It’s catch up time for the odds and ends and bits and pieces that are of interest but not a whole story. Every now and then we need to tidy up some loose ends, and this is one of those times. Other than in the title, we won’t mention that the Press comes out on Friday, October 13 this week.
First things first. Welcome back Pat! We hope that everyone noted the return of Pat Maurer to the pages of the Review and Press last week. Pat’s Bits and Pieces column appears weekly in both Wilcox papers and she has been missing for much of the summer.
Pat spent her summer vacation recouping from some very serious health issues. We are so glad that she is on the mend and back at the keyboard. We missed her news, and especially her column, all summer. She’s back just in time to get us in the holiday spirit and we’re looking forward to it.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Cadillac and Lake City Railway, aka, the twenty-three-smoky-mile-train-ride of 1960’s-1970’s lore. I could not locate the picture postcard to accompany the story. I searched through my many postcards to no avail. Ultimately, I spent more time searching for the picture postcard than I did writing the newspaper Postcard.
I have been trying to wrap up certain things in our new home. After two years, it is time to be done painting and I just finished the last room. For someone who has not had interior rooms to paint in many years (it was all wood), this task has been a challenge. Not the color but the actual job of painting. Color was easy and trendy. For my painting efforts, I have claimed a very small bedroom for office space. Absolutely, no guest bed allowed. Period. This is the end of any debate.
Last week, in moving stray stuff into my new office, I came across the one postcard file box I did not look into during my C&LC Railway train search. In moments I hollered “Bingo!” I had put in my thumb and pulled out the train plum I sought. It was logically filed under trains in a box labeled Michigan postcards. It could not have been simpler, and would have been had I found the right box first. I’m hoping a lot of things will surface once things are sorted, filed and settled.
I cannot let this year’s Homecoming go by without mentioning some hometown trivia. The lovely Lila Krchmar, MHS Senior, member of the Queen’s Court and first runner-up, is the granddaughter, daughter and sister of previous MHS Homecoming royalty.
Lila’s brother, Brad Fall, was a past homecoming king in the 2000’s. And her mom, Jennifer Duddles Krchmar, was a homecoming queen in the 1990’s. Jennifer’s mom, of Blevins Street Girls fame, Susan VanderWal Duddles, was the MHS Homecoming queen in 1967.
The year 1967 was also a monumental for MHS football. The Eagles were the first champions of the newly formed Chippewa Conference, and that was indeed a big deal. Incidentally, co-captain of that winning Eagles team was senior, Dave Duddles, Lila’s grandpa. He shared co-captain duties with Terry Wooten.
This week we have a double-header of photos, the Cadillac & Lake City Railway and the 1967 MHS Homecoming Queen’s Court, and Queen Sue. These photos appear in the 1967 Echoes and were taken by Dorald Giddings. Left to right, Lois Coleman, Yvonne Richardson, Gail Briggs, Sue VanderWal, Bruce Blevins, Dave Stroud and Keith Grandy.