“Work Worth Doing:” Exploring Leelanau’s faces of labor
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.
