Ontonagon, MI

The main street of Ontonagon is lined with flags and Doodle kept saying, “The U.S. flag!” over and over until finally Tomcat blurted out, “This town sure loves their country. I bet there’re more flags per capita here than anywhere else!”

Asking where we should go for breakfast, I was told in an unrecognizable accent, “Jusup on’lefit sls.” “I’m sorry, where?” Again, ““Jusup on’lefit sls.” I’m pretty good at this stuff actually and I repeated, “Up on the left at a place called Sales?” The guy looked at me funny and said, “No, Syls: s-y-l-s.” As if I was supposed to have heard that before!

We went for ice-cream and a latte at Connie’s where we met a boy around Niece’s age. I asked him if they had Internet access and he said, “Well, there’s a computer here but I’d need to plug it in. Actually, I don’t even know how to turn it on.” We all just stared at him and he goes, “So where you live…you just walk to someplace…and then your computer works?” “Yep, pretty much.” He goes, “Yeah, it’s not like that here.”

So, I launch into my favorite question, “What state would you like to see that you’ve never been?” He thought a minute, when his face lit up, “Texas!” A shocked groan from Niece! He goes, “You know all the cowboys and stuff. Do you really wear cowboy boots down there?” I was thinking the guys in the pick-up from last night look more like Texans than my niece!

The laughter didn’t stop there. This kid was just so innocent, you couldn’t help but love him. I asked if he’d actually been anywhere before and he said, “Yeah, I went to Florida once. There were a lot of Mexicans. Not that I’m racist or anything [we believe you!], it’s just that I’d never seen one before. We don’t have any here. Black people either. Except one just moved in.”

In need of a home-cooked meal, we found ourselves in the local grocery store. It was like stepping back in time. Aqua Net hair spray and Flex shampoo lined the first aisle. Head cheese, fresh bologna, fruit cocktail and canned Parmesan were plentiful, but our idea of food? Not so much. Asking if they had any butter, I followed their finger to a large package of Lard. No thanks. Despite all this, we had a really nice dinner back at the cabin followed by a fire on the beach, and S’mores.

Happy, happy children every single one of us!