Posted in Historical on July 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The 1954 Chevy Belaire is a real beauty. I had it at a car show last evening. I took my mother along. The car was originally purchased in 1954 at Plumville, Pennsylvania.
I have come to the realization that it has come a time when I wish to sell the car. I have no children or grandchildren to leave the car at a future date. Please contact me if interested. (hemlock404@windstream.net)
As one can see with the photos this is a gem of a car. It spent most of the years in a garage setting.
Posted in Music on July 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Ron Negley on the right.
Many years ago, Ron Negley and I were part of the band scene. This was in the latter part of the seventies! A long time. He played the drums, and played them very professionally, and later he added some keyboards before we drifted in new directions. Ron moved in with other music and I eventually quit the band circuit for a long time as well. In fact, Ron’s new band were to play music at my wedding in 1979. They couldn’t make it, and he sent along another band to fill the void.
Recently we met up again through social media and today, July 21, 2025, we managed to make our scheduling work to get, an actual physical get together again. All these years and we finally greeted each other again.
We talked music almost the entire afternoon with lots of laughs. We talked about the many musicians we encountered in our lives. Those years in bands were a great time allowing to learn much about life. It is hard to believe how I wasn’t old enough to play out at clubs for a number of years until I reached the magic age of twenty-one.
Left to right…Ron Koedel, George Penn, Ron Negley on drums and Larry Smail on five-string banjo.
Posted in Mackinac Island on July 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Laurie and I spent some time on Mackinac Island recently for a getaway. Some interesting points about the island are there are no cars allowed on the island. This law was adapted in 1898. Besides that fact one has to wonder how the cars were originally present. There is no bridge to the island. So, this would mean even in that time any cars would need to be had been taken across by ferry. This was how we ventured to be on the island. Ferry boats schedule routine trips through the waters of Lake Huron. North of this island the Mackinac Bridge covers a long distance over the waters. I was told on windy days the bridge sways approximately fifteen feet.
Mackinac bridge
The island, to travel along the shoreline is around eight miles long. Over eighty percent of the island is state park. This became a park in 1875. This was before the island was handed over to the United States following the War of 1812. The Bristish built Fort Mackinac in 1780 during the timing of the fur trade.
In early history various native people lived on the island. One native legend tells of a giant turtle becoming the island. They called the island the Great Turtle. Mackinac is the Indian name for Great turtle. Europeans began to arrive in the seventeenth century for furs.
Today, over five-hundred horses are on the island. These horses pull various carriages and wagons all over the island areas. I watched very early prior to sunrise a freight boat bringing two food trucks into port. Immediately four forklifts unloaded to wagons ready to take the goods to wherever needed. Also, wagons would be viewed on the streets delivering packages. You could see many were from Amazon logo.
We toured the area including some of the park via carriages.
We visited and had lunch at the famous Grand Hotel. This building is very huge. This hotel opened in 1887. Many politicians and famous and wealthy people have been at this hotel. Movies were made on site too. One of the more recent movies was Somewhere in Time starting Christpher Reeves and Jane Seymore. (1980)
The streets are hosed down every night to help clean up horse fecal matter. Crews remove the bulk during the day.
From our third-floor balcony.
From our third-floor balcony. Notice the Fort Mackinac above the streets.
Larry A. Smail's Blog 