To Hell and Back

Those of you in Michigan will especially appreciate this piece by Bill Chapin, whose parents and grandparents are long-time members of Portage Yacht Club where we all grew up. Bill graduated with, I believe, a journalism degree from Northwestern and now writes for the Port Huron (Michigan) Times Herald. This column appeared in September after the PYC Hot-to-Trot Regatta. A tip of the sombrero to Bill's dad, Clark Chapin, for sending us this....


The Name Says it All -- Visiting Port Huron Not Like Going to Hell

Originally published Friday, September 22, 2006

Last weekend, for the first time, I went to Hell.

The small lake where my father has raced sailboats since the 1960s is just five minutes up the road from Hell in Livingston County's Putnam Township. I've been going to the lake my entire life, but I'd never made the trip down -- appropriately enough -- Darwin Road to Hell.

On Saturday, some fellow sailors decided we needed to take the out-of-state visitors to the Dam Site Inn, one of three buildings in Hell. The unincorporated community of about 250 people doesn't have much to offer other than the biker bar, a general store, an ice cream parlor and a canoe livery.

For being in the middle of nowhere, the Dam Site Inn was damn crowded. The pizza was damn spicy and the band played some damn good John Mellencamp tunes.

Hell started out as swampy stop along the trail between Lansing and Dexter. In the 1830s, a New York farmer named George Reeves established a mill and general store along the creek.

According to the community's not-quite-official Web site, www.hell2u.com, the name became official on Oct. 13, 1841. Legend has it a representative from the state asked Reeves the name of his little town, and he replied, "Call it Hell for all I care!"

On my way to the bar, I called my girlfriend in Port Huron to tell her my plans for the evening.

"You have fun doing whatever you're doing tonight," I said.

"And you go to Hell," she said.

See? That gag never gets old -- which is the point. The town has made an industry out of Hell-themed kitsch. People go out of their way to get their taxes postmarked at the general store.

Perhaps this is what Port Huron is lacking. Thousands of people pass our city every day to cross the Blue Water Bridge, but most of them never exit the freeway to buy a T-shirt. "I've been to Port Huron and back" just doesn't have the same zing as Hell's version.

Other towns have changed their names to scare up some tourism. Residents of Hot Springs, N.M., in 1950 voted to change the town's name to Truth or Consequences after the NBC game show. Halfway, Ore., is now Half.com, Ore., having sold its name to an Internet company. There's Monkey's Eyebrow, Ariz.; Spuds, Fla.; Krypton, Ky.; Novelty, Mo.; Happyland, Okla.; and Oatmeal, Texas.

Surely Port Huron can come up with something equally oddball. We can't go halfway (or half.com, for that matter) on this. It's got to be something so bizarre no one could possibly pass by without getting out of the car to get a picture taken next to the "welcome" sign.

Is Bad Axe already taken? It is?

Hmmmm. Well, send me your ideas.

What I'm digging: I'm going to pull a Mitch Albom and write about something that happened after my deadline as if I had actually been there. Heirs' final show on Thursday at Military Street Music Café was amazing. Tears were shed as the band members gave a big thank you to all their fans. Great show, guys.

Contact Bill Chapin at (810) 989-0741 or bchapin@gannett.com.

UM-OSU Live -- at Home in Spain

Indeed, What Hath God Wrought? Tonight am sitting at home in Spain and found that, for a small fee, it is possible to watch the Michigan - Ohio State football game on ABC/ESPN -- live on the internet. Unfortunately, OSU has just gone up 21-7. But now Michigan has come back 21-14. Enough -- no more live blogging.

Shoe Queens

Warm, sunny weather has returned to VLC this weekend with temps in the mid-20s (75F) and hardly a cloud in the sky. The ladies (from left: Hayley, Meg, Meggie and Rebecca) shoot some hoops -- all in Converse sneakers, albeit different colours -- before heading to Bonaire shopping mall, "prolly to buy more shoes, Dad."



Converse Queens: clockwise from lower left, Meggie, Meg, Rebecca and Hayley.

Maui Musings

UPDATE, 2000 Sat 18 Nov -- This email from Yenna just received: "Very nice...thank you for linking to my blog from yours. Yes, Nalu looks like a mini Paul but Roxane has more of the gregarious nature typical of the Ehman family. The "Kaisermantel" is a butterfly. We were hiking in the Black Forest, as we do every year. The kids are very good hikers and with small bribes of Gummi Bären will do amazing distances." And Yenna sent this photo of the twins together....



Adorable twinners: Roxane Gaedeke and Nalu Ehman.


Delighted to hear from Adrienne "Yenna" Gaedeke about the new family blog she is maintaining for herself and the twins Roxane and Nalu (Yenna's and brother Paul's kids) called Haiku Breeze. Here are two photos of the kids (Meg's cousins) lifted from Yenna's nice blog....



Photo entitled, "Nalu mit Kaisermantel." Yenna is German, and a literal translation of "Kaisermantel" is "Emporer's Robe." Not sure if that is some sort of small fish or bug? Mein Got, does he look like Paul or what?



Roxane, who is having quite some success as a cross-country
runner, is also a cover girl.

Bo Schembechler, Football Great of Michigan

We were sorry tonight to hear the news, but somehow it seems appropriate that it happened on the eve of yet another pivotal UM-OSU football game. I barely knew Mr Schembechler, though I did coach his son on a hockey team or two while running the Ann Arbor youth hockey program in the '70's. If memory serves, Mrs. Schembechler has long since passed away. Condolences to the family, and everyone in Ann Arbor -- and Michigan, if not Ohio -- this evening who are saddened by his passing.

Nice obit in the New York Times (with thanks to YP)

Closer to home piece in the Saturday Detroit News

Funnier than Hell

You may recall our post earlier this year about the town of Hell, Michigan (no joke). Well, it appears Austria has a leg up on Michigan when it comes to town names.

Even the headline of the following article is funny -- it should have read Austrians Not Amused. But then, LOL, it was a French story (from the AFP -- French Press Agency) that appeared in a British newspaper about a town in Austria. As usual you can click on the images to enlarge, including the newspaper article.

Musical Skills

Here's a test that for sure Grandma Jan, Lynn Hill (Grandpa Tom's partner), sister Ruth and Meg will enjoy, and others of you who are musically inclined -- or think that you might be:

http://jakemandell.com/2006/test-your-musical-skills-in-6-minutes/



Grandma Jan grooving to Diana Krall on my Palm, in a January '05 photo. She plays the guitar, too, and wrote lots of skits and songs for yacht club and school functions when we were growing up. A good influence on the rest of -- a musical diamond in the rough.



Lynn Hill is a superb piano player who, when not lawyering. plays professionally. Last we knew she was the choirmaster at the Webster United Church of Christ. Tom Sr. reminds us that Lynn is a good organ player as well. Summer 2004 photo from an apres-race jam session at Portage YC.



Speaking of roses on a piano, Meg is an accomplished if sometimes unwilling piano player, shown here at a party at our home in Valencia last Thanksgiving in a duet. These days she would rather play the guitar, and does so skillfully.



Sister Ruth, when not playing with her snakes or keeping things on track in the office at Portage YC, sings in the choir at Webster Church -- and just about any other time someone picks up a guitar. This is a summer 2004 photo at Ruth's farm in Michigan.



They keep a guitar for us at the Lambrusceria Ristorante (a.k.a. "The Docks") here in Valencia for the occasional after-dinner jam session. This phone-cam photo is from a dinner there last week in which our new friend "Tony" -- a very talented street musician from Bulgaria -- joined in on his sax.

Junior Ministry People...

...or so the popular dance club Guru calls the 14-17yo crowd admitted on Friday and Saturday nights from 1900 to 2200 (national ID card or passport required). Photo above taken as Rebecca (SWE), Hayley (USA), Meggie (AUS) and Meg were heading to Guru, as they often do on Saturday nights, where they will will meet up with a number of their other AC and school friends. Hayley's father took them; I get to go pick them up afterwards at, where else, the Ben & Jerry's in the mall outside the club where they like to relax with an apres-club helado. Still kids after all, thank goodness.

Quote for the Week

"Americans will always do the right thing, after they have
exhausted all the alternatives." --Winston Churchill

Allianz Cup a Great Success

Last week at the Allianz Cup in San Francisco, Larry Ellison (right) tries to roll over Paolo Cian in their Flight 1 match, won by Cian. (Allianz Cup/Bob Grieser photo.)



It was a pleasure to serve as the host of the race commentary and emcee of the post-race press conferences. Details also at the BMW ORACLE Racing Blog and Sail.tv.



While in SFO, we were invited to attend the Oracle Open World concert Tuesday night featuring Elton John. I accompanied Judy Sim (above, left), a good friend and Chief Marketing Officer of Oracle Corp. As such Judy is liaison to our AC team on behalf of Oracle, to say nothing of being the overall organizer of Oracle Open World. With 40,000+ attendees, it is one of the largest annual conventions in the world.