Author Archives: calumetkid

Now, having lived eight decades, many past events pass by my mind. Here’s one: I played my first baseball game in the middle of 10th street and knew little about on what to do. Centerfield I was told to go. … Continue reading →

Approaching 80 years of life on planet earth facilitates reminiscing. I tend to do that often. What else can I do. In abundance that is. Aches and pains for sure but I seldom had such menaces way back then. A … Continue reading →

I’m stopped at the intersection of Treeline and Colonial Boulevard thinking of turning left. Sound familiar? If not, try it at 7:30 Monday morning. The traffic line is stopped dead, like in a dead line. After safely home 2 hours … Continue reading →

I’ve been absent far to long. Oftentimes I express self regret for absconding without reason or excuse. I have kept up with the Writers Group through the blessings of the technology age. Despite advancing age and increasing infirmities my intent … Continue reading →

I arrived at the apartment complex on a warm June afternoon. I was there to consider moving in with a buddy to share the costs of housing in the suburb of Detroit. His former roommate was transferred out and I … Continue reading →

Since my child hood I have really been interested in “review” exactly; judicial review. At the young age of 12 I became curious about laws. What were they, who said so, and the plaintive drag on every mother; “why?” My … Continue reading →

We’ve all made adjustments to our lives recently. But, my routine morning is to get the paper from the driveway through the garage. No adjustment there. My wife said often, “just use the front door”. But I never do. So … Continue reading →

Since childhood a virus was a cause for panic. The Virus that caused Polio was crippling and killing kids my age all over the country. This was the mid 1950s. My mother was in charge of me and my three … Continue reading →

Oceans are not blue Watching the waves break ashore Show relief is true   Pink sky on the sea Warns sailors and you and me Not tranquility The big war was fought Two oceans saved us from it To be … Continue reading →

Growing up in the small mining town of Calumet, Michigan in the forties and through the fifties, names and places are learned and wondered about.  I had not heard of Haile Selassie until one day, my all time favorite neighbor … Continue reading →

You can’t blame me for this one, I was just reacting in a neighborly fashion. Just, perchance, I met the fellow next door near our adjacent driveways. Soon his charming wife arrived and greetings and small talk wafted the air … Continue reading →

A new fountain was erected on the mall, as it was called, between the State Capitol and the Supreme Court buildings. The mall was more like a corridor of a stretch of a city expressway, drab concrete, but it did … Continue reading →

It ’twas’ alright, ten degrees Fahrenheit but clear as a jingle bell. Winter storm that dumped 20 inches had subsided ten hours ago. Blown out East where winter storms belong. Driveways cleared, parking lots cleared. Snow piled high 20 feet … Continue reading →

“Joe”, she says as I just dozed off again, after all it’s seven o’clock and raining, “you better get going, Al will be here in a minute or two”. “Okay, okay”, I murmur”, I’m up. Another day begins, and it’s … Continue reading →

Since becoming a State Trooper 52 long years ago, a “ticket” has been a central part of my life. Everybody I talk to seems to have had one or more of those controversial documents. Even long after I retired from … Continue reading →

Currently on the world stage many leaders and other notables are justly being called stupid. So I decided to look up the word in the dictionary just to reassure myself that I understood its meaning. I used my synonym finder … Continue reading →

I suppose “you would have had to have been there” to understand. The long winters of snow drifts, wind swept arctic looking landscapes, and high piles of shoveled and plowed snow demanded a new word to describe an assault on … Continue reading →

Just walking by and I was touched by an artist. His head held askance of me and the passing scene. I just glanced in his direction. Paintings just sitting there on stanchions hoping to be seen. I saw them all … Continue reading →

I really don’t regret much about my life so far, well past my 75th year.  The regrets are small almost insignificant. But I’ll relate one that persists after these many years.  That is; I never made it the big leagues.  … Continue reading →

Back up north is the cooler but comfortable environs I paused to think about “worrying”. I have chosen for the most part to not worry anymore. Well, you might think, is this writer for real? Yes he is. Example: The … Continue reading →

During the years twixt twelve and twenty the sox hops appeared at least once a week in the small towns of my youth. The disk jockey spun the 45 rpm records for fours straight with the latest teen tunes and … Continue reading →

Our recent American political environment has brought the concept of hate into the forefront of our concerns. Merrimen Webster defines hate: A-Intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or a sense of injury. B-Extreme dislike or disgust, antipathy, … Continue reading →

As a young boy I accumulated many toys, things, sports apparel, and baseball cards. A Lionel electric train, and an orange semi-trailer truck. I suppose my sisters collected dolls and Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. They were all more … Continue reading →

I’ve been away from home for most of the year and Thanksgiving Day is looming large in my mind and more so in my heart.  Thinking about the turkey dinner and all the extras lightened my sense of loneliness. But, … Continue reading →

I am a first. First boy of the marital union of my parents. Everything I ever did was a first. Even the second time I did something it was the first time I did it secondly. And on and on … Continue reading →

Urho Rantanen seventh son of his father, a seventh son himself, and second generation American of Finish ancestry, resided in a neat little house on the south side of the hill in Centennial Heights.  The baby of the baby of … Continue reading →

It’s a warm sunny day so all the kids hitch hiked down to the sandy beach on the shore of Lake Superior.  I decided to swim across the Portage Canal between the two light houses at the entrance.  The quarter … Continue reading →

It’s 7:59 A.M. on a standard cold day in February 1949.  As we often did the boys ran and slid on the snow packed streets on either side of the Morrison School before the bell rang. Time for me and … Continue reading →

Back in the sixties cars were getting faster, more powerful, playing into the hands and feet too of young hotrodders.  Shoe sizes seemed to be getting bigger after a kid got his drivers license.  Mine went from, a respectful size … Continue reading →

Okay, I’m a newly minted State Trooper way back in the sixties.  Remember them? People were supposed to be coming more enlightened and wise with the mind blowing drugs and all.  Not always true as this little vignette of my … Continue reading →

Remember the commands; Ctrl, Alt, Delete? Yes it was a chance to restart your computer, restart your whole life or so it seemed when computers were so new and difficult to use. But now, alas, things are much simpler. Just … Continue reading →

My New Year’s resolution is to do more for others that I do for myself.  Ha Ha. Lofty goal indeed. So how do I start. First thing; take a bike ride every day so I can stay in reasonably good … Continue reading →

When you’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t it is better to be damned for doing. Why? Well it takes a somebody to do something and a nobody to do nothing. Don’t be a nobody. Be … Continue reading →

I awoke just after daylight creeped into view.  My wife shrieked as I emerged from the bedroom; Snow, look at it its snowing, can you believe it?  It’s October, only. We are still “up north”, not yet set to go … Continue reading →

Every day a shot of caffeine gets delivered while the sun also rises. But more important, more pervasive, more wonderful is our house. Our house delivers fantastic feelings of security, comfort, and enjoyment every day. It’s the “up north” home … Continue reading →

So far this year, it has been like no other.  We began at the Pelican Preserve with the minor ailments that accompany aging thinking aloud, from time to time, how tough we have to be to get older.  “It’s not … Continue reading →

Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, stimulating city, traffic undisciplined yet no fender benders but at least a million close calls. No road rage despite everyone cutting off everyone else at every opportunity. Constant unrelenting lane changing making two lanes into three? Four? Yes! … Continue reading →

The old General Electric Theater program on CBS television , in the 1960s was promoted by their spokesman Ronald Reagan. The mantra was: Progress is our most important product. For 100 plus years the company was a major American corporation … Continue reading →

I’m at 30,000 feet heading out over the Atlantic. A wine glass in hand. What the hell is going he , she, (it), speaks to me. I’ve been wet inside to the brim 3 times already. The spectacular blonde, sweet … Continue reading →

Approach my home from either side and it looks like the front door.  Oh yes, the one that faces the street, it’s called Hawk’s Eye Drive, is welcoming to guests, family, and the two of us after a trip away. … Continue reading →

So many “first dates” it sounds like an oxymoron.  Who can remember except a teenager which I am decidedly not.  But it was probably Maryann who was the lucky girl.  The end of eighth grade.  A Girl Scout dance maybe … Continue reading →

I awoke early this morning as I most often do to read and enjoy quietude with a cup from the Keurig.  Starbuck’s Dark French Roast followed by a Pacific Gold decaf.  The light near my enveloping Lazy Boy shines directly … Continue reading →

Yes! It’s the place I want to go.  Since childhood we’ve all heard of Outer Mongolia as a place so remote, so barren, so far away.  It is far away.  If you go any further than that place you are … Continue reading →

I don’t know about you but I really think I have something important to say so that’s why I write.  I don’t do it just to pass the time of day, the morning, or the night.  What a waste of … Continue reading →

On a late autumn evening in the rural south end of the state I was assigned, with my partner Trooper Ed Wendry to patrol the northern half of Hillsdale County.  Soon after leaving the Post we got one of those … Continue reading →

As the rain continued and the coffee cooled, approaching a semi truck from behind with its blinding spray made the moment intensify to forget the dread at arrival. Rain, fatigue, trucks, the hated trio of travelers. Dad, the only vestige … Continue reading →

I was well into baseball by the time TV came around.  I listened intently to the radio broadcasts of the Tigers, the Detroit Tigers, my all time favorite team.  But then in 1954 baseball took an ominous turn.  It was … Continue reading →

Retirement!  That’s life without a duty. The duty in my case was to carry a gun, at all times, on or off duty.  The gun was in plain view while in uniform but concealed at all other times.  Exceptions were … Continue reading →

All we need to survive as a living person are the following three needs: We need to eat. We need to sleep. We need to secrete. Beyond those immutable needs we need nothing.  Everything else is a want.  A desire. … Continue reading →

Here I am, a little boy of merely 4 years old.  Not even in kindergarten yet. I am attached to my mom who showers me with unrequited love.  I am the apple of her eye, I think, I must be.  … Continue reading →

An iron foundry is well known for being a dirty place to work.  It is in addition a very hot place too.  For a century or more the molds that were the recipients of molten iron were made of sand.  … Continue reading →

Wheaties:  As a kid growing up, I just had to have Wheaties for breakfast.  Maybe even lunch.  Certainly for “bed lunch” just before 9:00 PM curfew.  How else could I grow up to be strong and healthy and become  a … Continue reading →

I can get along with very little but I don’t want to.  I like to do things that require the use of things to keep my mind agile and alert.  One set of golf clubs or two?   One car … Continue reading →

When teenage adolescence arrived without much prior notice, I suddenly took notice.  I noticed many things I did not have.  I noticed that I did not have a motor scooter, a red Cushman in fact, that some of my friends … Continue reading →

I’ve been waking up in the morning for well over 70 years now.  I’ve gone through phases,  (let’s call them phases) since I was born. The first phase I totally don’t remember but I heard about it.  I slept a … Continue reading →

It’s drizzling this morning and the outlook is sketchy but off I head to “work”.  It’s going to be another wonderful day.  You just wait and see. Retired for nearly fifteen years, but still, every Monday its off to work.  … Continue reading →

Talk about a steady job, my dad had it.  Joseph John Geshel was born February 28, 1901 says his birth certificate.  It had to be sworn to by witnesses some years later because the original was not found in the … Continue reading →

The veterans dwell amongst us We see them every day. But few if any know this. They are quiet, not much to say.   They were once up front in wartime, and peace was their fervent goal. They were there … Continue reading →

My old schoolmate Slabs slides easily back on to his tightly squeezed stool at Dillon’s Dam Brew Pub after his return from the urinal room.  He has already downed a pint of the 6.7 % IPA that is the signature … Continue reading →

We’re in Miss Gedda’s third grade class, Morrison School, 1953.  Deep into winter, hard packed snow on all the streets.  School will start in a minute or two.  The fifth grade boy just rang the bell. Each fifth grade student … Continue reading →

I awoke suddenly this Sunday Morning with a strange feeling.  Not explainable at all.  It was not unusual for me to be up and moving before 6 o’clock.  I know the routine; let my wife sleep awhile longer, tip toe … Continue reading →

I own a very modest library.  It is located on the south wall of “my” den where I live on a golf course in northern Michigan, United States of America, planet Earth.  I have read most of the books, well … Continue reading →

New Zeeland, South Island, December, 2006.  My wife Sue and I just had lunch at Waxy O’Shea’s, an Irish Pub in Invercargill, a quaint upbeat little town whose most illustrious resident inspired the movie “The World’s Fastest Indian”.  We agree … Continue reading →

Any wish that I could make is for the future you must see To wish I had or hadn’t may be for you but not for me Because the future is infinite The same is true for the past The … Continue reading →

I’m suffering, and I do mean suffering, from writer’s cramp.  Leaving the comforts of the Pelican coincides with my inspiration leaving me.  Hopefully this malady is temporary.  Treatment for this condition seems unavailable way up north.  Why is that? I … Continue reading →

Rico worked two jobs trying to keep up,  wealth wise, with his more able sister who was a lawyer making big bucks with high profile divorce matters.  Marla was known far and wide with her glib tongue, flattering demeanor, and … Continue reading →

It’s 8:15 PM on a chilly May evening, some fog is creeping up near my window ledge.  Sue, my wife of 45 years calls out from her perch under her reading lamp and my purloined teal recliner chair,  “Joe I … Continue reading →

Time is all contained in two eternities; the past and the future.  The present is really non-existent. Think for just a minute or two and you can adjust your life long thinking that may have led you to thinking there is … Continue reading →

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon way up in the north of Michigan and I do mean way up in the Keweenaw Peninsula.  Calumet township Yellow Jacket location.  There is a Red Jacket and a Blue Jacket too but I … Continue reading →

Spring has sprung and I am now all of seven years old.  Kids in the neighborhood gather in the street.  What’s going on?  I run over to find out.  Paul Rader yells out, ” we’re playing baseball.”  Do you know … Continue reading →

After all the years I have lived I can reduce my life to just one word: hallelujah. I was conceived and allowed to be born into this wonderful world of mother, father and family.  The same is true for all … Continue reading →

As a little boy in my neighborhood older people were dying.  First it was Joanna Machetti.  Soon it was Mr. Trione.  Then even Mr. Franaconi died too.  My mother had to go and visit their families because of this happening … Continue reading →

I have been trained for four months.  I’m a new Trooper assigned to a Post 592 miles from home.  I go to work with a senior officer who will observe, listen, and encourage my every thought, word, and deed.  Three … Continue reading →

Sitting amongst the bright and wise Is my idea of paradise. We wander through our many days But most of it is in a daze. We rise, we dine, and wash our face and leave the day without a trace. But … Continue reading →

I see a Little Leaguer hitting a bases loaded triple two games in a row. The cheers of his teammates and the smile of his coach. Without effort the mirror changes its reflection and shows a teenager dancing for the first time and  … Continue reading →

Full of snow once again my driveway can’t be seen Every morning all month long with no break in between But we all hope for a wonderful day, Valentine’s day I mean Reminds us of the love we share with … Continue reading →

I guess, but I’m not certain, that I first met Mr. Lincoln by looking at the first money I ever had; a penny.  I must have asked one of my older sisters, perhaps it was Sissy,  who was this guy … Continue reading →

The pundits are reeling.  The “know it all” media vipers have struck their fangs upon the rock of the American voter.  And their teeth got broken.  Through the social media, now so prevalent and pervasive, like our vascular and lymphatic … Continue reading →

I have a new friend named George He said he is up from the gorge Now he writes prose from his heart to his nose And tells everyone just what he knows. Another new friend named Judy Arrived in the … Continue reading →

Being allowed to be born and live is the fullest expression of love.  Without life there is no love.  God created us or at the very least allowed us to be created.  If one believes that God created heaven and … Continue reading →

At a time long, long, ago and in a place far, far, away The Force of the then known universe was loosed upon the infinity; Whereas; Darth Vader pummeled, vaporized, and beamed away the youth, vigor, and future of the … Continue reading →

We just returned from Cuba.  It is still 1959 all over the place.  The internet is just one year old there.  Everything “new” is concrete block.  Bare, poor mortar,  crumbs all around.  turquoise paint on the walls that can afford it.  … Continue reading →

The beauty of the harvest time has appeared here  once again. You see the awesome colors On hill, in vale, and plain. The Sun is slanted lower to better view the scenes The moon is even bigger ore the golden orb … Continue reading →

Before the end of Summer I’m warning all of you Be sure to walk on the grasses and feel the morning dew. There’s still time to go barefoot and sense nature’s way before the ground goes cold again and the … Continue reading →

The sun moves slowly up or so it seems.  Droplets  glisten on the grasses caressed by a breeze ever so gently.   Peeps, chirps, caws are heard as the celebration of the end of night begins.  Work to survive another day begins … Continue reading →

  As Summer rolls along with it’s gaiety, lounging, and sand kicking, well underway, August, with it’s eternal hot weather, tells the mind of the pleasures so far and the impending change just beyond the mental horizon.  Back to school ads pop up everywhere … Continue reading →

It’s early in the day, “crack” sounds out from the field.  The few birds gathered in the outfield for breakfast flutter at the sound but settle quickly again as if they know there’s no danger, , “it’s just the boys … Continue reading →

The media are busy they have something to say The Muslims have killed again on an ordinary day Another sad day for freedom. Again it was in France at a celebration place Killing little children at an alarming pace. Another sad day … Continue reading →

Once again an acquaintance barged into our  intellectual conversation with a piece of news with thunderous threats to our security.   No amount of moxie on our part could chase him off his wanton yarn of attention.  We got his drift.   And once … Continue reading →

I got up early to finish my morning paper route so that I would be available to enjoy this Fourth of July.  I was 14 and it was 1958.  It was a beautiful day, sunny, slight breeze, mid 70s.  Perfect day … Continue reading →

Phobias are fears without reason Recent terrorist’s terror brings reason to fear. Now there is no such thing as Islamophobia Failure to fight fearlessly fosters more fear and frenzy. A failed attempt to fight fully is bearing the sour inedible … Continue reading →

A flakey flash flooded my mind as I saw her walk by.  She revealed another case of our Creator’s splendid constructions.  How was I to know she would be there when I just happened to pull up the blinds to … Continue reading →

I awake each morning and gaze for a moment at the beautiful maple tree majestically hovering above our home.  It nods back with a little ruffle of its leaves and sprinkles a little friendly mist upon the lawn and the … Continue reading →

Life is ups and downs Living high the waves tonight headaches in the morn   You love me tonight Will you love me tomorrow? Let’s not miss the risk!   A five, seven, five The sequence of a Haiku Distills … Continue reading →

The recipe calls that I reduce the wine I’ll have a glass.   Hoot hoot of the owl A train whistles afar Night life passing through!   It’s green all around The Spring rain has fallen Now for Summer sun and … Continue reading →

Did I ever mention my friend Gail?  Probably not.  That’s because I didn’t think I knew any of you well enough to let you in on,  Gail.  OK.  Gail is a boy’s name.  Gale is a girl’s name.  Enough said. Gail … Continue reading →

In the long, cold, blustery, winters of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula ice hockey was all the rage.  Back in my early days the outdoor rinks were the training ground for the roughness and skating skill necessary to survive the worlds fastest sport.   … Continue reading →

The people who founded this great country of ours created a Constitution that enables you to choose your President every four years.  Tomorrow is that time again.  Your decision will affect the course of your life and importantly the lives … Continue reading →

I was beginning to write a poem About the sunshine and the rain When I was cruelly interrupted by another heart felt pain.   The terrorists in Brussels Yes, the cowards have struck again They killed some innocent loved ones at the … Continue reading →