Harter Pontiac-Buick-GMC in Calumet had a unique vehicle for sale, which Brian Rendel snapped up a photo of, before it was gone. This wrecker is a 1937 GMC Cabover Engine Wrecker with a Weaver Auto Crane. Curious as to the logo on the side of the truck: McClure Motor Sales - Phone 29 - Calumet, I did a search on the Internet and came up with some interesting info about this old truck.... When the Harter dealership was purchased in the 70's, this gem was in the building and part of the purchase deal. The building was built in 1901 and was initially the Oakland dealership (McClure Motors), only later becoming a Ponitac-Buick-GMC dealership. The truck has since been purchased and no longer resides in Calumet. Now, I'm thinking if this old truck could talk, it would sure have some colorful stories to tell about the towing business back in it's heyday!

Very cool picture! It's amazing what you can find without even looking.

Have a great day everyone!

Good Morning!!!

Good Morning!

Good Morning, it's the start of a beautiful day!

The most dated I can get with phone numbers is being able to dial 5 digits rather than 7. :) I guess I'm not that old...

Well here I sit back at my desk after a great weekend. We had a great time at a chilly wet Pastyfest. The Gay parade was something to see. Fireworks at Copper Harbor on the fourth were incredible, so loud when on the water. The old settlers ball was nice to be apart of also. Did anyone else notice the number of police patrolling the highways of the U.P. ? I had two turn around and follow me, no tickets though, thank goodness. Only three weeks until my big family camping summer vacation at Mclain's.

Brad

Mornin'

Good morning everyone. Marlin drop me a line.

When the Houghton/Hancock lift bridge was built, the phone numbers were two digits. If you have the chance to see the movie about the construction of the bridge (Made by the State of MI) you will notice a two digit phone number on a ready mix truck.

Compare the size of the wrecker to the mini van. I'm sure it is heavier than the mini van, but the wrecker was probably more suited to towing Model T's than it would be to today's SUV's.

Rhonda Britten is the Life Coach who makes a difference on the NBC syndicated daytime TV show, "Starting Over," and she can show you how to change your life through her latest book, Change Your Life in 30 Days. She was the only witness to the murder of my mother and the suicide of my father. SAW HER ON A TALK SHOW LAST WEEK AND SHE SAID SHE WAS "JUST A YOOPER" who made it big time...Where did she live when all this happened?

Yes, the old wrecker no longer resides here! A guy from Virginia purchased it last year. It was a very neat vehicle to see and here it run. They sure don't make vehicles like that anymore!

When I was a kid, we had to give the number to a live operator!!! This was in the fifties. Our phone didn't have a dial. I also remember when the seven digit phone numbers came in!!!

I remember growing up in the Copper Country in the 50's when our phone numbers were 4(?) digits and a letter, and the operator connected us when we called someone. I also remember party lines, and the big day when we got dial telephones. Somewhere I have a phone co. booklet that belonged to my grandparents with instructions on how to use your new dial phone! Who would have ever thought it would be so commonplace for people to carry cell phones. And we thought it was funny when Maxwell Smart had a phone in his shoe!

Growing up in Ironwood, we had telephone operators well into the 1960's. Just pick up the phone and say the # you wanted. Our # was 3677-W. If the operator knew you, she would often ask how things were, and as a kid calling gramma, if you had the # wrong, the operator knew who you were trying to call any how. We had a party line, too. I remember being in 6-7th grade or so when dial phones came. It was a big transition. My folks kept a party line until the early 80's.

Good Morning! I love hearing stories of the "good ol' days". I'm to young to know about 2-5 digit numbers but I do remember having a party line. I look forward to telling my great grandkids about our first microwave, VCR, cordless phone and computer. Life sure was simpler even 20 years ago.....

I was in 6th grade at Washington School in Calumet (now the middle school) when dial phones came into town in the spring of 1965. We had "training" in class to learn how to use them. I sure missed the operator -- she knew who we were and when we shouldn't be on the phone. She could also zap me to my dad's office just by my asking to talk to my dad!

As an aside, happy birthday today to Bob Rota, wherever you are!

ed mi, Ronda Britten grew up in Hancock and went to Hancock High School in the late 70's with my older sister.

Thanks shooter, and is the story correct as above?

TJ Lepisto's phone number was 7 and I think the Calumet Armory was 1. If you had a letter on the end, it meant you had a party line.

Yes, it is true ed. Rhonda and her sister were quite young when her parents died.

I love the history that comes up in these daily discussions! :D

I remember it was Leveque Insurance who's phone number was "1". They had a billboard in Florida Location mostly in beiges and browns with the phone number in a circle on the bottom of it. ( Isn't it funny that I have a brain cell set aside for that memory and I still can't find my paring knife? )

One of my friends had a sister who was a telephone operator in Calumet. Of course, she knew and could recognize my voice.

It's funny now, but I remember using the phone particularly late on night (early AM), and having her "chew me out" for being out so late.

Those operators also had an unusual memory for people and their phone numbers. I was "going steady" (remember those days?) with one girl for quite a while. One time when I was making a call and she said "Number Please", I gave a number to a girl, not the one that I was going with. She paused for a second, then said something like "Carl, this better be a call to *Mister* ______" (she knew the whole family at the number I was calling).

We once were on a four party line. If your number began with 56 for example, there could be four people on that one line, with phone "numbers" like 56R, 56W, 56M and 56J. Two of those would be one "one side" of the ring circuit, 56R and 56W would be distinguished by either "one ring" or "two rings", while 56M and 56J would be on the other pair of the ring circuit and they would be assigned either one or two rings. But, the talk circuit was only one pair of wires, so any one of the four parties using their phone would be "susceptible" to having their conversations overhead by any one or all three of the other neighborhood phones on that line. When you were going to make a call, you picked up the receiver and either got an operator (Number Please"), or you heard one of your neighbors having a conversation and you had to hang up and keep checking until they were done with their call.

People for the most part, were pretty polite about it all.

We had a real stinker on our party line. She spent the whole day on the phone and rudely inturrupted our few calls by screaming that she had an emergency. We had to wait a while, but finally they assigned us a new number. Rumor had it that this stinker was forced to pay for a private number.

We had a person on our party line who would always pick up the phone to eavesdrop when she heard "our" ring. When you answered and started your conversation, you would hear the distinct "click" of her phone being lifted off the cradle. Later on we got an obnoxious person on the party line similar to the one camwatcher remarked about, and we finally got a private line too.

Those were the days when the only phones you could get were those leased by the phone company, and they were the only people "allowed" to install them? People who had to connections to someone at the phone company sometimes had "unauthorized" extension phones, but it was a big deal if you somehow got "caught" with one.

Times sure change.

I remember those old black phones also and the small phone no.'s I remember back then that if you had an emergency and someone else was talking you were supposed to say "this is an emergency,may I use the phone" and hopefully the other party would hang up. I am sure this was misused at times. Sometimes it would get aggravating if you had a long winded person using the phone and you had to wait till they finished.Incidentally in a small town you can recognize the voice of those talking. An interesting situation!!

GROWING UP IN HURLEY, WI I REMEMBER MY DAD'S LUMBER COMPANY PHONE NUMBER WAS 92. MOM IS STILL SENDING ME SOME OF THOSE PROMOTION THINGS WITH THE BUSINESS AND PHONE NUMBER. WE HAVE RAINCAPS, RULERS, LEVELS, ASHTRAYS, PENCILS ETC. GRAMPA WAS BIG ON THOSE THINGS. I REMEMBER EVERY YEAR HE WOULD HAVE CALERDARS PRINTED, (THEY WERE THE KIND WITH THE MONTHLY POCKETS) WE WOULD BE OUT DELIVERING THEM FOR HIM TO HURLEY, MONTREAL, CAREY, GILE, PENCE. HE WOULD PAY US A LITTLE FOR HELPING.

As a kid in Hubbell in the 1940's I remember dial phones and private lines. 4 digits in the phone number. It's my understanding that Hubbell was one of the first in the country to have dial phones and private lines. Anyone have more info?

The family story is that when my grandparents got their first phone in Lake Linden,{mid fourties} the number they were given was the number that had been in the front of the book, for dialing instructions on How to dial out of area ETC.I would like to track it down to see if it is true..
ED Mi,
here is an article {half way down} from the gazette about Ronda Britten
http://www.mininggazette.com/Archives/afeatures_sept_03.html
the show web site is at startingovertv.com I saw it this Monday for the first time ..I was off work for the day.

Frog...glad to see ya made the picture of the day! I appreciate being able to see the wrecker when you had it at the dealership. It truely is a piece of history and defintely one of a kind.

camwatcher...sounds like we were on the same party line, must have been the same woman, plus had a total of 10 people on our line.

This may suprise some of you, but when my family moved to Eagle Michigan, (in between Lansing and Grand Rapids) in 1989 (I was 9 yrs Old) the Party Line on our street had been replaced only months before, we moved into a very rural area. But we still had neighbors close by on other dirt / rulral roads who had party lines untill I think around 1991 belive it or not. I'm sure there are still areas in the UP that have only recently switched over from Party Lines then, since this was in the 'modernized LP' :-)

30 Days Untill Vacation to Chassell!!

Brad of Canton: Missed you at Pasty Fest, but met a few others in the rain. Yes, I did see the State Police, up close in fact! Got a ticket in the Seney Stretch, my first in 34 years and my first ever speeding ticket. Got to start using cruise!

I think the soo area was the last in the u p with party lines in the 80's??

My brother, who lives in a very rural area of Wisconsin, STILL has a party line, and he partially runs a business from it. There aren't enough people where he lives to make "modernization" profitable for the phone company. ;)

green bay: I think Lake Linden went to dial service in the early 50's. At that time our home phone number went from 5141 to 6-5141.

Larryk,

Could be ..or perhaps it was some instruction for four digits?I remember being told it had something to do with the number 5201 in the lake linden exchange or area . it was in the example the years before they got the number..
Or so the legend goes
thanks

I am new to this website and would like to know what a pasty is. I enjoy all your lovely pictures of your beloved Copper Country.

Editor's note: Here's a link to see a 'Typical Pasty Day at Stillwaters making pasties the old fashioned way! This will give you a pretty good idea of what a pasty is I hope!

How many of you remember the old hand crank phones? Where I lived up there in the U.P. in the early 50's that area had the crank phones yet.
They were lots of fun and of course it was a party line.

Below is a link from the Gazette's archives regarding Rhonda Britten.
http://www.mininggazette.com/Archives/afeatures_sept_03.html (You will need to scroll about half way thru the web page)

I grew up in the Detroit area in the 50s and 60s and had a four-person party line. One of the parties was an elderly Hungarian woman who would pick up the phone and start dialing without waiting for the dial tone. She would dial into your ear, and when you would protest and say, 'Excuse me I'm on the phone', she would reply 'No English' and keep dialing. We always thought she was the same woman one street over who chased us kids away from her grapes. Mom wouldn't let us be rude to her on the phone when she interrupted us, and would wallop us if she caught us making fun of her accent. Kids can be pretty thoughtless. 'Course, so could some adults....

We had a party line here in Lake Worth, Florida until 1984.

First of all, "welcome" to Elvira, it's a year today that I discovered pasty.com and it's been fun & interesting to say the least :) About telephones, we had #s like Hilltop or Hopkins **** in Milwaukee when I was a kid in the 40's & 50"s.When our family moved here to country in N.W. Ill. in 1965 we had a partyline. We still have a rotory phone today and it's nice to use when regular phone's acting up. But if we call somewhere where they tell us to "punch" * or # or a given number we aren't able to. My times have changed in 40 years!

We still had the party lines in 1989-perhaps longer. A distant friend or relative would call at a pre-arranged time and we would enjoy 3 or 4 person conversations. The visits had to be short because somebody always needed to use the phone. At first it was a verbal message, such as,"Get off the phone!" Next came the series of "click-click-clickclick-click-click",repeatedly picking up the receiver and hanging it up. It must have been difficult for families with teenagers.
It was frustrating when people would leave the receiver off the cradle to avoid phone interruptions in their own homes.
When the modern phone service finally reached our rural area,it took some time to remember to dial seven digits instead of the last four when calling someone within our 288 range.
Now we communicate via Instant Messenger and groan about having to disconnect from the internet when the telephone rings!

Thank you for the visual of pasty making at Stillwaters. I have a few questions please: Do you fall under any federal or state regulations on making these pasties? Are you required to adhere to any type of sterilization process in making these pasties? When you say "crust" is wrapped around meat, potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, onion, etc., etc., what is etc., what is a rutabaga, what kind of meat do you use, what kind of spices do you use, what kind of shortening do you use in the crust? Thank you for giving me a part of the "UP" experience.

Editor's note: Here's a link to a discussion of the regulations from our archives: Oct. 28, 2002 and another link for Frequently Given Answers (to frequently asked questions. Again, I hope this helps! :-)

http://www.hu.mtu.edu/vup/pasty/recipes.htm
Elvira... here are some pasty recipes

To Brad in Canton & Marsha of Genessee. I also saw a lot of the men in blue while driving in the UP this past weekend. For the very first time ever, I saw a car being ticketed on the Mackinaw Bridge by a State cop! Marsha sorry to hear you got a ticket. My last ticket was about 12 years ago & it was on HWY 2 coming home from Munising. I was ONLY going about 75 on a 55 mph rd. It sure is hard to drive the limits after driving more than half the trip up there on the freeways going 80. (Errrr I mean 70 if any state cops are reading this)

Hello from sunny California. I've been checking pasty central daily, and the lift bridge cam. It looks like there is a bit of rain coming down right now. That sure would feel good over here for just a little while even. It's been in the 90's as of recent. I cannot afford to return home this summer, but this site keeps me in touch with the happenings. (also the Mining Gazette website) I sure miss the 4th of July activities in South Range, and BBQ'ing at Agate Beach in Toivola.
About the phone number thing...I came across a real neat web page just yesterday, listing numbers in the Range Towns, Toivola, Donken etc.
http://www.copperrange.org/rangephone.htm
It's interesting to see just how few phones there were back then. I too experienced party line telephones back in the sixties, and seventies. I had forgotten about them. Anyway thank you pasty.com for keeping my Yooper spirit alive and well until I return home some day.

OOPS almost forgot about the ticket in Ishpeming about 2 years ago. Ya' know the area where the signs are posted about it being a speed trap? Well guess who didn't pay attention?? To make it even worse I was tired and the radio was loud. I failed to look out my rear view mirror for a while and the local officer finally had to put his sirens on to get my attention. He told me he had followed me since the McDonalds and when I finally pulled over it was only because the semi in front of me heard the sirens and was pulling over. It was then I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw him. Man was I both embarrassed & tired. After that I pulled over and slept for awhile. It was also the last time I tried to drive the entire trip in one shot after a full day of work.

A few links to telephone history pages.

http://www.strowger.com/history.html
http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/a/al/almon_strowger.html
http://www.seg.co.uk/telecomm/index.htm

Much telephone terminology still in use derives from the early days, such as subscriber line (as in DSL), drop, E & M protocol, central office, etc.
Do a google search for the other 3,999,997 entries. :-)

Brad: You couldn't come and see your aunt?

Greetings from San Jose, CA. Today's conversation has been so interesting to me and fun to read! Growing up in NY, my memories from phone numbers was having the first 2 being letters instead of numbers... FL 9-1234 (FL standing for Flushing). I remember when those letters turned into numbers and the letters became obsolete. That seemed like a big deal then. Nothing compared to what I've been reading about today, though. I LOVE THIS SITE!

This is a bit off of the subject; [a yooper thing] does anyone know how to spell [chook] as in the knit hat? Where did the name come from? When I was growing up that's all it was known as; never heard it called a hat or cap. The spelling that I used is only a guess, I'm not sure if it's correct or not?

Thank you Mr. Dave of Laurium for getting back to me. W - O - W ! You are a true gentleman. I never realized there were so many variations, some most pleasing and mouth watering ones. It seems to me that one would have to be in a kitchen a long while to make these pasties, or is it better to call them pastries? I really want to try to make one, but I think I will need help as I am lost when it comes to a kitchen. What is suet, and where would I find it in a market?

OH DEAR never EVER call em PASTRIES..

Suet pasties are the best ..
BUT they are basically are unhealthy wads of fat from the butcher ..use crisco or butter EH..

Thank you most kindly, Pastry Central. What a wonderful benefit for the aged. Thank you for answering my questions. Now more that ever do I want to try one. I will get my kitchen staff right on it, and if that doesn't work I will order some.

NO self respecting Yooper would do this but
you can use frozen in a box pie crust in a pinch ..NOT nearly as good but if you are in a hurry it works..I hope my pasty making grandma in Lake linden forgives me for saying this.

Dave of Mohawk - apparently chook is the MI way of pronouncing the French (Canadian) "toque" as in tuke.

http://www.thedesignfort.com/blog/archives/000058.html

To Dave of Mohawk, A chook is the way most of us pronounce what is a (toque) Probably French Canadian, meaning a bonnet,cap,or hat with or without a brim.

To Elvira, A rutabaga is a type of turnip.

Party lines ... we had one when I was growing up in Chassell in the 60's. Fortunately, we shared our line with an elderly woman who was nearly deaf and spoke no English, so she didn't use the phone much. My grandmother's line was a little busier. I can remember her being a little rude with people who would call and call people who were not at home. We could also dial the last five digits to other 523 numbers until sometime in the late 70's. The also changed numbers at that time so that they were all 523-4NNN.

If you dont like fat, venison pasties are very good. For those of you who dont know what venison is, its deer meat, very good. The locals here call it high speed beef.

Thanks everyone for all your input. Suet Lover...I certainly can not use that. Oh Dear, is lard a type of suet? Thank you Pasty Pete, and Single Guy.

Our phone # was 430. Uncle Wayne was 23. If the fire whistle blew you just picked up the phone and asked; "where is the fire?"

After calling my buddy several times the operator told me they had gone away for the weekend.

My brother Chris would just pick up the phone and ask for Aunt Jane.

Almost May Berry USA.

Elvira: Your posts are most interesting, especially the part that you will get 'your kithcen staff' (?) to make some pasties. Where are you from?

I still call those hats chooks. One day when my grandson was little I said go get your chook. Well he stood there and looked puzzled at me and said "What is my Chook Gramma?"I had to laugh.

Whoops! That should be Fran,Ga but I am a Gran.

CaK I have many homes, but was born in Kansas.

My mother was one of the operators that all of you used to give your numbers to. Ours was 2828, it is the only one that I can remember now. When the phone company changed over to dial she was still working for the phone company. I do believe she told me that her switch board and head set is the one that is in the musem in Lake Linden. I have been gone from the UP now for over 30 years but hope to return to the simpler way of life in the near future.

In the 80s I recieved speeding tickets four years in a row in the U.P.. Must say,deserved them all. Now the plan is to race to the bridge
take our time up there and enjoy the beauty
that is around every curve.Havent had a ticket since.

Interesting coincidence-Elvira The Mistress of Darkess also known as Cassandra Peterson-and was born in Kansas...could there be a celebrity joining us at Pasty Central? Although I was under the impression that Elvira/Cassandra Peterson was a vegetarian?

When we got our phone in Hubbell, the phone man put two big dry cell batteries on top of the basement wall. I guess they were to ring the bell. There was no dial on that phone. Here in Cornell a few years ago, we were on a 9 party line. Ours was one long ring and three short ones. When I came here in '92 (to the house I live in now) I was on a two party line, not near as bad.

Forgot that my uncle and aunt, George and Pauline Maki from Pelkie had a crank phone in the kitchen.

greenbay: As I recall it, the dial system used a thing called crossbar. Hubbell was already established with 4 digit numbers. When Lake Linden was added, four digits weren't enough. Hence, the prefix 6, plus the original four numbers. In my case, phone numbers went from 5141 to 6-5141 to 296-5141.

HMM in responding to the response to her question about what suet is, Elvira did say .."I certainly can not use that. Oh Dear, is lard a type of suet? " seems like a possible vegetarian thought ..not that there is anything wrong with that.perhaps we do have a celeb among us..

All this talk about phone numbers brought some old tunes from the past:

Pennsylvania 6-5000 by Glenn Miller

Beechwood 4-5789 (The Marvelettes)

867-5309 (Jenny) by Tommy Tutone
(By the way, there is an interesting item about this song here: Urban Legends Jenny 867-5309)

For those that remember them, now try to get those songs out of your mind ;)

.

a 'chook' is a New Zealand slang word for chicken.
-and speaking of meat, sorry, but there is no such thing
as a vegan pasty, folks.

Carl, Yooper, you're right about the telephone company leasing phones to its customers being a sweet deal, but the old dial phone we had when I was growing up had a long cord from the wall jack to the phone so you could move the phone from the hall into the kitchen or bedroom. My mom had this habit of putting the phone on the counter next to the sink and then moving to the stove, pulling the phone into the sink full of dish water. Ruined more phones that way, but the phone company replaced them at no charge.
When I got my first phone I opted for a party line because it was cheaper than a single line, but a few months later Ma Bell did away with party lines so we had to change to the more expensive single line. They also had limited service at a lower price so if you didn't make a lot of calls (less than 50 a month) you paid less, but I understand you can't get that anymore either.

Anyone remember the place in the Detroit area (when WKBD was on the local cable) whose number was TYler8-7100?

Mr. Belvedere? (We do good work!)

Sorry Aunt Mary, it was a crazy weekend. Twenty hours of driving for a 36 hour stay. We will see you in three weeks.

Brad

Yes, I remember Mr. Belvedere. I grew up in Detroit in the 60's.

"Call TYler87100 for a home improvement date. . "

EVEN AS A YOOPER .. thanks to WKBD ,i still cannot get the theme to JOSHUA DOORE FURNITURE {sp} out of my head.

Remember Taylor Electirc in Laurium's slogan? " You phone us, we'll wire you" ?

Along with the phone theme, well sorta, we had to WALK to get our mail. First it came across the channel by boat in summer, by snowshoe in winter. Then the post mistress (BT's mom) would divy it up and put it into the wall of little boxes. I don't remember our number, 29 maybe.
I am hearing the song "Memories, like the...."ok so I can't remember the song, just the tune.
The old days were good. But today is good, too. Think of the fact that we couldn't be "talking" to each other from all points on the globe without the internet.
I do remember getting our road mailbox. I somehow Knew it was the end of something....something grand and different than any other place on earth. I knew it meant that the man who did the rowing and the "shussing" was too old for that sort of work.
Now we get edgy if the mail arrives past 11 a.m. and we don't have mail on certain holidays.
Hi to Betty, BT, and dah sistahs. AND the Jake ladies.

sandstone princess

Where was this that you had to row across a channel?

WE DO GOOD WORK!! MR. BELVEDERE!!
I THINK HE IS STILL ON TV!!!

Carl, yooper: I never had to row, the mailman did, he brought the mail over....between Jacobsville and Chassell. That is how it came, then we just hiked it on down the road a bit. Always knew when it came as we saw the man drive by. I am sorry, I honestly don't remember his name, I just remember he was older....probably like my age now!
He would leave his car at the Jacobsville/White City actually, landing and then had a vehicle on the other side. Get it?
Sorry if it isn't clear.

Did Sam Studer deliver mail out to Jacobsville? I know he covered much of Bootjack from Lake Linden , into the 1970s.It would of been by VW no boats involved ..so maybe he did not go that far out.

Speaking of Elvira and ALSO WKBD.. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE GHOUL?

How about that ole Chuck Berry tune: "Los Angeles, give me Norfolk Virginia, TIdewater four ten 0 nine...tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin and the poor boy is doin fine..."
Can't wait to get UP north and hear all that good local music again, so much talent! 3 weeks n counting!

"You've got an uncle in the furniture business. Joshua Doore. Joshua Doore"

I can't get that one out of my head either.

And, yes, I remember the Ghoul, too.

Any body remember making a long distance call, "Hello operator I want to call California, Just a moment please... Long distance operator, I wnat to call California, I'll put you through to Chicago... I'll put you through to Kansas City... I'll put you through to... Finally you got to Calfornia!