Sunday Sip🏕️

Manistee memories: Thoughts of summer vacations up North in Michigan

Hello friends, and thank you for joining me on another Sunday Sip. Today, I’m taking you camping just east of Manistee, Michigan, in the early 1970s with my Aunt Betty and Uncle Pat.

Summer Vacation in Manistee

Over the last few weeks, the town of Manistee in Michigan has fluttered into conversation like a butterfly on the breeze. It felt so random for Manistee to pop up during a chat with our new pickleball pals or in the middle of a Fans With Bands interview. Just as I was starting to panic, trying to think of what to write about in today’s Sunday Sip, Manistee seemed to be calling.

When I think of Manistee, I think of summer vacations in the early 1970s. At the time, we lived on the west side of Detroit at the corner of Tireman and Minock, a few blocks from Rouge Park. During the summer, our Aunt Betty and Uncle Pat would take us to their camp near Dublin, Michigan, which is just to the east of Manistee. Manistee is the “big town” next to Lake Michigan.

Station Wagons figure large in these memories. My mom drove station wagons, and so did Uncle Pat and Aunt Betty. I remember piling into the car with my sister and rambling up I-75 at 75 miles an hour. I can almost see the dashboard as the speedometer crested 75 and think Uncle Pat drives nearly as fast as my dad.

The camp was set off an arrow-straight dirt road within a clearing cut into a forest of pine trees. In the clearing stood a ginormous fire pit ringed with lawn chairs, a folding table or two, and a couple of canvas tents—you know, those heavy tarp tents that came in either olive drab or a delightful shade of tan. 

These tents would be our home away from home for a week or so. They were huge. Aunt Betty and Uncle Pat had their own room within the tent we shared with them. Inside were cots, which we festooned with a cozy sleeping bag and a pillow from home. I can smell that tent now—a slightly musty, perhaps a tad dusty aroma tinged with cigarette smoke, wood smoke, and pine.

The hissing Coleman lantern sent the shadows dancing before we crept into our bags and drifted off to sleep. Of course, the occasional nightly scurry of a mouse or perhaps a foraging raccoon would freak me out in the middle of the night. Those startling sounds from the silent woods made for a fitful sleep as imagined black bears threatening to eat us alive. Of course, I would hide in the sleeping bag as I didn’t want to be a baby and call out for rescue. 

In my mind, every day up north was sunny and warm. From looking at a few old photos, I’m not so sure about the warmth, but I’m sticking to the sunshine. It just felt like those days were endless adventures in a pristine world of pine and sandy loam.

Eventually, my parents would arrive with my little brothers Pat and Alan. I can’t quite remember why we didn’t ride up with them. I suspect they were working as Aunt Betty and Uncle Pat were off for the summer shutdown, which marks the start of vacation season for anyone working in the auto industry. That and perhaps my brothers, who were little shavers at the time, would have been more than a handful to wrangle on top of me and my sister.

It is funny how the word Manistee conjured up the smell of a canvas tent and then rolled out a scrapbook of summer vacation memories: the song of the hissing Coleman lanterns, the behemoth fire pit of endlessly fascinating flame, My mom yelling at us to get our shoes away from the fire as the rubber soles smoldered; pine tar from climbing the trees turning your hands black with dirt but not before you found a way to glue your hair to your forehead; The plunk of the few wild blueberries that avoid our mouths only to hit the bottom of the old coffee can we used for picking; learning to swim in Lake Michigan; burning marshmallows into piping hot perfection. Don’t even get me started on “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog,” aka “Joy To The World” by Three Dog Night.

Do you have favorite summer vacation memories? How about a trigger word, smell, or taste that takes you back to that kid who spent every minute of summer running around until the sun went down (and after 3 weeks of summer vacation, would then say, “I'm bored!”)? Tell us about your summertime memories!

GIG - The Art of Michigan Music - Artist

We’ve got food trucks for GIG—The Art of Michigan Music 2024!!! We’ll have delicious Peruvian cuisine thanks to Tantay. If you want inventive egg rolls that go way beyond the traditional, then FFF Food Truck will treat you well. Or perhaps you are hankering for imaginative and delicious sushi rolls from Grateful Crow? These excellent food trucks will keep you well-fueled for a weekend of outstanding art and music.

GIG Sponsors - NEW Sponsor alert!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to Dana and James at Lucky Monkey Tattoo for their support at the Tour Manager level!!

They join the fantastic folks at Dawn Corporate Giving, Experience Jackson, Ogma Brewing, Manchester Underground Music and Art, Michigan Music Alliance, ART 634, and Life In Michigan, who are helping us make this event spectacular.

HELP WANTED

As we get closer, we are still short on funding GIG without losing money. If you can help us rock GIG–The Art of Michigan Music, hit the Be A Part of Gig page and get in touch with me via email (chuck@lifeinmichigan.com). 

Sunday Music Market Vendors Needed!

Band, record dealers, instrument makers, studios, print shops, or any other service that works with artists and musicians, we have space for you at the Sunday Music Market on November 10th at GIG - The Art of Michigan Music. A $20 table fee gets you a spot (that is stupid cheap). Email me! (chuck@lifeinmichigan.com)

Stay tuned to the GIG–The Art of Michigan Music website and our socials on Facebook and Instagram for updates. Mark your calendars for November 8-10, and we’ll see you at Art 634 in Jackson.

Upcoming Events You Won't Want to Miss

There is so much to share every week. If you have events that we missed, please be sure to post a note on Substack. 

Beer Tasting with the Brewers at Grand River Brewery in Jackson on June 26th - Head over to Grand River Brewery in Jackson to hang out with our kids Wyatt and Caleb, the brewers at Grand River, as they walk you through the tasting of some of their superb beers.

Ladyship Warship and Kate Hinote Trio at Chelsea Sounds & Sights on June 27th - Music and fun take over downtown Chelsea for Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights. Come dig the music of Ladyship Warship and The Kate Hinote Trio!!

South Lyon Summer Concerts in the Park presents the Judy Banker Band on June 28th - Summer is here, and the Judy Banker Band is in South Lyon, giving you an evening of warm Americana music.

The Gashounds - Ladyship Warship - A Rueful Noise at Outer Limits in Detroit on June 28th - Check out a night of eclectic rock music in Detroit

Clash of the Cults at the Old Miami in Detroit on June 28th - A festival of the wild with Cult of SpaceSkull, Cult of Nasty, and Cherry Drop in Detroit!

Cosmic Sans, Lily Bones, Armada Lodge, Rosemont, and Clutterbitch at Sanctuary in Hamtramck on June 29th - End or start your week right with a night of awesome alt-rock in one of the best clubs in the land.

Electric Huldra // Hero Jr. // Good Manʼs Brother at the Old Miami in Detroit on June 29th—High-powered rock and roll is the order of the day in Detroit!!

Geoff & Jon's Record Show at Ore Dock Brewing in Marquette on July 4th - Celebrate the birth of our nation by picking up some vinyl records at this killer record market. Grab a tasty beer, too!!

The Great American Thrash on July 4th - Join Tim Cook from MOSHterpiece Theater on TapDetroit.com for an online extravaganza of thrash metal masterpieces to soothe your soul.

Cookout at Ogma: Beers, Brats and Bands in Jackson on July 5th - Keep the celebration going with Ogma Brewing in Jackson featuring music from the Van Buren Boys

DeeOhGee w/ Edison Hollow & Sonic Smut at the Lager House in Detroit on July 5h - Unleash your rock dog at the Lager House in Corktown. This show rocks!!

Approaching Autumn, Finality, SoZeN, UserFriendly Killer Robots at The Music Box in Jackson on July 6th - Feel the metal flow with an onslaught of heavy music at the Music Box.

In Other News

There is a great story on Champion trees (old big trees) over on Concentrate. At Local Spins, they have the skinny on Greensky Bluegrass, and some kid named Billy Strings jumped on stage with them at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. 

At Life In Michigan, the press is HOT! We covered the Jackson Road Cruise, featuring a great selection of classic cars benefitting the Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor. Then we hit Top of the Park in Ann Arbor for Thornetta Davis and Kenyatta Rashon. There was an outstanding fundraiser called Barbequing for the Athletes by Jackson Special Olympics that included tasty ribs and cornhole. Finally, we hit the Manchester Underground Music and Art Songwriters in the Round show featuring Nina Sophia, Missy Coville, and Michelle Held.

Substack Restack Attack

Substack is where it’s at. Check out these other superb publications:

To Analyze, or Not to Analyze? - Office Hour by George Saunders - George riffs on whether it is ok to just read for the love of a story or if you need to dig deeper.

Eye On I: Projections of a Street Photographer - My Blue Explanation Point......and the many reasons not to feel blue - I love this photography and think you will too.

Earworms and Song Loops 0 Part Three/3 of the Number Song Project - this rules because it has Tony Orlando and Dawn. The three pugs don’t hurt.

Playing in the Detroit Area Tonight—A newsletter of coming gigs to the Detroit area curated by the talented Jennifer Westwood. This week starts with a shout-out to GIG!! Thanks, Jennifer!

Adventures Yet To Print

We’ve got the Red Horse Center for Collaborative Leadership story over to Rural Innovation Exchange, so it is only a matter of time. Outstanding stories include 24 hours in Allegan, a recap of Michigan Cider happenings, and our recent brew days with Kris at the Kog and Nick and Joe at Barrel + Beam. Oh, and we checked out this awesome cafe called Peace Pie in Marquette. We love our Marquette friends!

What Are You Reading?

I’m on the tail end of I’m The Man - The Story of that Guy from Anthrax by Scott Ian. For those not into heavy metal music, Scott formed one of what is considered the “Big Four” in a super fast and aggressive style of metal music called thrash. Anthrax, along with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, make up the big four. His book started out great. His story of beginning with nothing and the hardships a young musician and band endure is interesting. He also makes it humorous.  I felt nostalgia for those early days of metal and witnessing the birth of thrash. Hearing him talk about their first album and tour reminded me of getting my copy of their debut album, Fistful of Metal. I met Scott briefly in 1984 outside Harpos in Detroit when they opened for Raven on their first tour.

The problems start when he gets into the stupid antics of the band and their crew on the road. I won’t go into the details because I honestly don’t care about those stories. I’d much rather learn about the music, the struggles of the band, memorable shows, and the changes the band experienced. He does cover these, but they are enmeshed with a lot of stupid behavior. I get that they were all in their 20s and that it is part of the “rock and roll” lifestyle. I guess instead of doing serious amounts of drugs and being in and out of rehab, they drank a lot and destroyed things. Again, I get it. It just seems that there is a lot of time spent writing about what I could care less about, which makes the reading at the end a chore.

What Are You Spinning?

Having witnessed the birth of thrash, and since I was reading about Anthrax’s first album, it only seemed fitting to spin Fistful of Metal. I can remember buying this in a record store in Flint. Sadly, the name of the store escapes me. They were one of the few that carried a good selection of metal. The stores in Ann Arbor seemed to frown on metal, I suppose, because it wasn’t the thing to listen to in college.

I loved the raw, aggressive power, which at the time was some of the fastest and heaviest music around. It ranks up there with Metallica’s first Kill ‘Em All and Slayer’s Show No Mercy. The drums are pummeling, and the guitars are sharp and swift. The only thing lacking on the album is the vocals, which sound forced. The vocalist couldn’t support the range they were trying to hit. Thankfully, Anthrax rectified that situation on their next album with the addition of Joey Belladonna, a talented vocalist with plenty of range. Fun fact: I learned in the book that Joey had never sung in a metal band before Anthrax. He was into Journey and Foreigner. The guys in Anthrax weren’t quite sure about him until they heard him sing and then made the crucial move of getting him in the band. The rest is metal history. 

That’s A Wrap

I’m down to the wire (Saturday morning) as I wrap up this week’s Sunday Sip. We had a busy week, so I tried to squeak in the writing where I could. Hopefully I hit the mark and gave you something worth your time. When you get a minute, drop us a line and say “Hey.” I’d love to read about what you are up to and your summer vacation plans (and memories). Cheers!