When you begin to talk through your upper sinuses again, you know you are well into your first week back in Michigan.Ah, Michigan, the land of my beginnings. I might make a mean chocolate cream pie and a perfect pitcher of sweet tea, but I am still a northcountry girl, through and through.
What strikes me this time is the beauty. Michiganders are from Northern Europe, primarily, and though I've never been there, I've heard that it is a place of cleanliness and pride. You will certainly see a lot of both here in West Michigan, nearly everywhere you look. The North proves that everything, including life, is better after a good long winter.
The other thing that strikes me is the warmth of the people. I never would have used "warm" to describe my home culture, especially after spending so much time in the pinch-you-on-the-cheek and slap-you-on-the-rump South. But we are warm people, where it really counts and when it really counts. Just the other day, we got to pull two teenagers in a red, vintage, Dodge 2-wheel drive pickup, freshly littered with hay, out of a puddle on a two-track in the woods (they flagged us down, Philip, we were not muddin'). We were late for lunch, and Uncle Philip's truck got a country makeover, but we were glad to teach our kids about helping their neighbors.
Though we have no internet access in our cabin in the corn fields of Hamilton (the land of large, blonde, farm people with perfect lawns), nor do we have cell phone service, we are as happy as flies on cowpies and sleeping like we haven't slept in years (probably because of all of the cool, fresh air, sunshine, and fatty grilled meats). Blogs will be few and far between, however, so we will have to treasure up as many memories in our hearts as we can.
I did have my camera with me during my day with Lou today, but I will save her for another blog. She deserves the spotlight.
It sure is good to be up here. There is no where else like it in the world.
You can lie in the grass without chiggers!
