"Johnny Mike Saved my Life"

The summers following graduation were spent in a party mode, at least every other evening. We would score some beer, head to the designated party site, including Little Harbor Road, Billing's cabin, Hinkson's cabin, Duck Inn, and Makel's cabin. This particular evening it was Anderson's cabin.

Johnny Mike, center on the championship Emerald football team, had his old Model A, and I was the passenger. We notified some of our friends that the party was at my cabin that night, and we got some beer to drink, and maybe enough to share as well. After three or four beers, we decided that no one else was going to show up. What should we do for entertainment?

I had a brain flash. “Moby,” (for that was his nickname), “I heard that Carol was dating one of the guys from Kentucky, who were staying at Carol's home. I also heard that they were planning to go skinny dipping at the 'Cope' tonight.”

Carol was one of the more beautiful girls in high school, so this was something to be checked out. Johnny Mike said, “What are we waiting for? Let's go!”

We jumped into the Model A. I assumed that Johnny Mike was the more sober of the two of us, but how could I tell? I was pretty drunk. We drove to the Cope bridge, and, sure enough, a boy and a girl were skinny dipping in the river. I jumped out of the car and ran to the river.

“Carol, I love you,” I shouted , as I waded into the river. All of a sudden, the current got me, and I was too drunk to swim. I panicked! I couldn't make my arms move, and my soaked clothes were taking me to the bottom!

Johnny Mike grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me out of the river. He said, “I don't think that you should be doing that, Andy.”

I was forever grateful.

Post note: Many years later, I had occasion to check out this story with Carol. She says that she had not dated Tom from Kentucky, nor had she ever skinny dipped at the Cope. I'm not sure who that couple of skinny dippers were, but the girl was really beautiful that night.

"Barber on the Train"

Leo was a barber who worked in Clint's Barber Shop a few doors down from my dad's drugstore. Leo was my friend Bobby's dad. Bobby, upon graduation, had joined the US Coast Guard, but they released him because it was discovered that he was color blind. When I underperformed at the University of Chicago, I went to the post office to join the U. S. Navy, but only the Coast Guard recruiter was there. I certainly didn't want to join that chicken s**t outfit that didn't take Bobby, so I opted to wait another week for the navy recruiter. Luck had it that I ended up at Western Michigan University instead.

...but back to Leo. I have no idea that the amazing story that Leo told was true, but I had no reason to doubt its accuracy. Leo told us that he had worked on the Haywire Rail Road, (really the Ann Arbor R.R.), before he started barbering. The Haywire would run to Shingleton a couple of times a day to pickup rail cars loaded with iron ore and other materials, to be shipped from Manistique on the car ferry. The car ferry provided passive sport for the people of Manistique. On any given evening, we would load the family into the car and either watch the car ferry load up or watch the Soo Line train stop at the train station. Both sports were equally entertaining.

One particular day, Leo was riding in the Haywire caboose, as the train chugged toward Shingleton on its daily run through the woods. The engineer called back to Leo on the walkie-talkie, “Look out on the right side of the train!”

Leo took a look out the window and spotted a deer running alongside the train. The doe, apparently wanted to get to the other side of the tracks, but the train was in the way, so she was running alongside the train until it passed. As the caboose edged closer to the deer, Leo grabbed a knife, and he jammed a flare into his belt. Leo climbed down the steps of the caboose, waited until the deer was alongside, and jumped on her back. With lightning speed, he sliced her neck, and the two of them tumbled into the brush. Except for a few bruises, Leo was fine. The deer took a last breath, then died.

Leo field dressed the deer, then waited about three hours for the train. When he heard the train coming, Leo lit the flare. The train stopped, they loaded the deer onto one of the cars, and headed for Manistique. When the train got to the Haywire station, Leo got off, and unloaded the deer, before the train continued on to the docks.

From then on, Leo was always my hero.

"Wrap that Rascal!"

by John B. Anderson

My father, Carl was a druggist and Faye, my mother, was a teacher. Sometimes Faye was a superintendent of schools for the Cooks School District. She was a full time English teacher, French teacher, substitute teacher and full time superintendent, all at once. The school maintenance man, Orville, was also a school board member at that time. The Cooks School now sometimes stores hay for a local farmer.

Carl's job as a druggist was more fun. On one occasion, the sales representative from the Dean Rubber Manufacturing Company stopped in to push his condom products. He presented my dad with an oversized condom that was approximately 10 inches long, with a diameter of about three inches. On its side was stamped, “MEDIUM”. What an opportunity for mischief!

One of Carl's buddies stopped in the drug store a few days later to purchase some condoms. In those days, the rubbers were stashed discretely back by the pharmacy counter, apparently so some of us teens weren't encouraged to be bad. My dad's friend said, “Give me a dozen Trojan's, Carl.”

My dad asked, “What size do you prefer? Small, medium or large?”

“Heh, heh. Give me the large size.

Carl held up the special condom, and said, “This is a medium.”

“You'd better make that a box of smalls, please.”

Later on that week, Carl had lunch at the Eat Shop with a couple of business associates. Joining my dad, were Herb the jeweler and Evelyn who owned the dress shop down the street. Carl sat next to Evelyn in the booth. Halfway through lunch, my dad faked a cough, reached into his back pocket to get his hanky, and out fell the rubber onto the seat between Carl and Evelyn. After taking a second to look at the monster, Evelyn remarked, “I don't know if I should pity Faye, or be enormously jealous.”