Da UP
Mini Oven and Eric,
Maybe the world is smaller than I think!
There are some professors at Tech whom I remember very clearly. One is David Cimino, who taught a couple of my Physics courses. He really could draw a perfect circle, about 2 feet in diameter, on the blackboard. Pretty amazing to watch. The name Hanner sounds vaguely familiar but I don't think I had any classes with an instructor by that name. I never did meet a Bornhorst, although I watched Bruce Horst in the nets for the hockey Huskies. Probably doesn't count, eh?
My 30th class reunion is coming up this summer, so I'd like to get back up to the Copper Country. Even if I didn't see anyone I knew, it would still be worth the trip. There is so much that I used to enjoy up there, like the view from Mt. Brockway, or the waterfalls that are so numerous, or the sweet rolls at the Hilltop Inn in L'Anse (had to work a baking reference in here somewhere!), or the arboreal drive on US 41 heading north toward Copper Harbor, Eino and Toivo jokes, the original Library's pizza, and more. One of these days I need to go to the Porkies, too.
Dunno about the snow situation up there, since I'm living in Kansas (after stops in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Texas). The alumni newsletter dropped their snowfall tracking section a few weeks back, so I'm guessing that it should be about gone, other than maybe a few shaded areas back in the forest or the cities' snow dumping areas. My wife (then girlfriend) was skeptical about my snow stories. For instance, at one point on my walk from campus to downtown Houghton there was a traffic sign which, in Spring or Fall, was a couple of feet above my head. In late winter it was about knee-high. We married my senior year and experienced a literal 40 days and nights of snowfall after moving in, which just about put her over the edge. She's a believer now.
When you were growing up in Ontonagon, Mini Oven, did you ever picture yourself living in places as distant and different as Austria and China? Thanks to my career in engineering, I've been to places around the globe that I never expected to see outside of TV or a newspaper. Quite the unexpected benefit of my college years at MTU.
Is the White Pine mine in Ontonagon still operating? I thought that I had heard it had closed, but that there was a possibility of it reopening.
Thanks for triggering a bunch of memories, thimbleberries and all. Here's a website, in case you are feeling nostalgic: www.coppercountry.com
Paul
Comments
for me. I think the trilliums are in bloom. I don't really know what's going on up there now. I sure do remember those sweet rolls at L'Anse. Used to time it right driving to Marquette, NMU, just to pick them up on the way back to school. One could cover a dinner plate! Don't know if you know the poem "Cruzing down to Bruce's on a Sunday Afternoon" or remember the recording of a snow dance song, "Haiki Lunta make it Snow!" The first time I went cross country skiing, I fell sideways off the trail and disappeared under the snow! I was often round and about on snow shoes. My brother was on the Ski Patrol at the ski hill across the portage from MTU. I moved to the UP in my senior year of High School.
I attended 3 High Schools: Hillcrest High, Sumpter, SC; the High School at Clark AFB in the Philipines; and Ontonagon, although living in Mass. Traveling is in my blood. I attended NMU 3 years and graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. If someone would have told me where I would be in five years, I would had never believed him. My husband and I make lots of jokes about using the "crystal ball." Met my hubby in Barbados and newly married went off to Iraq, I remember Bagdad the way it used to be and the dusty road to Mosul in '84. I think National Geographic wrote an article about it that year.
I went to K and 1st grade in Salina, Kansas. I still remember the addresses. A Tribute to Mom drilling it into our heads if we ever got lost. ("There's no place like home...") Home for me is where the heart is. And today it's with my mother, Happy Mother's day to all! --Mini Oven
Mini-oven, anyone who lived in Ontanagon has my respect. My youngest sister after graduating as a chemical eng took her first job at a paper plant there. A whole lota nothing to do from what I hear. My other sister Laurie was there about the time you and Paul were I think. She is married her hubby T Bornhorst who is/was dept chair geology.
My sister is having a big graduation party for her daughter's HS grad (valedictorian) and I offered to bake all the bread for her. SO, I'll be heading North in a few days to bake SD Batards for 100 or so. Wish me luck! I'll take a few pictures during the project for the forum. This will be my largest bake so I am planning ahead to get the details right.
Eric
You can handle the job 'cause you can! I know it. Have fun in the North Woods! Mini Oven
I enjoyed reading your missive on living in the woods. It is a rustic life and builds strong character. Yes, I am looking forward to the trip and being able to bake for my family. It turns out that this will be a family reunion of sorts as siblings are coming from all over to celebrate my niece's tremendous accomplishment.
Thank you for your encouraging words Mini-oven, I will carry them with me.
Eric
Yes, one learns how to avoid it. Cabin fever is what you get when you're sort of trapped in because of the snow and think you have nothing to do. This was always a good time to bake bread. Lake flurries dump about 8" to a foot of snow every night until Lake Superior freezes over. Most multi-level houses have two entrance doors, one on main floor and one on next floor up when the snow is too deep! The trees normally put out leaves in June. My Senior year was not the best, and I was very misunderstood by the locals. It also gave me the oportunity to break "rules" and pave the way for others. I was first female in male dominated classes and learned to figure concrete and build a wood house. Guys could now take home economy classes and gals could take welding. What did I do to that sleepy town of Ontonagon? The paper mill? Mom could always tell which way the wind blew because of the smell on our clothes. I would imagine that the White Pine mines are open again because the price of copper has made it feasable.
The woods are vast and I spent much time there. My father and I would go "looking" in the woods and come home with all kinds of berries, apples, and goodies. The area was one time settled but long ago when many of the mines closed down the forest re-took the settlements and their small gardens. We'd follow bear tracks to the best apple trees and once a fully loaded purple plum tree! In spring we'd find asparagus and fiddle tip ferns. I distictly remember witnessing one spring day, my father presenting my mother with the first blossom of the wood. That was soooo romantic! Mini Oven