f r e s h s t a r t

Monday, April 12, 2004

 

I spent Easter weekend at my grandma's house in the upper peninsula of Michigan. She lives in the little town where she was born, in a house that used to be her grandmother's. There are still snowbanks up there this time of year, and it snowed several times when were there. My cell phone goes out of range about two hours south of her town, Rudyard, and although she's a retired librarian and knows how to use a computer, she doesn't have one at her house.
So my grandma, mom, younger sisters and I hung out around the house, talked about our lives and caught up on family news, played with my dog, looked through old photo albums and scrapbooks full of WWII era newspaper clippings. I learned how to crochet. I slept in the bed that was my mom's when she was a little girl. I walked outside and saw more stars than I have in I don't know how long. We found a box of letters that my sisters and I wrote to Grandma and Grandpa when we were in elementary school, and read them out loud. I wrote to let them know that "Elizabeth is not good. She wines a lot in the morning. Emily and I have fun playing dolls."
In the 80's there was a state advertising campaign called Say Yes to Michigan! that ran TV and print ads promoting Michigan tourism. In the upper peninsula they adapted it a little to better fit the way some of the locals speak. When walking back to Grandma's from the post office I passed a car that still had a bumper sticker that read Say Ya to Da UP, eh? Gotta love the UP.

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