Marcellus Part 2

I did like going to school in Marcellus. The students were all pretty nice, and the staff was great. My 5th Grade teacher was Mr. Lowery. Now that I look back, I think he may have been a pedophile though. I remember he used to grab the students legs when we were sitting around for reading time. If you were next to him sitting, he would slap his hand down on your thigh, and grip. Wow....that's kind of scary the more I think about that.

I was 6' tall and towered over everyone else in my class. Except for a girl named Laura. She was 5'10". We were like the twin towers of power. During gym class, we would rule the 5th grade basketball world. There was a girl that I really liked. Her name was Debbie Garcia, and I was so in love with her. She was my first "love" in elementary school. We went together for 2 weeks, but I was so shy I hardly even held her hand. My best friend was Jim. I won't say his last name, because later on in the story I will be ripping his dad apart for his psychotic behaviour. Jim and I hung out almost everyday after school. That was the first time I saw "Star Blazers". It was an awesome Japanese anime show that came on at 4pm daily. His parents owned a dairy farm, and I would love to go help Jim do his chores. I got to feed calfs, and watch the dairy milking machines at work. It was pretty cool having free access to a dairy farm and see how it all works.

I collected beer cans. It was a hobby I had started before I moved here. There were SO many country roads and dumps areas that I could find a pile of old cans that had not been touched in 25 years. And because they were steel cans, and deep into wooded areas, they were in great condition. Nowadays, it has been so long that a collector will never see this kind of treasure trove again.

There was a ski resort called Swiss Valley that was not to far from us. The owners daughter was in our class, so we got to go ski all of the time for reduced rates. the first time I ever went was less than fun., I went down the bunny hill just fine, but when I tried to use the rope that was on pulley to take me back up the hill, I fell on my ass. Then when I tried a second time, the rope shredded my non-ski gloves. I had to resort to walking up the hill sideways on my skis JUST to get to safety. I spent the rest of the night sitting in the lodge.

I'm still thinking about that teacher. I think I need to look into that. I'm kind of freaked out.

I will continue next time since I am just waiting for this page to lock up. I'll cover snowmobiles, psycho farmers and my first encounter with WIRX on the radio.

Stay tuned.....

Update: Blog?

It looks like the problem continues. I cannot post any pictures to my blog from my computer. I get about a paragraph into an update, and the "autosave" feature locks up the blog. I'm going to give it 24 more hours, and thenn decide if I have to move my page.

In the meantime, enjoy this video!

The story continues......tomorrow?

I can only fit in so many words before the blog fails AGAIN. Google has promised me (again) that it will be fixed in 24 hours. So, stay tuned for part 2 of my life and times in Marcellus tomorrow.

Ugh.....they better fix this crap!

Dateline: Marcellus Michigan

We moved from Hudsonville, MI to Marcellus in 1978. We went from living in a subdivision to a house in the middle of nowhere 7 miles from town. Now, to say middle of nowhere was exactly that. Our driveway was 1/4 mile long off of a road that was dirt. That is, if it was a straight shot. There were so many curves and hills to it, the length was more like 1/2 mile. The road we lived on was 3 miles long, and had 7 houses and 2 farms on it. We shared our driveway with one other house. We also shared a party line with them. Do you know what a party line is? You have your own phone number, but you share the phone line with someone else. You could pick up the phone and if your neighbor was on HIS phone, you would hear him talking and had to wait until he was off before you could use it. Dumbest thing I ever heard of.

We lived so far out of town that the bus that came to take us to school, was called "Boondocks Trolley" and had it written inside the bus on a sign. We actually live almost right on the Saint Joseph/Cass County border. Our house sat on 10 acres of useless dense woods that served no purpose except for skunks, deer and an occasional stray cow from the farm down the road. Garbage pickup? There was no garbage pickup. We were too far out. We had to make the 15 mile trek to the landfill once a week. It was a lonely area.

The first people my brother and I met were Sam and Chris. I won't mention the last name because they actually may be felons by now, and I wouldn't want them to find me and kill me. They were borderline hillbillies, but pretty nice kids. They had an older brother that had a 1969 Road Runner that he had beaten the crap out of. He loved to get it up to about 60mph, and lock the brakes and put it into a spin to bounce off the road berms on the shoulder of the road. I think he ran moonshine too....not sure. None of them went to school.....at least I never saw them there. They lived just up the road in a house surrounded by piles of scrap, and a huge pond. They had chickens running around that they would randomly shoot pellet guns at, not caring if they killed them or not. If they did happen to kill one, they would just process it by hand and put it in the freezer to eat.

Yup....

Seeing how I just got another blog error, I will have to continue this story tomorrow. Trust me, you won't want to miss it.

Test?

Test.....this is a test. Please work. Did it work? I dunno. Check it again. Ok, check it now. Did it work?


Maybe.

If you can read this, it worked. Enjoy these words.

Sadly, I still cannot insert pictures.

The Daily Skid Mark will be back.

Blog problems continue.

This is about how much I can type before the page gives me an error. I'm still working with Google to fix the problem with my blog page. The Daily Skid Mark shall rise again!

Damaged Blog?

I had a great story with pictures and stuff for today's blog. BUT for some reason my Google Blogger dashboard is not letting me update anything that has a picture. It won't load anything. Period. The story about my living in Marcellus Michigan in 1978-79 HAS to include the pictures I have. Otherwise, it's effect is lost.

So, I will try again tomorrow. I will give you a taste of what will be in the blog though.

1. The useless destruction of a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner.

2. A 4th grade teacher that, now that I think about was probably a sex offender.

3. A farmer that would get a dog. Spend 2 weeks training it, and shooting it if it didn't learn what he wanted it too.

4. School bus routes that took us through such bad roads, that they were called Boondocks Trolleys.

5. A neighbor that would get so drunk that he would pass out and leave his dog outside in dead of winter.

6. Old beer cans and dump sites.

7. Weird rednecks that loved to put chickens in a box and shoot said box with .22 rifles for kicks.

I could go on. So many disturbing things happened there. I will touch base on them when the Blog is fixed.

Slack Attack!

Howdy folks! Sorry I have been absent from the blog. We have had alot going on in our lives, and I needed to concentrate on what is important to maintain some stability. That being said, how are you guys doing?

Update on what I call "The Molding". Seems our choices are slim on what we can do. Either stay here and clean the mold ourselves, or try and find another home to rent. It would be cheaper to just stay here and deal with it, but that leaves a health issue. On the other hand, rentals are so expensive in our area. We can actually afford it, but the security deposit would break us.

So, I have decided that if I can work with our landlord and get the mold issue fixed, we will stay.

Everything else right now is trivial. A roof over our heads come first.

Did you know that the band Sugarloaf was originally called "Chocolate Hair"? I just saw that on Music Choice. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Anyways, I have a great story about living in Marcellus during 1978-1979 I will share with you tomorrow. I know I make alot of jokes about rednecks and stuff but THIS story will just kill you.

Take care! Great to be back!