By Anne-Marie Oomen Sun contributor Finally, with our house sort of finished, we turn to landscaping. Landscaping in our woods is simple because the chance of a lawn is nil unless one is willing to cut trees and we have vowed—no more tree cutting. Instead, we tuck the house so far into the dappled arms […]
By “Uncle Peter” Sun contributor I had been on my way to Savannah when I stopped for a tire repair in a spot about seven miles east of the County seat, a mite of a place, hardly a town at all, just an intersection where the dirt farm road crossed the highway. A hearing was […]
By Ray Nargis Sun contributor This essay originally ran in the Glen Arbor Sun in the fall of 1999. Almost a quarter century ago — in the fall of 1977 — I drove from my home in Kalamazoo to see the Leelanau Peninsula for the first time. I was looking for a place to live […]
By Mary Sharry Sun contributor If someone hadn’t stopped me, I might have sacrificed my own life for the life of a certain dog when I was only nine years old. I loved dogs, abhorred inhumane treatment of them, and wept over a story about Beautiful Joe, a dog whose ears had been cut off […]
Roadside Stand By Nora Stone First prize, Youth Poetry Driving home after school we’re tired with end-of-the-week relief and our stepfather pulls over on Herkner Road where there is a little table with a coffee can marked “honor system,” and he buys two bundles of asparagus, pert and dripping from a dented pie tin, and […]
By Anne Marie Oomen Sun contributor This essay was previously published in Traverse Magazine As small children, my siblings and I made a tradition of watching for Santa on Christmas Eve. Five restless kids waited at the single-paned, north window of the old farmhouse, tugging pajamas, poking ribs, fighting for space at the glass. We […]
By Cindy Kendall Sun contributor As my dad would say, “It’s been said: There is a good purpose to every season; every season’s fruit is nourishment for another season.” I smile to still hold the fruit of my father’s sharing after all these years. The memory of my parents is alive in Leelanau’s Sleeping Bear. […]
It was my first tropical winter, and the culture of New Orleans had me in slow motion shock, writes Andrea Maio, a filmmaker who lives in Benzie County. I arrived there on Christmas Day, after a tough boat trip down the Mississippi river. My boat had broken down in a nearby town and left me stranded from my family for the holidays, so I rented a car and drove with my dog into the city. There, I found a dingy bar on Decatur Street offering free Christmas dinners to all of their customers. They didn’t mind dogs in the bar, so I brought in my lab mix Butch and sat, and drank with the regulars. When the levy broke and New Orleans started to enter its nightmare, all I could think about were the dogs. The wild pack on my block, the puppy left in the park, the neighbors chained up rottie, all seemed more helpless than the thousands of people who were suffering. I know it was a crazy reaction, but it must have been easier than thinking about the true scope of what was happening. The truth was that thousands of people were suffering due to the inhumanity of people towards other people. For years we knew what could happen. For years nothing was done.
By Lois Beardslee Sun Contributor • Do present Native peoples as appropriate role models with whom a Native child can identify. * Don’t single out Native children, ask them to describe their families’ traditions, or their people’s cultures. * Don’t assume that you have no Native children in your class. * Don’t do or say […]
By Ron Schmidt Sun contributor GRAND MARAIS, Michigan — I bolt upright from a deep sleep and try to get a handle on what has roused me so abruptly. The clock reads 2 a.m. and I’m not expecting company. My cabin is three miles from the nearest neighbor and I rarely hear any man-made sounds. […]