Activity surrounding the first day of Grand Blanc’s eighth-grade football practice came to a virtual standstill when Alicia Woollcott entered the room.
Paul Owsinski, (lead guitar) and Horn have known each other since long before Owsinski joined JFQ. “Bruce and I go way back – we were college buddies at UM-Flint Jazz Band,” he explains. Aaron Reinhard, on drums and vocals, also went to UM-Flint, but it wasn’t until Horn reached out to him last November that the current group came together.
At The Four Paws Hotel & Day Resort in Grand Blanc, it really is a dog’s life!
Youth who are detained in Genesee Valley Regional Center (GVRC) can become very quiet voices in a society that finds it easier not to think about them, let alone give them a platform from which to speak. But, The GVRC Share Art Program, a partnership with Buckham Gallery, gives these kids a space where they can cultivate and develop their voices. It’s a place to find positive relationships and a way to express themselves, to learn from the voices of historical figures and role models, and also think critically about themselves and their environment.
Illustrations by Andrew Ward
Red or white? Sweet or dry? Just what type of wine should you serve with Thanksgiving dinner? Hassan Rutherford is the wine steward at The Laundry in Fenton. Passionate about wine, Rutherford shares his pairing of wines with each course of a Thanksgiving Day meal served at the popular eatery. “All of our wait staff is knowledgeable about wine,” he states.
Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson was a famous aeronautical and systems engineer who has ties to Flint. He was born in 1910 to Swedish immigrants Peter and Christine Johnson, in Ishpeming, a small town in the Upper Peninsula. Johnson was raised in Flint, according to his niece, Lois Craig, a Flint native best known for her work with Special Olympics and the Crim Road Race. He went to school at Flint Junior College (now Mott Community College) and went on to continue his studies at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was given his Irish nickname, “Kelly,” after a schoolyard fight with a bully in grade school. “He was the seventh of nine children,” Craig remembers. “He was talented and very intelligent.” He passed away in 1990.
Off the beaten path in Montrose, there’s a quirky, little museum – the Montrose Historical & Telephone Pioneer Museum. And according to Joe Follett, President, it is the first of its kind in Michigan. Housed in a building that was once the Public Service Telephone Company of Montrose, the museum features almost every kind of telephone and telephone equipment, going back to the dawn of telecommunication. It features all makes and models, from old operator switchboards to the dawn of the cellular phone. The building is also home to the Montrose Area Historical Association’s museum. But what will catch your eye in this collection is the dazzling array of phones in colors and shapes you probably didn’t know existed!
The youngest players seem almost too small for their bodies to support a helmet and pads, but their passion for football is unmistakable. The Great Lakes Recreational Football League (GLRFL), with players as young as seven, kicked off its inaugural season this fall. Games feature the same sights (thrilling plays, vocal coaches, enthusiastic cheerleaders), sounds (smack of pads, shrill of whistles) and smells (concession-stand fare, freshly-cut grass) as typical high school games – only on a smaller scale. The size of the hearts of those involved, however, is the same.
Serving his country during the Vietnam War was a life-altering experience for Joe Mishler of Holly. Drafted in October 1966, he served in the U.S. Army until his discharge in August 1968. He completed basic training at Fort Knox and Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was with B Company, 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. “Basic training wasn’t as bad as people say it is,” he remembers. And his thoughts on being drafted: “I was glad to get away from home after flunking out of college.”
