Although there are probably still pockets of snow deep in the backwoods of Cook County, for the most part it seems summer has arrived.
I’ve finally moved the pansies and petunias I purchased at the Great Expectations School plant sale outside where they have sprouted in the recent rain. I’ve enjoyed some walks in T-shirt weather and we’ve had a campfire in the yard.
As one of the people I interviewed this week said, “It’s a beautiful sunny day. It’s our reward for making it through the winter.”
There are pros and cons about the arrival of summer though. With warmer weather comes the invasion of seasonal visitors.
We can no longer zip around town easily doing errands in our vehicles. Trying to cross Highway 61 against the steady stream of cars topped with bicycles or trucks towing boats or ATV trailers slows everyone down. Parking spaces are harder to find. It’s good that the weather has improved. We’re forced to walk to the post office or grocery store because it’s faster, but we actually enjoy it.
Once we get to the grocery store or gas station, we’re met by lines at the register. It’s something that takes a little getting used to every summer.
But any inconvenience is outweighed by the delight of seeing friends and family returning from their winter homes. Chances are the people we end up next to at the cash register are relatives or dear friends we haven’t seen for a long time.
Summer is also a time of making new friends. The people who visit the North Shore—staying at a motel for the weekend or a cabin for the summer—are generally happy to be here. It’s a treat to chat with them, especially if they read the News- Herald.
Our seasonal friends are usually quite complimentary. They love our local newspaper. They ask interesting questions and they like to offer suggestions about what should and shouldn’t be covered, but they are gentle about it.
What is really fun is when someone is impressed to meet the editor—me. I don’t feel very impressive, but there are people who respect the title immensely. I try to be serious and editorlike, but I generally end up laughing.
As I did last week when I met a couple of ladies at Birchbark Books in Grand Marais. I rushed in to the bookstore next to our office to find a gift for a friend. Kathy Gray Anderson was working and to save time I made a beeline for her to ask for help finding what I needed.
I apologized when I realized I had interrupted her conversation with a couple of other shoppers. The gracious ladies recognized a busy person on a mission and said they didn’t mind at all. Kathy introduced me to them.
It turns out the friends— Hobbs and Jeri—are longtime North Shore visitors. They are retired oncology nurses who have been visiting Grand Marais and staying at Anderson’s Cabins in beautiful Croftville for years, enjoying the peace and quiet of that lovely spot on Lake Superior.
When Kathy told them who I was, they realized that I worked at the News-Herald. Hobbs joked that she couldn’t wait to tell her friends that she was “hobnobbing” with a newspaper editor.
Jeri cautioned her friend, “Be careful what you say—you’ll end up in the newspaper!”
She shared the story of her parents, who were good friends with a “newspaper man.” She said whenever the families got together, her mother would tell her dad, “Be careful what you say.”
Jeri said time and time again, someone in the family would say something that ended up in his column in the paper. And the newspaperman—Bill something— would greatly embellish whatever tale he had been told.
That really made me laugh, because I’ve had people react that way to me often. Sometimes a friend or acquaintance will stop mid-sentence and look at me nervously. “This won’t go in the paper will it?” they ask.
I don’t answer. I don’t make any promises. Sometimes what they say is just too interesting not to share in Unorganized Territory. Sometimes I take it as a personal challenge, to find a way to share the comments made.
And sometimes, yes, in my column—never in a news story—I embellish. But I won’t do that to Jeri and Hobbs. I think they will be surprised enough to find themselves quoted in print. Although Jeri should have known better. She should have known to “be careful what you say!”
Columnists write not just because they have something to say but also because they have to say something.
John Grimond
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