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Michigan Tulip Festival
Eighty-five years ago, in 1927, teacher Miss Lida Rogers suggested that the small town of Holland, Michigan claim the tulip as something of a mascot. The city council embraced the idea as a means of improving the community and celebrating their Dutch heritage. The following year they purchased 100,000 tulip bulbs from The Netherlands, to distribute in the common areas of their community. The bulbs were also made available to residents of Holland for a penny each, in hopes that the neighborhoods would adopt the tulip motif for their personal gardens as well. Thousands of flowers bloomed the first year, and by the 6th year, The Tulip Time Festival was.......
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We will pick the best ones and publish them on our Letters From our Readers Page. You can view most recent letter by clicking HERE.
A Look at Rebel Radio
Between two places there is the sound of the road. In the last eight months my travels with The Blue Water Traveler have brought those sounds rushing back to me; a mixture of laughter, conversation, and music always punctuated by a world in motion. The destinations and reasons for going, sometimes forgotten, will often return with perfect clarity, like the sky on a clear winter day.
Crystalline memories, carrying their gifts gently home, arrive on the airwaves. It has always been this way for me, because the memories born of a road-trip, with all its possibilities, have always been carefully laced together with the sound of a radio.
Even now as I write, I can hear the voice of a traveling companion saying, “Turn that up! I love this song.”
It doesn't matter whether the person was a friend, or the love of my life it, happened just the same. The images, the smells and the feel of the motion all come home, encapsulated in the sound. In this I know I’m not alone. We all have this in common, from our early life, to where we live now. If I ask you about some experience from your distant past, you might give me a few lines. If I give you the sounds though… you will give me a story.
However, it seems to me that radio has become such an integral part of our lives that we are in danger of forgetting its importance. Radio has been the canvas that so many of our memories have been painted on. Music yes, but so much more was woven in and out of the world of radio; the disc jockeys that gave context to the music while bringing it to their community. The flow of information, relevant to the listeners, worked into the programming gave it roots.
Sponsors kept the sounds alive monetarily in exchange for speaking a few words on the air. Those words allowed the person traveling the road a feel for the community they were passing through. The sound of a late night D.J. or talk-show host’s voice was sometimes even more important than the music they played. Radio has been, at times, the perfect backdrop for a road trip, especially a road trip that may have required travelers to find the laughter in the tear.
Yule Love It Lavender Farm
Arriving at Yule Love it Lavender Farm,
located at 960 Yule Rd in Leonard, I can’t help but breathe deeply as I
pull in the circle driveway. Looking down the hill to the lavender
fields, I take note that my shoulders have relaxed some. By the time I
gather my supplies for the interview and step out of the van, the
tension from my work week has dissipated entirely.
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was not sure what to expect the
The night when I met Tom Sumner, I only knew that he was a good drummer, and had a radio show. My friend Leroy June, front man for the Whisky Brothers blues band, is a man that lets his guitar do the talking...
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