V I N M A N' s V I B e

Squaw Beach, outside of Big Bay, 25 miles north of Marquette. Photo, Vince Kern. Copyright 2008 -- All Rights Reserved.

Just past noon on this Friday in early June, the regulars at the Hungry Hollow Cafe’ next to Cramm’s General Store in Big Bay, Michigan are coming to life as the sun finally appears on an otherwise blustery day. Omelettes are still being served as folks start a bit later up here, and I’ve just polished off a dandy sausage and cheese.

A large local man with grey hair and a nice smile depsite a missing tooth orders a huge salad. In familiar farmer-blue overalls, a blue tee-shirt and suspenders he seems to be here every time I visit.

“It’s nice out,” he tells Chris the server smiling from under an earthy-colored bandanna. Chris agrees and brings me more coffee as I recall the standards for “nice weather” I maintained when I lived in Marquette. Back then, 58 cloudy and near-drizzly days did, indeed, make one feel like walking.

I feel happy for the lumberjack and the weather changes to on and off sunshine faster than my comparisons mattered.

Another local blonde woman sits chatting with Chris at the diner bar about her husband’s work and crazy truck drivers bringing logs through here this week. And behind me, two men I have not seen yet sit chatting about the weekend and reminding each other about attending “Aggie’s birthday party at 2 o’clock Saturday.”

Aggie is our neighbor and dear friend on Squaw Beach who visits from town in the summer. At age 89 tomorrow, her son Pete may agree to let her “retire” from her cabin duties but I wouldn’t bet on it. Peter Tenyke is a local man who covers a lot of territory. He is fire chief, county employee and overall goodwill ambassador for this small town of about 550 located 25 miles north of Marquette. He knows full well Aggie will never stop being busy and only teases her with a life of leisure.

On our section of the beach there’s work to do. My sister Andrea, brother-in-law Jim and I arrived yesterday to buckle down for some cleaning and R&R in between. So far, we’re off to a slow, but good start. But I wish our other sister brother and my lovely wife, Sheila, could be here too.

And so it goes up here, folks will arrive from several states throughout the day but won’t overwhelm the peacefully-removed-spirit of this area. We’ll watch the weather to see how things develop, looking for glorious beach sun or stars at night.

No matter, there’s an uplifting sameness to seeing my smiling well-fed breakfast friend, the lumberjack, write a check for his meal while the chef sits at the bar and chats with regulars. The men behind me have decided on pie and so that’s my que to go.

Otherwise, I will turn a thousand-plus calorie breakfast into a pie-laden napping afternoon instead of working. Hmmmmmm…….

And we call this a working trip up  north…………..

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