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.