauts performing various duties but, as Johnson shared, there was also time for serious fun. They tucked themselves into balls for somersaults, ate floating M&Ms and shot their bodies horizontally through the station’s passages. Asked by an 8-year-old in the audience how it felt to be a surfboard, Johnson chuckled and replied: “It feels good to be the best surfboard … Whatever you’re doing, you just want to do it well.”
He said he also recalled some physics’ lessons from school, such as what happens when a 200-pound guy crashes into a 100-pound gal. In this case, the gal was U.S. flight engineer Catherine (Cady) Coleman, aboard the ISS via an earlier Soyuz flight.
“She’ll go twice as far,” he said, laughing at the memory. “It’s really neat to see how high school physics really works.”
His biggest surprise this time, he said, was the discovery of the Cupola (Italian for “dome”) module and its seven windows. Of all of the cost-cutting measures NASA might have taken, Johnson said he thought the Cupola would have been among them, since it seemed to serve the least useful purpose. The largest window was “like a glass bottom boat,” that offered a porthole to Earth and the stars, and a way for the astronauts to see their progress with the robotic arm. “These magnificent windows,” as he called them, offered “absolutely beautiful” views which added value to the station, something he said he should have realized since his sister, Robin, is an architect.
There was one other difference for Johnson on this, his final visit to the ISS. At the conclusion of STS-123, he remembered being ready to go home. This time, he said he had a sadder feeling when he left.
“I would have stayed a few months if it was offered,” he said.
He sounded a bit wistful when he replied to a boy’s question about the number of astronauts needed in the future. Johnson said he thinks there will be a lot more astronauts when the boy is Johnson’s age (49), and that planetary exploration will probably happen during the boy’s lifetime, but not his.
Asked what the future holds for the space station, Johnson said something that, owing to a number of gasps, surprised some of his audience: the space station has been “already up there for 12 years” and is expected to be in operation for another 10 years.
“But maybe they’ll say another 5 when 10 comes around,” he said, smiling.
Tags: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, Atlantis, Empire Michigan, Endeavour, Gabrielle Giffords, Greg Johnson, International Space Station, Luke Skywalker, Mark Kelly, Mr. Dextre, NASA, Paolo Nespoli, space shuttle, SpaceX, STS-123, STS-134
Posted in Investigative Article, Local Personality | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
 By Georgia Gietzen
Sun contributor
We’ve now owned Northwoods Hardware for 13 months, and in that time we’ve come to realize just how significant our moose is to our customers. Dee and I originally thought after closing on the purchase last July that we’d remove him, as neither of our families are hunters and we felt “bad” about the moose. But we soon realized in casual discussion that we would have many unhappy customers, and that kids “like” our moose.
Dee and I started looking at him differently. He’s enormous. He must have been a bull (we don’t know for sure but imagine the moose must have been a “he” because of his size) and he’s very regal in appearance. If we stand close he looks like he’s smiling at us. We were becoming “fond” of him. So, this winter when we remodeled our front end and painted the walls a bright sunny yellow we carefully took him down from his previous spot where he overlooked the large desk area, had a taxidermist come in to clean him, and decided to “relocate” him to a position of prominence near the front door. Now when people left Northwoods, he is there to say “goodbye” and “thanks for your business”. He looks quite handsome in his new location on our bright yellow wall.
Dee and I decided he needed a name. You always name something that you’ve become attached to. After all, we don’t call our dogs “dog” or our cats “cat”. And we didn’t want to continue to call him “moose”. So we decided to have a “name the moose contest” and let our customers choose the name.
We had over 80 names to choose from. The names came via our Facebook page, in person and by mail. We put all the names on a list and had our crew of 10 write down their top five picks. We then put those names on a list and whittled the names down to about 20. We looked at those names and there was one name that was on almost everyone’s list. And we loved it.
Of course our ownership team of four all grew up to the cartoon antics of Rocky and Bullwinkle — the moose we all remember most growing up. Very clever of Norm Wheeler to also think of Bullwinkle but substitute “Glen” for “Bull”. Henceforth the name “Glenwinkle”. It’s a happy name. It does our big moose justice. It’s got a “local” connection. It brings back happy memories of another moose and another time. And most importantly … it’s fun to say. We thank Norm and everyone else who submitted names. By the way, someone did submit the name “Norman”.
Tags: bullwinkle, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, glenwinkle, Norm Wheeler, Northwoods Hardware
Posted in Business Feature, Local Personality | No Comments »
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
By Elizabeth Westie
Dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth’s Aunt Helen Westie Wetterholt, a frequent contributor to the Glen Arbor Sun, and an Empire mainstay who passed away in May, at 93 years old. Read her obituary below.
Things in Empire mostly stay the same. It is one of life’s true miracles, and a gift to us each summer. Sophie the dog and I have just taken our morning walk. We stopped at Deering’s (Sophie tied to the post near the public water fountain) and I bought Norconk asparagus and dogfood. A fancy Traverse City restaurant where I dined last night featured “Norconk asparagus” on the menu, as though it were a well-known delicacy. It’s well known here in Empire!)
We greeted Phil and chatted with the friendly cashiers. A pair of orioles is nesting in the big tree next to the Weese’s garden, which is in full glory. We miss the moonflower in Alice Diggins’ garden, but she had a lovely show of lily-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots earlier this summer. Their scent was on the breeze, along with the wild phlox. We walked up and down the tree-shaded streets and friendly alleys where one sees evidence of people’s less public lives. We passed the village offices where Jack’s barbershop (former headquarters of the Dirty Old Men’s Club) once stood. We passed into a reverie about Bolton’s general store, where we once bought candy, balsa wood airplanes, overalls, bandannas and fabric for summer sewing projects. And the library, remembering the bookmobile that used to park on Front Street once a week. Fun as that was, the library is a distinct improvement, with its fine collection of books and dvds, and its excellent staff.
We passed by Holly’s lovely garden, where Mr. Fradd once had a sign inviting us to “Walk In,” and marvel at what a great job she’s done with the place. Sophie smelled many a spot where deer had left their scent. Back at home, we admire Marie’s uniforms hanging on the line, and note that Bob has mowed more than his share of the lawn, as usual. It isn’t necessary to pass a line-drying ordinance here in Empire. Later, I did my banking and heard the day’s news. ( Last spring Jennifer sent me a friendly note warning me that my account was about to become dormant, but that she could withdraw a dollar and deposit a dollar to reinstate it. Now that’s real “community banking!”)
We return to Empire each summer to fill up our tank for another year “away”, and dream of the day when we will not have to leave. Some of us figure out a way to stay forever. On the wall of the red house on Niagara Street is a quote from E. B. White, “Every day was a perfect day and every night was peaceful.” It perfectly expresses our days in Empire. We wake to the sounds of birdsong and check to see if it’s an “Empire Day,” when the sky is that perfect Empire Blue. We inhale the crisp air and listen for the lake. We go to bed after viewing the sunset over the lake and sharing conversation with our neighbors and other members of the Sunset Club, known and unknown. We go to bed by starlight, seeing the Milky Way, which is nearly imperceptible in much of the modern world. We whisper a prayer of thanks to those who worked to dim the streetlights.
Our hearts are filled with gratitude to the Taghons and the Deerings and the Oberschultes and the Weese’s and many others, old- time families and newer residents who “get it” (and who will forgive me for not listing their names!) for maintaining this little hamlet in such fine style and with such love, energy and hard work! We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never repay.
My father said it best in a poem entitled “Hey Kim” written in about 1974.
Hey Kim –
Why did you come here to Empire?
Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it doesn’t
exist? We made it all up!
We invented it to “run away from all
the sorry scheme of things entire.”
So we got a lot of sand and green things,
and flowers and a lot of water and
branch-holding tree limbs and some
beautiful persons like tom and florence
and the millers and chapmans and jasons
and deerings, and little dirk barr and
big brother tim, and we put them all together
with glue and papier mache, and we
brought in cape may warblers and robins
and cardinals to sing, and hung the sun
and quite a lot of stars and moonbeams.
It really is not what it seems when we
wait for spring to come here.
We wanted to “mold the world much
closer to heart’s desire.”
Somebody should have told you
about this before.
Of course I was here!
You looked in all the wrong places.
I was the needle in the needing haystack
needing to be found. I was reading a
book called “Some Other Day”
I was up on the bluffs in the old orchard
eating the plums
swimming at cripple creek and lying on the sunsand
and chasing rout at the iron bridge
on the Platte where it’s at.
Waliking toward the sleeping bear and skipping flat stones at the shore
and much more.
I was here – I saw you once or twice.
Didn’t you see where my eye’s wings
Carried me ‘round the full moon?
I guess this was tonight – Time and Place
I’m not very good at.
I have a lovely hat.
I thought you saw me on the back
Of the loon diving for fish, I don’t much
like it raw,
and sailing around with the swans
Didn’t I go that night as a gull
to fly toward the sunset?
Most of the time I was in the old
two holer next to the barn, shitting the real word
in the place where it belongs.
Helen Westie obituary
TRAVERSE CITY — Helen Westie Wetterholt , 93, died peacefully in Traverse City on Monday, May 9. A longtime resident of Empire and the Leelanau Peninsula, Helen was born at home in Dodgeville on Feb. 5, 1918, to Hjalmar Ojala Westie and Anna Sandell Westie.
Helen spent her childhood in Dearborn and Rapid City and picked cherries during the depression on the Old Mission Peninsula. She was part of a large Finnish family and took great pride in her Finnish heritage.
Helen was a 1936 graduate of Fordson High School in Dearborn. Helen went on to attend the University of Michigan from 1936 to 1940 and received a teaching certificate.
She married her husband, George J. Wetterholt, in 1943 in Dearborn.
Helen was a beloved English teacher in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She especially enjoyed teaching 7th grade at Friends’ Central School in Philadelphia. Later, she had a catering business in California and was for years a housemother for the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority at the University of Florida.
It was during her teaching at Friends’ Central School that she developed her Quaker beliefs and spirituality. She regularly attended Quaker meetings in Gainesville, Fla.
She was passionate about literature, music and the arts. She was often quoting poetry, attending classical music events in Philadelphia, Interlochen, Gainesville and Traverse City, or writing. Though a teacher, she was a journalist at heart. In retirement, Helen was a contributor to the Glen Arbor Sun, giving vivid accounts of living Up North in northwestern Michigan. She also published a memoir and collection of stories titled ‘Put Me in the Kip’.
Helen loved languages and traveled the world with George and later with her many friends, nieces and granddaughters. She is fondly remembered as The Bumblebee because of her frequent travels in the United States and abroad. Helen never knew a stranger and thus easily made friends worldwide, especially in Europe. Her writing talent made her an avid letter writer, corresponding with family and overseas pen pals.
She spent her retirement years in Empire near her beloved brothers, Charles and Frank Westie, and their families, while wintering in Gainesville, Fla. More recently, Helen lived at Glen Eagle Retirement home in Traverse City. Fittingly, her passing occurred while the trilliums were in bloom, her favorite Michigan season.
Helen is survived by her son, Dr. David (Annick Cristin) Wetterholt, of Saratoga, Calif.; her daughter-in-law, Sherrie Wetterholt, of Bloomington, Ind.; two granddaughters, Kirstin (Michael) Maxwell, of Martinsville, Ind., and Laura Wetterholt, of Barcelona, Spain; and a great-granddaughter, Isabel Maxwell, of Martinsville.
Local and remote survivors include her sisters-in-law, Ardith Westie, of Traverse City, and Margaret Westie, of Glen Arbor and Naples, Fla.; nieces, Katharine Westie, of Coral Gables, Fla., and Glen Arbor, Anne Wiesen, of Glen Arbor, Judith Weaver, of Traverse City, Susan Westie Hilton, of Empire and Traverse City, Elizabeth Westie Brattin, of Worcester, Mass., and Bonnie MacDonald, of Phoenix and Empire; and nephews, Kurt Westie, of Empire, John Westie, of Jericho, Vt., and Daniel MacDonald, of Phoenix.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Hjalmar and Anna; her ex-husband, George Wetterholt; her son, Stuart Wetterholt; and her two brothers, Charles M. Westie, Ph.D., and Frank R. Westie, Ph.D.
A celebration of her life was held on July 17 at Empire Town Hall.
Tags: Empire Michigan, Helen Westie, Norconk asparagus
Posted in Local Personality, Poetry/Essay | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
 By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them to discover it within themselves.”
– Galileo Galilei, the “Father of Modern Science and Observational Astronomy”
It’s almost 10 p.m. and the hottest July 20th on record here since 1977. Undaunted, humans are thicker than mosquitoes on the deck above the beach at The Leelanau School’s C.H. Lanphier Observatory.
There’s a cooling breeze from Lake Michigan, the haze has cleared, and the first night-sky objects are visible to the naked eye: bright star Spica and dimmer planet Saturn in the west-southwest, yellow star Arcturus in the west.
“Don’t grab the telescope; keep your hands on the ladder!” booms Norm Wheeler, the observatory’s director, as he opens the door and beckons people inside and up the ladder to the telescope’s dome.
One by one, 19 curious onlookers climb the wooden rungs and form a circle around the dome’s perimeter. When everyone is in, Wheeler drops the trapdoor and cuts off any means of escape.
It’s a captive audience, regardless.
All eyes are fixed on the 13” Schmidt-Cassegrain at the dome’s center and on Wheeler as he takes a momentary seat in the glow of his laptop’s monitor. He spins the dome until a vertical opening in the roof (the shutter) is perfectly aligned with the first heavenly body on the night’s viewing schedule: the planet Saturn. Next, he punches coordinates into the Sky 6 program on his computer and the telescope whirs into position. Modem-like noises fill the darkness and bring to mind giant radio telescopes featured in the 1997 movie “Contact.”
Wheeler shares that Saturn, named after the Roman god of “farming,” is 900 million miles away. There are a couple of gasps from his listeners as he explains that light from the second-largest planet in our solar system takes 1.5 hours to reach Earth — or 90 light minutes.
“You’re looking into the past,” he says. “It’s old light.”
The astronomer answers a couple of questions before using a joystick to fine-tune the telescope’s aim. He tells them that Saturn’s rings are almost edge-on, but at other times the rings are tilted toward Earth. He invites them to take their turn at the eyepiece.
“That’s cool!”
“Pretty neat!”
When everyone has viewed the gaseous planet, Wheeler moves the dome and adjusts the telescope to view Alberio, a double star in the Cygnus or swan constellation. He points toward the shutter, to an iridium satellite glowing blue as it travels south across the sky. Necks crane to catch a glimpse (and a breeze) from the dome’s narrow slit.
A single word is shouted as a younger member of the audience sees the double star for the first time through the telescope.
“Epic!” the boy blurts, as Wheeler reminds his listeners that, while Saturn is 90 light minutes from Earth, Alberio is 380 or so light years away.
The Ring Nebula is next (4,100 light years’ distant), followed by the Great Globular Cluster of Hercules — 300,000 stars approximately 25,100 light years away.
The telescopic presentation is over and Wheeler answers questions about the telescope. (Read Wheeler’s 2003 Glen Arbor Sun story about the Lanphier Observatory). Everyone then descends the ladder and joins 25 or more newcomers on the deck for an eyeball survey of the brightest objects and many of the constellations. Afterward, the new arrivals follow Wheeler inside as the first group departs. As they leave, their bodies are swallowed by night, but their minds, filled with star stuff, are lighting new paths in the darkness.
Q&A with Norm Wheeler
Are you a volunteer?
I get paid a stipend for running the Observatory open house two nights per week each summer. That was part of the agreement when Charles Lanphier donated the facility to The Leelanau School: Public education in astronomy.
In your experience, what brings out the most folks?
Great views of planets that are publicized in the mainstream media bring out the most viewers. Several years ago Mars was at a close approach to Earth, and we had lines of people down the boardwalk waiting to get into the dome.
Who visits the observatory?
Our audience is families, many kids, people from The Homestead who walk down the beach, but also people who drive a long ways to look through a telescope on a nice summer night.
What questions are asked most frequently?
Most frequent questions: What is the power of the telescope? How does the telescope work? Is that really Saturn, or do you have a cool slide hidden in here? What is the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen through this telescope? (To that I always answer with another question: You mean on the beach, or in the sky?)
What questions are your favorites?
My favorites are the questions that follow from the discussion about how looking through space means looking backwards in time. Also, the exclamations of disbelief and awe never get old.
Over the years, has your audience seemed more or less savvy about astronomy/space?
Many of the young people continue to be well educated and curious regarding topics in Astronomy, just like always.
What one thing would you like them to learn about the night sky?
I guess, as an astronomer, you want people to feel a sense of wonder and curiosity so that they will pay more attention to the night sky and want to learn more about it, including the names of the constellations, what meteors are, why the moon goes through phases and what they are, etc.
Most memorable viewing event(s) at the observatory?
Comets Hale-Bopp and Hayakutake during back-to-back years were memorable viewings. Showing the students partial solar eclipses during mid-day is always a hoot.
How long have you had the computer software?
This is the third summer with the computer software that points the telescope. I have seen many things with this new mount I had never found aiming the scope manually.
Are there any upcoming celestial events that folks might want to observe there?
The Perseid Meteor Shower around Aug. 12 is always a highlight for us at the Observatory, because you have to watch the whole sky to see them.
Can folks rent the observatory and you for a private showing/party?
I am happy to meet groups for viewing. We just work out a fee and have a back-up night in case it’s cloudy on the first night we planned to meet. The fee is usually about the same as during the summer: $3 for adults, $2 for students, little kids free.
If skies are clear, the observatory is open Wed. and Thurs., 10 p.m. to midnight, June 22-Aug. 25. Follow the boardwalk behind The Leelanau School’s Student Center to the beach. Call (231) 334-5890 for more information.
Tags: astronomy, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, Lake Michigan, Lanphier Observatory, Leelanau County, Leelanau School, Norm Wheeler, Perseid Meteor Shower
Posted in Local Personality, Upcoming Event | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
 By Kate McCarty
Sun contributor
Cameron Kerr looks like any other 20-something: jeans, billabong t-shirt, baseball cap and reef sandals. His friends know him as “Cam,” the go-to guy when you need something, the guy always willing to provide “live entertainment” at your bonfire. What many people don’t know about him when they see or meet him is that he’s actually a trained airplane pilot, who has studied on two continents.
Cameron spent his childhood in Perth, Western Australia. Upon a second look, you notice his tan face, blue eyes, and wide, easy smile and think, “I can see him being an Aussie!” When Cameron was finishing high school at All Saints College in Perth, he told his parents that he wanted to be a pilot. They were surprised by this, considering Cameron had often suffered from motion sickness, not something most pilots could have and be able to fly an airplane. This setback didn’t stop Cameron, who got his private pilot’s license in 2003 from the Royale Aero Club of Western Australia, just south of Perth. It was here that he found his life’s passion.
Some might wonder how a young, Australian pilot ended up in Glen Arbor. During high school, he met a Canadian student named Ashley Rouse. Rouse urged Cameron to visit him in North America. During a break from school, he spent a month with Ashley’s family in Ontario. An avid hockey player, Cameron enjoyed the north and even learned to snowboard. A few years later, he decided to look into work-study programs in the United States. He found one that brought him to The Homestead Resort, where he operated a ski lift. While in this country, he discovered that Traverse City had a flight school at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). Having already completed his private pilot’s license, he decided that he’d urge his parents to let him attend NMC for just one year.
“I told my parents that this would give me experience flying in a different environment,” he says with a laugh. “It’s always hot and sunny in Perth. I argued that flying in Michigan would give me the chance to fly in weather that I hadn’t before.” Reluctantly, Cameron’s parents said they would support him as he traveled across the world again, this time with the dream of continuing his flight education. Cameron’s home university, Edith Cowan, allowed for his credits to transfer. While he flew in Traverse City, he would also be completing courses for his Bachelor of Science [Aviaton] degree.
“I ended up being here for more than a year,” Cameron says, flashing that wide smile. “I fell in love with Glen Arbor, and made great friends here. I found this place to be my home, and I loved flying here.”
While studying in the United States, Cameron completed his Instrument rating, Commercial Pilot’s license, Multi-Engine rating, and Sea Plane rating. On September 25, 2010, Cameron and I were married. I am a Glen Arbor native, and we met while I was waitressing tables at the Western Avenue Grill during college. We returned to Perth in December 2010 and on January 2, 2011, we had a reaffirmation wedding at the Royale Aero Club where Cameron first learned to fly.
However, his passion for flight took hold upon our return and in April of this year, he completed his CFI Rating (Certified Flight Instructor), a rating that required a 4+ hour written and oral exam, followed by a 3+ hour in-flight exam. Cameron studied for more than six months to complete lesson plans and fly with an instructor to accurately master teaching, a skill he found difficult having been in the other seat for most of his education.
“It’s weird to be on the other side. I had been the one receiving the lessons for so long. Trying to teach them from the other side takes a whole different knowledge set … you have to re-learn things,” Cameron says of his experience working toward the CFI Rating.
Though not currently employed as a pilot, Cameron Kerr is hoping to obtain a position as a flight instructor at Northwestern Michigan College, where he has done much of his training, or at another flight school or company in Northern Michigan.
Tags: Cameron Kerr, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, Northern Michigan College, Perth Australia, Royale Aero Club, Western Avenue Grill
Posted in Local Personality | No Comments »
Monday, August 1st, 2011
 By Barbara Kelly
Sun contributor
All the hot weather we’ve had led me to re-read the 19th century Boizard letters written during the winter time in Glen Arbor. Exploring how some early white settlers got through the cold, snowy winters here offered an instructive perspective on the heat. I also wanted to continue to mine the letters for references to the Civil War, as the Boizard letters offer many informative first-hand descriptions. How did people deal with Glen Arbor winters in the 1860s? What was it like to be without a steady source of affordable groceries and supplies for up to half a year, particularly when it was bitterly cold with high snow? Is this how the phrase, “cabin fever” came to be?
I focused on the letters from the winter months of the 1860s that J. Oliver Boizard, Eleanor Boizard and their daughter, Marietta, wrote back and forth while Oliver was stationed in Chicago and Eleanor and Marietta were settling into Glen Arbor. These letters were kept, treasured and preserved by the Boizard family and their descendants, and then much later found and published. The Boizard letters offer a unique window into life in early Glen Arbor. At the same time, these letters open out to the larger world, including national events of the period. As we mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War we are very fortunate that the Boizard letters begin in the run-up to the war and continue through the 1870s, with many references to the war as well as to the quality of life in Glen Arbor soon after the town was established in 1856.
I began with the letters from November 1864, which was Eleanor and Marietta’s first winter in Glen Arbor. Eleanor was 36 years old at the time and Marietta was 12. In a letter dated November 11, just after she told her dad, “don’t be frightened because we [ask] for so much as we can’t get anything more until the first of May [six months later],” Marietta wrote, “Now for the village news. They have been drafting. Dorsey is drafted and Parker and I don’t know how many more. They have to go to Traverse [City] on the 16th.” According to the Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War, “Under the Union draft act men faced the possibility of conscription in July 1863 and in March, July, and December, 1864.” It is probable that these Glen Arbor men, who were being drafted in November, as reported by Marietta Boizard, may have been included in that December, 1864 conscription.
As winters go in Glen Arbor, the winter of 1864-65 apparently was a mild one. On Dec. 14, 1864, reporting on their new house in the woods, Marietta Boizard wrote to her father: “Dear Papa, There is about one foot of snow. You asked if the snow blew in the house. It don’t and the house is quite comfortable considering as there is no carpet on the floor.” A few months later, on Feb. 2, 1865, she wrote, “I go to school and the weather is very mild.” That same week in February 1865, Oliver vividly wrote to his wife about the possible end of the war, which finally came about two months later with General Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865. Oliver wrote, “There are negotiations now for peace and it is hoped that it will be satisfactory. General Sherman is moving on to Charleston, S.C., and likely there will be heavy fighting in the course of [the next] two weeks. General Lee is still [in] Richmond and Grant is watching him.”
The next mention in a Boizard letter to national events is not to the surrender of Lee’s army to Ulysses Grant but to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, which occurred a mere five days after Confederacy surrender. Great Lakes shipping had just opened again after the winter and Oliver Boizard included a letter to his wife, dated April 16, 1865, along with much needed supplies of flour and a large box of groceries, all taken by boat to one of the Glen Arbor docks. He called the news of the assassination “deplorable,” and informed Eleanor that “the whole country is placed in Solemnity.” All the buildings in Chicago were “decorated in black crepe.”
Their next winter — that of 1865-66 — was much rougher than the previous one and the Glen Arbor Boizards often expressed their intense loneliness to Oliver. On Dec. 29, 1865, Eleanor and Marietta wrote, “We never spent such a poor Christmas as this Christmas was.” Toward the end of the next month, on Jan. 26, 1866, Marietta told her dad, “The weather is very cold and the snow is so deep it covers a barrel standing on end. It is very lonesome here. I have not been out since New Years’ and I hardly ever see anyone this winter.” By the next March (1866), they wrote again, “It is dreadfully lonesome. If it were not for a party occasionally we would not know what to do.”
Perhaps all this isolation and loneliness took their toll. Eleanor and Marietta spent the winter of 1867 with Oliver in Chicago. This separation from their Glen Arbor friends occasions some wonderful letters between Marietta and her boyfriend and future husband, Charles A. Fisher, son of the founders of Glen Arbor, John and Harriet. It is to these letters that we will turn in our next installment in this series of Looking for The Boizards.
Read more installments of Barbara Kelly’s series on the Boizards online here.
Tags: Boizard letters, Civil War, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan
Posted in Historical Feature, Local Personality | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
 Rolling hills along Schomberg Road in Leelanau County. By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
Over the past 20 years, Greg and Wanda Sobran of Sobran Studios, have become fixtures of the Glen Arbor arts scene — if two inveterate, peripatetic adventurers could be described in such stationary terms.
“We love to travel,” Wanda says. “Our ‘home’ home is a house in Ann Arbor. We’ll be there for a week and just look at each other,” and know it’s time for a new journey toward a distant horizon.
“We’re in France two months of every year — we go to Key West, and now Isla Morada near Miami. We’ll go out west to Colorado; one of my sons and Greg’s daughter live in California, so we paint in the Los Angeles area, and San Francisco,” before heading east and up north to Glen Arbor each summer to capture the bounty of the region’s many spectacular vistas.
Greg describes his working process as “more ’sur la place’ than ‘plein air.’ I’m not always outside, but I’m always on location,” whether at Yosemite National Park, the street scenes of Paris, or up on Inspiration Point overlooking Big Glen Lake, trying to capture a moment, or a feeling, or the light in the ever-changing landscapes.
In addition to his views of Lake Michigan seen from many vantage points on the Leelanau Peninsula, he enjoys painting farm and field, particularly those of another era, such as historic structures in the Port Oneida district of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
About a recent scene he portrayed of Bodus Road in central Leelanau, he says, “There’s all these tall, tall poles, maybe so they could get the hay wagons past? While I was out there, a Mr. Leonard Bodus came by and introduced himself. His grandfather, or maybe great-grandfather, settled the place. There used to be a little potato railway there that ran into Leland. These are the things I really enjoy talking [about] to the people,” in the places he sees and paints.
For those who have seen the painter’s work, his bold strokes, dabs and freely rendered blocks of color, along with a bright and airy palette often incorporating blues, greens, yellows and whites (as well as the trademark red signature casually scribed in a corner), render his pieces instantly recognizable.
“The other day, this woman was standing behind me, watching me work, and said, ‘Why do you use those colors?’ almost in an accusatory way,” the artist laughs. “I couldn’t really answer that; I’m going on instinct. I’ve been doing this for a long time.”
In the same vein, he adds, “Some people get mad when I paint cars or telephone poles, or the guardrail,” at Inspiration Point’s famous lookout. “But we don’t want to paint this idealized world; we want to celebrate what’s really here. There’s enough beauty — I once actually painted a junkyard in snow!”
Greg’s 1997 watercolor of a humble roadside produce stand demonstrates his powerful ability to share this vision of beauty in the mundane world. The late Sonny Swanson’s yellow structure was — and is, thanks to the Leelanau Conservancy and Sonny’s heirs — locally famous, with its sign reading, “God knows everything, thank you for being honest,” next to the money box, which has amazed generations of jaded visitors from more populous regions. The painting, owned by Bill and Cherrie Stege of Glen Arbor, became a best-selling poster for the Glen Arbor Art Association’s (GAAA) Manitou Music Festival, and indeed an iconic image in the artist’s oeuvre.
Greg says, “Maybe I’ll go back and paint Sonny’s stand again. [Its preservation] is really good news for me,” as he enthuses about the quirky, patched yellow tones of the tiny outbuilding, and the efforts of the current farmer-caretaker to restore its spirit.
“I did that [piece] at the beginning,” of his tenure in Leelanau County, when painter and Glen Arbor Art Association co-founder Suzanne Wilson discovered him at Art’s Tavern and was an early local champion of his work (see “Portrait of an Artist: Greg Sobran,” Aug. 14, 2003, at www.GlenArborSun.com/portrait-of-an-artist-greg-sobran/). He and his wife Wanda had already decided to make his art a fulltime business, and the chance meeting with Wilson added synchronicity to their choice: another message from the universe to pursue his muse fulltime, with Wanda’s marketing expertise to sell his work to an eager and growing audience of collectors.
“I’ve always been in sales and marketing my whole life,” says the University of Michigan graduate and former advertising businesswoman. “I’ve known Greg for about 30 years; even before we got married, I always tried to help him sell. Later, I said, ‘Listen, you should just paint full time and I’ll do whatever it takes to make this [business] work.’ He used to give his paintings away! For the past 25 years, he’s been doing this full time.” The dynamic duo’s strategy has paid off as demand both here and around the world for Greg’s work increases, allowing them extensive travel and artistic opportunities.
Wanda talks about the changes she has seen over two decades as Glen Arbor has transformed from a sleepy, part-time artist colony of summer visitors to a year-round arts and cultural tourism destination.
“Things are really changing in Glen Arbor,” she says bluntly. “My husband’s work sells at the highest level here, but I’d rather have more artists in our price range and higher. With such a variety of artists showing their work, and a lot of amateur artists with the GAAA here, there’s a need for, how do I say this, an ‘educated eye’ of art collectors. You get someone going into a show and saying, ‘I have this big wall I want to cover in my home — what can I get for $800?’” — as if buying high end, pleasant wallpaper, rather than a serious artist’s work (that may sell at that size for several thousand dollars) as a financial and aesthetic investment.
This year the Sobrans decided they needed a fresh venue in Glen Arbor, and left Sobran Studios’ old space in the Lake Isles retail complex next to Ruth Conklin Gallery on Western Ave. which, until recently, was also home to Bittersweet, Hepburn-Holt and MacBeth and Co. Greg and Wanda took their show downtown.
“This is how we make our living and our decisions have to be based on what is good for us,” the outspoken entrepreneur states. “We’re very happy in our new midtown space at the Thyme Out building, a very charming, beautiful building. It’s tiny, people love it, the lighting is wonderful.” There she shows Greg’s works, enjoys the “incredible artisan pastries” of the Thyme Out bistro, and sells handbags created by Barbara May of Petoskey, whose B. May line has recently taken off in the larger fashion world.
The couple also plans to open a Sobran Studios space at the end of the summer in Harbor Springs, one of their many “home” stomping grounds since before their Glen Arbor days.
“Chris Rau knows the art scene really well; she’s worked with all the galleries. She was the manager at Huzza, in my opinion one of my favorite stores in the world. Harbor Springs is an area where there are serious collectors, and there are more artists in our price range and higher — that’s a good thing — like Jim Peery, who we know pretty well.”
Their Sobran Studios website has also proven a valuable resource, begun in the hazy early days of the Internet, about 1996, by a web designer friend in Ann Arbor.
“Our website is really important to us,” says Wanda. “Greg can put pictures up of what he’s done that day, and people will buy them. We ship out to people all over the world; once they have seen his work and know it, they want to see more.” Even those who have not had an opportunity to visit Greg’s art in person are often enchanted with the images, and will buy. This is especially important to the artist, as he does not reproduce his works (with the exception of the early “Sonny’s stand” contribution to the GAAA).
The decision not to reproduce artwork seems to fit well with Wanda’s determination to emphasize the value inherent in Greg’s paintings, as well as his artistic philosophy of staying true to the work.
“It was a pleasant surprise from having to save up all your money to go on vacation and paint, to having people pay you to do it. We had that first show at Suzanne’s, it wasn’t much of a thing back then — a little garage, it was so simple — but by the end of the two weeks … she’d sold all my work.
“If I’d known it was possible, I would have done it earlier — that’s what I’d tell everyone, that’s my only regret. I just go out there every day; I can’t worry about the big picture, or I would freeze up. You can’t go at it with that approach, if you’re doing it based on what people tell you they like. A painter must be sincere in motivation and inspiration,” he avers. “The selling — that’s Wanda’s part, what she does.
“In the artist lexicon, there’s the word ‘palomino.’ It’s letting slide your ethics,” for the sake of making a buck — in other words, becoming a hack, even if only temporarily. He tells the true tale of a well-known painter whose panoramic scene of a Montana valley tempted a wealthy buyer — if the artist would only paint the would-be collector’s favorite palomino pony into the vista. Eventually, the artist, in need of cash, agreed — and thus took home an interesting lesson about commitment to the work, along with his $40,000 commission.
Although Greg first became known through his watercolors, he has been focusing more on oils lately, “a nice, fresh, powerful medium that I like. With watercolors, I felt like I did what I wanted to do. It’s different with watercolors because of the exciting, high tonal key, the brightness, the transparency. You don’t want to get too muddy and dark there.”
He goes on, “I can delve into the dark tones with oil, the higher contrast and power, its opaqueness. It can really punch you when you look at it. You follow your instinct and inclination … that opens it up,” to keep the creative forces flowing.
“[At some point] I’ll go back to watercolor. I just had a commission to do 10 paintings in Florida — there’s something nice and clean and pure about working with watercolor.”
His voice brightens. “It’s like red wine and white wine — I want it all!”
Tags: Bodus Road, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Art Association, Glen Arbor Michigan, Greg Sobran, Leelanau Conservancy, Leelanau Peninsula, Manitou Music Festival, Ruth Conklin Gallery, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Sobran Studio, Sonny Swanson, Suzanne Wilson, Thyme Out, University of Michigan, Wanda Sobran
Posted in Business Feature, Local Personality | No Comments »
Monday, July 25th, 2011
 By Lindsay Simmons
Sun contributor
Like brats? You’ve got to try Duane’s Brats. They’re so tender, so juicy, so dynamically flavorful! These brats have got that “snap” when you bit into ‘em, and the ooey-gooey ingredients inside mean you might not need that bottle of ketchup (Duane always recommends tasting your brat before applying condiments).
Photo by Keenan May/Leelanau Lab
Duane Campbell, a civil engineer turned brat entrepreneur, serves up these delicacies at the Foothills Café in Burdickville on Thursday through Saturday evenings. “I try to make inspired brats. Anyone can go to the store and buy a package of Johnsonville Brats,” he says. “Compare those to a handcrafted raspberry chipotle brat, or one with turkey, feta, tomato and fresh basil.” Duane often uses local ingredients, and always a better grade of meat than run-of-the-mill bratwursts.
 With the exception of the endearing assistance from his 8-year-old daughter Sage, Duane is a one-man show: cooking, serving and creating brats the “old fashioned way” with a hand-crank stuffer in the kitchen at the Foothills. Patrons can always count on the “Plain Jane”, the jalapeño swiss and the “Potato and Jive” with cheddar and green onion. Other offerings might include the turkey, broccoli cheddar or cherry, chocolate, walnut made with Grocer’s Daughter dark chocolate. “I like to keep some flavors revolving to keep myself interested as well as the customers,” he says.
Duane found his self-described passion for brat making while he was an employee at Deering’s Market in Empire. “I was able to get creative with recipes and I really liked the sense of community while I worked there.” Eventually he moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to earn a degree in civil engineering from Michigan Tech University. After he graduated, Duane didn’t feel fulfilled at his Toledo-based civil engineering job and missed the relationships he had formed at the market. With Sage living in Empire and his good friends at Deering’s and the Foothills, Duane’s Brats was born.
“Ideally I’ll create a place for the community; a place for kids to come express themselves and eat some quality brats,” Duane says. Currently he offers open mic night on Thursdays, and — pending enough participants — open dance on Saturday evenings. Dance is a therapy for Duane and he wants to share the joie de vivre. “It’s a different kind of connection with a person: another form of communication,” he says. Duane is an avid dancer, frequenting dance groups in Traverse City several times per week. He also started the Social Dance Club at Michigan Tech, which gained over 250 members. “When you have a great dance, there’s not much that can top it … other than a great brat!”
Duane doesn’t lie when he says his brats are more fun in the bun, but he wants to make sure vegetarians feel welcome, too. Hummus and vegetables are available for anyone who prefers to dine brat-less. Duane caters events and festivals as well.
To contact Duane’s Brats, call (231) 392-2637. The Foothills Café can be reached at (231) 334-3495 or by visiting www.FoothillsofGlenLake.com.
Tags: Burdickville, Deerings Market, Duane Campbell, Empire Michigan, Foothills Cafe
Posted in Business Feature, Food/Organic Living, Local Personality | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
 By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
Some people might say that artist Lynn Uhlmann can’t see the forest for the trees — and the painter, whose affiliation with Leelanau County’s beautiful wooded places spans nearly three decades, would happily agree with that notion. Each of her landscapes, inspired by a deep familiarity with places such as Good Harbor, Shalda Creek, the Crystal River, and Port Oneida, depicts “the trees, light, and colors of small, intimate settings,” within the forest wilderness now enveloping the former farm fields, coastline settlements, and lumber operations of an earlier era.
At her upcoming show at the Glen Arbor Art Association on July 22-24, viewers will have the chance to step into these luminous, intriguing works, painted since last September.
“About 15 of these paintings are from the old home sites within the National Park. Like a lot of people, I have mixed feelings about (the Park’s acquisition of private homes in 1970 to form Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore). I go to the same places every year … see them with ‘new eyes.’ The trees are gorgeous, tall, proud — you’re under their shelter, then down the path, tah-DAH! The lake!”
She continues, “I feel like the trees are … a canopy of comfort. It would be neat if my paintings were to take you somewhere, for someone to want to go into that space.” She describes her earlier works as “very serene,” with dappled sunlight creating comforting patterns that could remind viewers of another time or place, apart from the hurly-burly of modern life.
“I wanted to bring back my experience with [the use of] art, tapping into it. Some of the forms showing up in my paintings, especially this past year — my trees are starting to get more expressive. To me, they look like they’re pouting, or flaunting, or in a dance-like pose — sometimes the branches look like hands on hips! I see rear ends and breasts, a torso often. They could have faces. I don’t consciously try … Sometimes I think they’re talking to each other through colors, shapes, light.”
François-René de Chateaubriand once said, “Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.” There is a subtle irony — or perhaps the appropriate completion of a circle — in the fact that Lynn’s father was an architect working for the government in highly urbanized Washington, D.C., a built environment dense with monuments to man-made achievements. Lynn’s paintings portray what she calls the “elegance and quiet grandeur” of the natural world, yet they too are fashioned from, or mediated through, manmade materials of pigment, brush and canvas. Human nature longs to mark the wild with the human touch, and Lynn’s communiqués from that other place are a tender whisper, a joyous celebration, an invitation into the mysterious borderlands where human head and hand may connect with its natural heart.
“I want it to be accessible work — let the art critics use the big words and project what they want into it,” the painter asserts.
Communicating through creating has been Lynn’s lifelong pursuit, from her childhood in Washington, D.C., and Allentown, Penn.
“Growing up, art was all I did; I drew and colored all day long. Because my dad was an architect, he had all this paper around. I guess it runs in the family. My brother is a graphic artist; he could make anything look like it’s supposed to, and I couldn’t!” She laughs, “What I do is valid and expressive — now my brother is in awe of what I do. He wants to get looser, more expressive in his work.”
She continues, “I never thought, ‘Gee, I want to be an artist — I just thought, ‘Well, what else would I be?’ I didn’t want to sit in an office. This feels like the natural thing … just like part of breathing.” Her parents recognized her talent and passion early on — as a child, she regularly attended weekend art classes, including the Corcoran Saturday School, part of D.C.’s illustrious Corcoran Gallery — but they wanted her to have a well-rounded education as well.
“They wouldn’t let me go to an art academy, they said, ‘You’ve got to go to a university.’ I got my academics out of the way at a junior college in Maryland,” before transferring to Alfred University in New York, where she earned a degree in ceramics and later, a MFA from the University of Kansas at Lawrence.
In addition to many post-graduate studies in ceramics, painting and photography, and teaching at universities and private college preparatory schools for 23 years, Lynn (who lives in south-central Pennsylvania with her husband Phil Diller, a professor of educational leadership at Shippensburg University, and two adult sons) has maintained a solid presence as a studio artist. But after three spinal surgeries, she gave up the heavy lifting of ceramics several years ago to return her focus to painting.
Because of the toxins in most oil paints and turpentines, she uses an alternative paint (made by M. Graham and now available at Northwoods Hardware in Glen Arbor) that has a walnut-oil base instead of linseed oil, and cleans her tools with walnut oil as well, enhancing the “natural theme” of her subjects.
“I’ve always painted, it’s definitely the most rewarding,” she explains of her desire for more immediacy in expressing her ideas through her art. “Ceramics is more technical: the glazing, the firing, wondering, ‘Is it gonna crack?’ I think painting’s more conceptual,” at this time in her life. In mid-October, she will return to Leelanau for a two-week artist-in-residency through the Glen Arbor Art Association, a gift of time allowing total immersion in the creative process without the demands of everyday life.
With many of her works depicting the woods in summer (and a few more recent pieces exploring winter’s landscapes), she’s anxious to witness and capture the spirit of a different season, and try out other media as well.
“I want to paint fall colors, so I’ll take my chances with the weather. I’ll sit in my van, bundled up painting, if I have to!” the artist enthuses. “I might even try pastels, or gouache [an opaque, watercolor-like paint].”
“People will ask me, ‘When you gonna paint something besides trees?’ I’m not finished with these yet. The series still has me so immersed. I’ve been putting the lake in it, sometimes I’m taking a peek out of the woods. I do love the water, the beaches,” she reflects. “So many artists up here paint the water, but I don’t know if I can do that.”
Lynn says, “I love, love, love the trees, always looking at them everyplace I go: ‘Look at that form!’ The possibilities are just limitless, with these living, beautiful shapes. It’s a place I love to be — I might not ever get out of the woods!”
For more information on Lynn Uhlmann’s show, contact the Glen Arbor Art Association at (231) 334-6112.
Tags: Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Art Association, Glen Arbor Michigan, Leelanau County, Lynn Uhlmann, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
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