Things your grandkids will not do

[Red Oak]

Have any of you ever seen a Bicyclist stop at a stop sign, or yield at a yield sign ?

I can't remember it ever happening.

[GFB]

Have any of you ever seen a Bicyclist stop at a stop sign, or yield at a yield sign ?

I can't remember it ever happening.

No

[ralph]

I stay away from bicyclists , give them lots of room , don't trust them . Up here you see lots of bearded old guys dressed in work boots and carharts on what are known as 'dui bikes' [dewey bikes] . Lost their license due to drunken driving and all they have left is shoe leather or a bike .

[millergrovesue]

I stay away from bicyclists , give them lots of room , don't trust them . Up here you see lots of bearded old guys dressed in work boots and carharts on what are known as 'dui bikes' [dewey bikes] . Lost their license due to drunken driving and all they have left is shoe leather or a bike .

My eyes --- my eyes! You make the area where you live sound.........well, colorful.

Actually my husband is a biker - recumbent of course - he is an engineer after all. His bike has a bright yellow vaguely bullet shaped form over it (faring). The kids out here call him The Banana Man. He does obey the traffic laws............but then he is an engineer after all.

[ralph]

pretty nice area Sue , mostly conservative , mild weather all year around , some snow , lots of green , heavily wooded and making a slow transition from being conservative / libertarian to liberal in my area . Still lots of hunting , fishing camping and population is pretty small . Lots of empty space , rivers , streams , mountains and woods , volcanos and still full of rednecks . Nearest big city is a hundred and 30 miles away and is about 80,000 people [I think] . Don't know if I mentioned but similar to my real home , the U.P. of Michigan except for Lake Superior and the snow . I'd rather be in the UP but this is good enough for now !!

[ralph]

I've got a bike , 18 speed I think Navaro about 3 years old . Never ride it though , oughta sell it or give to a kid .

[millergrovesue]

pretty nice area Sue , mostly conservative , mild weather all year around , some snow , lots of green , heavily wooded and making a slow transition from being conservative / libertarian to liberal in my area . Still lots of hunting , fishing camping and population is pretty small . Lots of empty space , rivers , streams , mountains and woods , volcanos and still full of rednecks . Nearest big city is a hundred and 30 miles away and is about 80,000 people [I think] . Don't know if I mentioned but similar to my real home , the U.P. of Michigan except for Lake Superior and the snow . I'd rather be in the UP but this is good enough for now !!

Sounds like a lovely area.

I've only flown over Michigan but am told the upper peninsula is absolutely beautiful. My brother and his partner went up there a couple of years and and contemplated buying a summer home up there (yes, he's loaded.......only one in our family) but they decided on Chicago because of better entertainment options. Some day I'm going to see Michigan in the spring!

[ralph]

see the U.P. Sue , remember that the U.P.and Michigan aren't the same thing . There is nice lower upper Michigan but the UP is special . I lived on Lake Superior , parents house on the beach , fell to sleep to the foghorn at Marquette Harbor . U.P. starts once you cross the Straits of Mackinaw on the bridge . Stay at the Northland Hotel in Marquette if its still named that and I think its been restored . I worked there a few times as a kid in the middle 60s . I worked in the kitchen and as the Bellman . I drove the brass sliding door elevator . Checkout Presque Isle !! UP is probably very touristy nowadays , when I was a kid the only tourists were hunters and fishers from lower Michigan and Chicago.

[millergrovesue]

see the U.P. Sue , remember that the U.P.and Michigan aren't the same thing . There is nice lower upper Michigan but the UP is special . I lived on Lake Superior , parents house on the beach , fell to sleep to the foghorn at Marquette Harbor . U.P. starts once you cross the Straits of Mackinaw on the bridge . Stay at the Northland Hotel in Marquette if its still named that and I think its been restored . I worked there a few times as a kid in the middle 60s . I worked in the kitchen and as the Bellman . I drove the brass sliding door elevator . Checkout Presque Isle !! UP is probably very touristy nowadays , when I was a kid the only tourists were hunters and fishers from lower Michigan and Chicago.

Sounds like a vacation I'd enjoy with my sister. I didn't realize the distinction. UP is where my brother and his partner went. They didn't mention too touristy. Just talked about the beauty.

[ralph]

hey Sue : well , last time I was there in 2012 I saw BED and Breakfast places , new motels in out of the way locations so to me that says touristy but maybe just me and the old saying that you can never go back . Yep , U.P. starts right after you cross the Mackinaw Bridge on the Straits of Mackinaw . Yep , below the bridge its just regular 'Michiganders' and other assorted types but after the bridge are people [yoopers and Swampers] . Both are lots of Finns , Swedes and Chippewa , French and other assorted whites when I was growing up . There were no blacks at all in the schools when I was growing up except for some Air Force Airmen at 'KI Sawyer S.A.C.' air base . That's the 50s , 60s , 70s and early 80s . He11 , the UP has a history of 'secession' , very cold weather that some call extreme , saunas , cheap land at my time , huge forest , lakes , rivers , cedar swamps , Lake Superior , huge lake trout , some Sturgeon , lutefisk , potato sausage , pasties . Biggest deal was that some of the wood for FORD car 'woodies' came from the UP and a movie 'anatomy of a murder' was shot in the UP town of Big Bay. Also known as 'Alaska' in the lower 48 . No matter what , lots to see if you like nature , fishing and hunting but like all good things it is now probably being marketed to make money [I think] !!

[GFB]

..been up there working at the Casino.

[Red Oak]

I know a few "Jack Pine Savages" from the UP.

[ralph]

hey Greg , I know / knew the guy that owned the land that the Casino is on . He was a fairly wealthy guy , he would drink coffee with my Dad and the boys at Wahlstroms Restaurant . Something about taxes , no one wanted that Casino except for the Indians and the county was going after the owner of the land over taxes if I recall correct . Solution from the owners point of view was to stab the county by giving or selling the land cheaply to the 'tribe' . Like I say, if I recall , think that the guy was Carl and Carl drove the school bus that I rode to school [when I bothered going to school] . Aww memories told as accurately as I remember them !! But see what I mean Sue , tourism and gamblers [from California even] going to the UP to visit the Casino !! Better get up there to see the UP while its still there !! ------------------ and yeah , Jackpine Savages and Cedar Savages and I love the UP 'RedOak !!

[millergrovesue]

Ralph, I certainly understand what you mean about no going back. I so miss the Austin of my childhood, teens, and 20s. It was a wonderful place to grow up. 125,000 - 150,000ish. UT population 50,000.......and most of them were gone in the summer. Empty streets on UT game days. Plenty to free things to do. Free city swimming pool within a mile of our house. Schools within a mile and a half. If we walked to and from school we could save our bus money (no school buses - we rode city buses). Lots of nice young UT students for a high school girl to date. You knew most everyone in your neighborhood and had gone to school with them from first grade on. Dewberries, on the side of the railroad tracks 3 blocks from our house, freely available every spring. Plenty of unique cheap places to live without leaving town. Pretty old neighborhoods with lots of trees everywhere, a unique blues joint in East Austin (Charlie's Playhouse - where I saw BB King and others play), great Tex Mex, lake close by, hill country not far away. It was truly the city of the violet crown.........which is what it was called. Fun place to be a hippie in the 60s.

Now it's just another overcrowded too heavily biked and too heavily trafficked big city. No longer unique, no longer charming, no longer fun to roam, too expensive for normal people to live there and too danged many people tearing down perfectly decent houses to erect McMansions to impress people with how much money they can spend. And it's trying too hard to still be "weird" but it just doesn't work for those of us who remember when Austin truly was weird. It makes me sad to go home but all my family is still there.

[GFB]

Well, when I go there..it still seems pretty weird.

[grouchy]

Austin, Tx....
aka Sodom south

[Red Oak]

Greg were you playing at the Broken Spoke ? Or Antoine's ?

[GFB]

Greg were you playing at the Broken Spoke ? Or Antoine's ?

In Austin?

Every couple of years we go to the One World Theater.

Great little place.

[millergrovesue]

Austin, Tx....
aka Sodom south

More like California east.

[grouchy]

Probably so.