• Sunday-What'sUP March 15 - 01:47 am

For being several decades old, I found these shots from James Ludos especially colorful for this time of year. The last few weeks our Shoebox Memories have all been black and white (much like the weather has felt... mostly white). For some variety I thought you might like a little kodachrome from the 70's.

I've tried ice skating on Lake Superior. In fact, it's the only ice skating I ever tried. About 15 years ago, not far from the spot of today's first photo, our daughter Becky gave me my first and last skating lesson - just off the beach past the dunes below our house. The problem was not Becky's instructions, but rather the intense gravitational attraction which ice exhibits when I briefly stand on those narrow blades. The lady above has my awe and admiration.

The second picture caught my eye because it was taken next door to our house 30 years ago. See the white home peeking above the street at the top of the hill? That's where our family has lived for more than half of the past 30 years, and where we've published the Pasty Cam most mornings for half of that time (now in our 8th year). The kid on the sled is just a stone's throw from where I sit typing these words.

By the way, this past week we got a chuckle from a comment on Cam Notes about carrying on with Pasty Central and "letting Charlie retire" :o) Where did that idea come from? I hope to be around for a long time. Reminds me of the interview with the lady turning 104. The reporter asked, "What do you think is the best thing about being 104?" She carefully thought about it and replied: "No peer pressure".

Have a good week ;)

Oh, this brings back memories of my Dad taking us skating. Today is the 20th anniversay of his passing. How i miss him so!

Have a blessed day!

Learning to ice skate at the Calumet Armory and spending every Saturday on Tammark Hill sledding and mastering skis. Wouldn't trade my childhood adventures with Dad for anything!

Skating on Lake Superior! In the early "50"s as a kid my family and cousins were visiting friends in Rabbit Bay, and we skated on the Lake. That year the ice was so clear and smooth you could see the bottom. My cousin Janet and I skated out to Traverse Island. Almost 4 miles. Back then the oldtimers always called it Rabbit Island.

Good morning from Mishawaka IN. Great pictures this morning. My Dad tried to teach me to skate on the St. Joseph River but unfortunately I had legs and ankles like a bendy straw but loved the time I spent with him.

Fantastic start to this day those two pictures!
Also here in Finland is NOW just that sort of..
snow,sun and frost.. .very very beautiful days!!!

In this my today´s link from Finland.;

http://www.skrinnari.fi/retkiluistelu/retkiluistelu.html

Its tripskatings.. .

Ernie WASH.
Ernie WASH. In the late 40's, while ice fishing at Rabbit Bay with two of my friends,the fish weren't biting so we decided to walk out to Rabbit Island. About a 4 Mi. walk.
About the time we got there the wind picked up and it started snowing pretty hard. With the help of a pocket compass we walked back to where we started from. We were glad to back on land again, tired, no fish, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

Ah.... the simple pleasures in life are still the best. Nothing like getting out in the cold with a good sled or fast pair of skates.

Earnie, some of us still call it Rabbit Island.
Best kept secret between Aura and Copper Harbor.

Good Morning!

Daaaahhh...daaahhh...dah..dah.. (heehee-my post version of the Skaters Waltz!!)...and then... Wheeeeeeh!! Looks like the 'perfect run' down that hill.

Thanks for jogging my own special memories of winter in the UP!

Also in the second picture: on the left, Rueben Davey's house,
and on the right, the Gardner complex, currently owned by a
Mahalich (sp?), son of the old postmistress.

Our uncle Silfred Perreault had a cottage and a Chris Craft boat on Rabbit Bay and we would drive on out to RABBIT ISLAND. The water was so clear you could count the rocks from a depth of 20' or so. We also caught many large Northern Pike in the sloughs behind the cottage.

Charlie - Skating isn't that difficult. The hard part is finding "double-runners" in a man's size 12!

ed/mi, "Drive out to Rabbit Island"??!! Perhaps a better word would be "sail", or "boat"! Just teasing you in fun, as my Dad would correct any of us girls if we used anything other than proper sailing terms. Galley, head, stern, aft, port, starboard---these were all part of our lingo!
The ice skating photo reminds me of a very cold winter we had in '92 or '93. We took the kids out to Cat Harbor and we walked out on the clear ice quite a distance. It was really neat to see the rocks and ripples of sand under the ice.

I helped build the additions to the Gardner house back in the late 50's and early 60's. Now owned by the son of the "Jam Lady" (actually her husband operates as the "Jam Lady", if he is still around) they advertize on this web site and their thimbleberry jam is better than any other I have tried, and I have tried several.

Looks like the lady skater is thumbing a ride. Also, sounds like some people are looking fore-ward to your re-tirement Charlie... Don't let that happen!!!!

Happy to hear you're not planning to retire,
Charlie! Wonderful pictures. I feel like
sledding down that hill 'cause I've just finished
a batch of special ed. reports that I started
working on at 5:30 A.M. (only took time out to
eat and go to church). I'm feeling liberated.
Maybe I should look for a hill--not that many in
Toronto where we have about 8'' of snow on
the ground--2 of them fresh from last night.

I like snow. Actually, I love it, but I'm about
ready to hear some robins sing.

In the late 50's and early 60's Gweneth Neilson lived in Houghton. Her husband worked at Tech and Gweneth was a gold-medal figure skater from Canada.
One of the problems of skating on lakes is the rough ice. Gweneth told us that the Canadians take a bucket of piping hot water out to the pond and a cotton mop and mop the ice. The hot water melts the very top and you let it dry a few minutes a presto!
smooooooooooooooth ice! And work quickly!!!!

I'll bet there are days you could "drive out" to Rabbit Island........Winter of 64/65 the big lake froze over............risky business tho....LOL

Skating on the lake always included a broom as required equipment. Seemed normal at the time, but seems odd now to see a bunch of kids with skates and brooms heading out onto the harbor ice. Usually, the clearer the ice, the smoother it was, so we'd just sweep off the snow and skate away. I seem to remember the good spots were near Hunter's Point or Porter's. We had a rink, too, some years. Of course, building the ice rink on Kauppi's lot in Copper Harbor was nearly as much fun as using it. Maybe it had something to do with the warm-up time at the bar between pours.... In any case, it made for some great hockey!

Liz: Been there done that.Every Tue,Thur,& Sat.at the Calumet Armory.Tammarack Hill,lived on it,just down the road from my house on 10th st. in Yellow Jacket.Daveys,knew him well. He worked with a friend of mine Angelo Barbares

Outdoor skating on a natural body of water is the best. Sure, the ice is often rough, but it is so cool to be able to skate to an island.

When I was a kid there was a lake a mile or two from our house, and on the lake there was a small island, which had a pond on it. Sometimes we'd hike over to the lake, clear off the snow on the pond, and play hockey all day. The surrounding trees provided a natural wind break, and our moms would give us thermoses of hot soup to take with us.

Unfortunately, that's pretty far removed from the life I live now, stuck in a glop of strip malls & freeways in Houston.

Response to ED/MI. You are right when you say " you would DRIVE that Chris Craft to Rabbit Island." Owned a Chris Craft in-board all wood classic, and you would DRIVE that boat. All other boats you would sail or captain. Also, it has a sound all it's own. It's been "Rabbit Island" as long as I remember.........

The beautiful winter picks give such fond memories of growing up in WI. Skating all day on the open ice for hours and of coarse sledding. We are living in WA where there little to no snow this year. Love the white stuff and all that goes with it.

This is the spot my UP roots started. In the summer of '91 we rented the Mahalich (sp?) house to stay in while the EAA convention was going on here in Oshkosh. My son, then 4 months old got his nickname "Sparky" in that house, we picked the world's best blueberries, and we had a great time seeing the UP for the first time. By week's end we were looking to buy! It took a another year to find our bit of paradise (on Pradise Ln.), but we still look at that house and talk about how it all began...

The last two years our UP ice skating has happened on the river in Eagle River! Great fun opening up our coats and being pushed at quite a clip across the ice!

Happy Birthday Eric and Steve! We love you!

That ice skating picture reminds me of the times many years ago as a kid in L'Anse, MI. Keweenaw Bay would ice over completly from Baraga to L'Anse, and depending on the winter some years there would be a smooth natural ice rink on the Bay. We'd put our skates on and skate out there for hours. Then we would play in the ice castles formed by ice along the shore. Such good memories.