Grand Haven

This weekend my son, Peter, and I took a trip up to Grand Haven State Park. We usually trespass on a long stretch of private land and find a place where there are no people and miles and miles of beautiful woods, dunes and beaches, but seeing new "No Trespassing" signs and having no place to park my camper for the night we decided to try one of the many state parks here in Michigan. I have to say while Grand Haven is a beautiful place, There are prettier and more remote State Parks to visit. A lack of trees and crowded RV's roasting in the sun will make me think twice about going back there. It was thirty dollars for me to essentially park my truck for the night. But I love the lake and really enjoyed the time with Peter.

Another thing it did was to give me a chance to document a very long standing tradition of the classic American Family Vacation. In the 1950's President Eisenhower pushed through the national highway system. This was partly due to the cold war. He wanted a way to quickly move missiles from place to place in the event of nuclear war. But it also opened up travel like never before. People were buying campers of all kinds and taking trips out west to see places like the Grand Canyon and the Black Hills and hundreds of sites. In the sixties the television show, Route 66 was a big hit and the sense of freedom and exploration of America was still expanding. I remember Freddy Sparks and his family kept up grading their trailers each year. Our family seldom went anywhere, but Freddy would bring me back little trinkets from his trips out west with his mom and dad.

RV campsites are all over the US and can be a lot of fun for a family. It's not unusual for people to meet and talk and share food, play cards and talk about what life is like where they came from and how it is different here and there (really not all that different).


The pier at Grand Haven is a bit more of a production than the pier in Holland, and it seems like in the summer there is a constant stream of people walking out to the end of the pier and back. The people fishing do their best to ignore the people traffic. In Holland, there are people who fish off the pier almost year round except when the lake freezes over. Then they go out onto Lake Macatawa and ice fish.

At the end of the pier is smaller lighthouse were, I presume, the lighthouse keepers must have stayed. This one looks similar to Holland's famous "Big Red" lighthouse.

Peter and I walked into downtown Grand Haven that evening just to see the shops and grab something to eat. It's a nice place to see with some unique sites. Next week they have their annual Coast Guard Festival when the cost guard brings in big ships and sometimes tall ships take up harbor for people to see, booths are set up and many fun activities take place. Below is Mr. Kozak's, which serves great gyros. We have on in Holland, but it is pretty much a funky little drive-thru. Here you get to sit outside and watch the tourists go by.

I don't smoke a pipe very often. Once in a while in the fall, usually, I'll take it out and go for walks. I like the smell and it's comforting, somehow. Seems to go with an evening on the beach.

I'm rather happy with this picture of Peter. He was very gracious to let me take it. He usually groans and rolls his eyes when I get the camera out. I didn't bring the video camera this time just for his sake!

God is on the Wind

God is on the wind and I hear him blowin'
And I don't think I have any way of knowin'
Which way that mighty wind is a goin'
But I would ride with him
Ride that wild wind
Not knowing where that wind would take me.

You can't keep a wind like him locked up in boxes
He won't lie quietly among the crosses
But find him where the tempest tosses
And the scholars with their books
Will never understand
'Cause they never even tried to ride the wind

VR Tech Field Day

As many of you know I returned to my old school district in Holland, Michigan this year, having been recalled after three years of lay-off. My current building director saw that I had alternative education experience and asked specifically for me. I have to say it isn’t anything like my old alt. ed. experience, but it was a very remarkable experience all the same. This school is set up based on an on-line education program called E2020. My role as a teacher requires me to circulate between five computer labs and assist students, one on one, when they get stuck. Students come to our program because they fell behind in their traditional classroom setting, had high absences, or just couldn’t function in a traditional classroom setting. At VR Tech, there are no classrooms in the traditional sense. Students work at their own pace on whatever subject they choose. Coursework is highly individualized.

I was skeptical about this when I came, but I found that, for these students, it works really well. I have been shocked by how few student behavioral problems our staff experienced. This year has been one of the most stress-free years I have ever known. There were times when, in my old Alt. Ed. Situation, teachers used to gather at the end of the day, frazzled, burnt-out and low on energy, to commiserate with each other about our frustrations in dealing with the students. That doesn’t happen anymore. There are many reasons for this that I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say, that whatever skepticism I may have had, I am now satisfied that it is a good program.

All I want to do in this blog is simply share with you this video of a really good day with our students. Students who were thought of as trouble in their traditional situation, but who were wonderful for us in this new situation, had a great time, behaved well, and were just plain fun to be around. In short, it was a good year and “Field Day” was a great way to celebrate its closure.

Plant Dyptich #2

May Apple

Those with urbane appetites live

in pots on shelves

dependent on the ability of old women

to remember that those tame species need watering.

Fiddler and I may be country bumpkins, but we

know the pleasures of the forest shade,

the cool, moist humus, and

the tickle of the living things that

crawl ab0ut our roots.

We may not live in pots to be

moved around the house

but we are free.

Fiddler Fern

I unfurl, slowly, like spirituality;

I move from within and

bend back, and then out

in praise of the canopy and

the sky above it.

Then I look around and there is

May Apple

with that lovely white

blossom peeking through her skirts.

I may be green, but I

can still blush and smile

and give thanks that

she and I grow

in the same soil--

our roots intertwining with each other

and all of life.