Speaker 1: Welcome to Macinaw Island Moments, hosted by lifelong islander Jason
Speaker 1: Saint and through conversations and interviews with Poe Island locals
Speaker 1: and residents, Jason will bring you the real stories and
Speaker 1: characters that define life on the island. Whether you're a
Speaker 1: seasoned visitor, new to mccaina Island, braving an islander yourself,
Speaker 1: you'll be sure to learn firsthand about the island with
Speaker 1: Jason on macin Island Moments.
Speaker 2: And Welcome to another edition of the Mackinaw Island Moments podcast,
Speaker 2: the only podcast that originates on macin Island by a
Speaker 2: born and raised islander. Folks. Here it is the middle
Speaker 2: of July. We're rating the thick of yacht races. We're
Speaker 2: on the second race, the Chicago to Mackinaw, the Chicago
Speaker 2: Yacht Club celebrating their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary this year.
Speaker 2: This is their one hundred and sixteenth, one hundred and
Speaker 2: seventeenth race. I'm probably wrong about that, but the club
Speaker 2: itself is one hundred and fifty. There's gonna be some
Speaker 2: fireworks I think tomorrow or Tuesday, I'm not sure. And
Speaker 2: because of that, we have a special yacht Race edition
Speaker 2: and instead of having a classic islander on board today
Speaker 2: we have Kim and Kathy now are now summer visitors,
Speaker 2: but they came that way by being summer workers, and
Speaker 2: they first came to mc and Island nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: And let me tell you things were a little different then.
Speaker 2: To get a job on mcin Island. There wasn't the Internet.
Speaker 2: You didn't have Facebook, job boards or any of that.
Speaker 2: So Kim and Cathy take it away. Take us through
Speaker 2: how you first came to macaw. How did you hear
Speaker 2: about this place? And folks, you're going to tell one
Speaker 2: of is has a southern draw a little bit, so
Speaker 2: it's not like you're from the Upper Peninsula or northern Michigan.
Speaker 2: But tell us how did you hear about mc and Island?
Speaker 2: How did you end up here?
Speaker 3: Well? I was in college and was summer before my
Speaker 3: senior year. My sister had worked here the summer before
Speaker 3: and we were in Mississippi and she one of her
Speaker 3: college roommates was from Michigan. So summer of eighty two
Speaker 3: she came up and worked at Little Bob's. So the
Speaker 3: next summer my heart was broken. My boyfriend dumped me
Speaker 3: and I said, I'm going north, And so Laura said,
Speaker 3: go to Mackinaw, my sister, and you'll get a job.
Speaker 3: I didn't have a job at two hundred dollars in
Speaker 3: my pocket. Took the Amtrak from Winona, Mississippi, spent the
Speaker 3: night in Flint, Michigan. Had two high school friends with
Speaker 3: me from Mississippi. Took the Greyhound, went all the way up,
Speaker 3: arrived on the island on May fifteenth, took the old
Speaker 3: Arnold ferry over and got a job. The next day,
Speaker 3: went into Little Bob's and.
Speaker 2: Got a job.
Speaker 3: And so that's and of course when you get a job,
Speaker 3: you get housing.
Speaker 2: Sure, where was Little Bob's housing? Then?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 2: Right upstairs?
Speaker 3: Was Palermo's house up behind Laschance the oldesto? Sure across
Speaker 3: from Pine Cottage?
Speaker 2: So up on Bogan Lane? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, wow? And
Speaker 2: that was Kathy. And so I want to hear Kim.
Speaker 2: How did Kim end up there?
Speaker 4: All right? So it was after my junior year, no
Speaker 4: sophomore year of college. I went to Miami University. And
Speaker 4: my dad had taken a job when I lived in
Speaker 4: Cincinnati and we had moved to Albany, Georgia, Albanny, Georgia,
Speaker 4: as they say. And the first summer after my freshman year,
Speaker 4: I spent in Cincinnati, and I didn't have a car.
Speaker 4: I was dependent on people, and I am not a
Speaker 4: dependent person. So after that, I was like, I have
Speaker 4: to go somewhere where I don't need a car, I
Speaker 4: can get a job and you know, just live on
Speaker 4: my own. And my current sister in law had worked
Speaker 4: up here at the Grand Hotel, so I was like,
Speaker 4: Macinnall is the place. And I talked a story sister
Speaker 4: mine into coming up and she bailed on me at
Speaker 4: the last minute. And I was like, I don't have
Speaker 4: any options. This is my option. So I remember my
Speaker 4: boyfriend put me on a Greyhound bus in Cincinnati, Ohio,
Speaker 4: dropped off in Macinawll City. I had this big old
Speaker 4: maroon suitcase and I draw, you know, no wheels at
Speaker 4: that time, you know, drugg to the ferry came across,
Speaker 4: and I did already have I knew enough that I
Speaker 4: had called around and got a job at Little Bob's. Okay, so,
Speaker 4: and I had rachelshit in college, so you know I
Speaker 4: had experience. Yeah. So I showed up probably two or
Speaker 4: three weeks after Cathy, okay, beginning of the season and
Speaker 4: it was cold Sole.
Speaker 2: So Little Bobs for those who are new to Macinar
Speaker 2: are new to the podcast, that was a restaurant right
Speaker 2: across the street from where they police station is now
Speaker 2: and the Yankee Rebels kind of remodeled that whole building
Speaker 2: and they they've kind of taken over. But Little Bob's
Speaker 2: was a was a family business and it was pretty
Speaker 2: renowned at the time. So back to those days, is
Speaker 2: there still people that you know you remember from working
Speaker 2: there that were on the island or I know you
Speaker 2: know one name I'd like to hear.
Speaker 4: Oh, well, well, Trush Bunker, we know she was. She
Speaker 4: was the salad girl. And then her mom, Elaine Lane. Yeah,
Speaker 4: she worked back in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: Elaine was great because we were just getting started and
Speaker 3: a little nervous about getting fired because you never quite
Speaker 3: knew if you were doing the right thing, and so
Speaker 3: Elaine was always back in the kitchen. I think she
Speaker 3: really did salad prep too, for they had a huge
Speaker 3: salad bar, and so she was very comforting. And the cooks,
Speaker 3: Darwin and Dwayne and Kevin, the h Wee Boys owners
Speaker 3: of the place. Darwin and Dwayne really took the took
Speaker 3: us under their wing too. They really liked us a lot,
Speaker 3: Kevin not so much. But so we had a great experience.
Speaker 3: There lots of funny stories. And I think I told
Speaker 3: you that it was tough at first because there wasn't
Speaker 3: much much business. On May fifteenth, it was freezing and
Speaker 3: here I had come all the way uprom Mississippi. But
Speaker 3: we got We worked for a couple of weeks. In
Speaker 3: my first paycheck, I was so excited to get it,
Speaker 3: and it was made out in the amount of zero
Speaker 3: because it was really a check with Zerra. I still
Speaker 3: have it because we had to take out for uniform
Speaker 3: costs and rent and my first paycheck.
Speaker 2: So how many years did you end up how many
Speaker 2: summers did you end up doing on the island.
Speaker 3: We just worked here one and then we came back
Speaker 3: in eighty seven to set with Kim's husband and Betsy,
Speaker 3: her sister in Lawhood worked up at the Grand in
Speaker 3: eighty and to celebrate the Grand's eighty seventh and what
Speaker 3: was hundredth hundred. What was interesting though, is we went
Speaker 3: to we were on the island and we were sort
Speaker 3: of grown up, more up then, but we were looking
Speaker 3: for where the islander parties were, because we really missed
Speaker 3: that that kind of fun of the island. Well, and
Speaker 3: then I got married on the island in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 3: and so that was and then Kim can tell us.
Speaker 4: The rest of the sum Yeah. Well, I was also
Speaker 4: going to say we only worked here one summer, because
Speaker 4: I think one of the things we're worried about is
Speaker 4: it would lose its magic if we came back and
Speaker 4: had a different experience than we did, because it was
Speaker 4: such a magical summer that we were afraid. So we
Speaker 4: actually worked in Hiltonhead the next summer. Oh, which that
Speaker 4: was kind of tough because again we didn't have transportation,
Speaker 4: and that is a place where there are cars, right,
Speaker 4: we had bikes.
Speaker 3: But that first summer was truly magical and it was
Speaker 3: just especially I felt like I'd come to another world
Speaker 3: and I realized that there was so much more than
Speaker 3: the South, and I thought it was a pivotal summer.
Speaker 3: I'm not going back, you know, I'm not going back
Speaker 3: South and it Now I'm a college professor in Ohio
Speaker 3: and I have students, some of whom have worked here,
Speaker 3: and some of them will come home to working a
Speaker 3: summer at Macanall, come back to school and they'll be
Speaker 3: I can't do this, I can't. And I always say,
Speaker 3: you gotta buckle down and get back in the real
Speaker 3: world or else. Don't let Macinaw ruin it. Don't ruin
Speaker 3: your wonderful summer, because then you come back and you
Speaker 3: can't get it together. I said, come back, get it together,
Speaker 3: and then you can you can have Macannon in your
Speaker 3: life the rest of your life, you know.
Speaker 2: Great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And as Kathy mentioned, she got married here in
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty nine, and then I had my second child
Speaker 4: in April ninety four and Kathy was graduating from grad
Speaker 4: school at Ohio State, and I just got this crazy idea.
Speaker 4: I don't know, maybe you know, I was just had
Speaker 4: a baby. Man, it was out of my mind. But
Speaker 4: I was like, let's go up to Macannall and celebrate like.
Speaker 2: My baby baby.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't know, yeah, yeah, but just us, just yeah.
Speaker 4: And of course if we came up, we're like, we
Speaker 4: have to come up during yacht race. So that's what
Speaker 4: we plan. I still have the little Macinaw map that
Speaker 4: had all the hotels and phone numbers on it, and
Speaker 4: you know, and we got a room at Leschance for
Speaker 4: one hundred dollars, I think, yeah, and that so that
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety four was the start of this current thirty
Speaker 4: two year.
Speaker 2: Run, right, And I remember that, of course because I
Speaker 2: was working right out in front of the shots at
Speaker 2: the barbecue with Brian. Yes, let's go back to nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty three. Give us a a I wouldn't say a
Speaker 2: day in the life, but how about a night in
Speaker 2: the life of a summer employee. I mean, things have changed,
Speaker 2: but they're also still the same. But what was it?
Speaker 2: What stands out?
Speaker 3: Well, it all depends on what shift you were working,
Speaker 3: and so if you had the breakfast shift, and of
Speaker 3: course you were up and out of there, but you
Speaker 3: might be off at two or you know, noon, or
Speaker 3: if you've had to work the split shift, that was
Speaker 3: really disappointing because then you had to work and then
Speaker 3: take a break and then go back. But it was
Speaker 3: the night's you know, a little bob shut down about ten,
Speaker 3: I'd say, right, so you had that's when the night
Speaker 3: life got started, and so you basically wanted went to
Speaker 3: the We had beach parties. We weren't of age, so
Speaker 3: we couldn't get I actually had turned twenty one that summer,
Speaker 3: but we could. We weren't going in the bars.
Speaker 4: Really, so I could get into bars if you were eighteen,
Speaker 4: you could get you just couldn't. The black X yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: a pilot.
Speaker 3: House with was it Harry at the Pilot house or
Speaker 3: there was.
Speaker 2: Something Harry owned it, yeah yeah yeah, and then of
Speaker 2: course the horse and buggy driving across the street yeahs yeah.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it was really just all the other workers
Speaker 4: that you but you kind of just hunt. We hung
Speaker 4: pretty much with Little Bob's people.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, but there was no phone, so you
Speaker 3: couldn't say he meet me at so and so. As
Speaker 3: you kind of spread the word and people would come in.
Speaker 3: Those who weren't working would stop by the restaurant and
Speaker 3: say we're going to be here or back at the house,
Speaker 3: you know, if we all lived together at the house.
Speaker 3: So that was how it was very spontaneous, and the
Speaker 3: thing that we loved about it was you never knew
Speaker 3: what was going to happen. Yeah, you run into people
Speaker 3: and you never.
Speaker 2: Knew, so you were able to organize your fun with
Speaker 2: out a Facebook invitation yes, or a marketplace yes. And
Speaker 2: folks want to let you know we're sitting out in
Speaker 2: the backyard of the Cannonball Oasis. So you might hear
Speaker 2: an airplane going over an occasional seago, a little bit
Speaker 2: of wind hitting the microphone. So I hope you excuse us,
Speaker 2: but we are outdoors. It's too nice a day not
Speaker 2: to be sitting outside. So let's go back. Now, you're
Speaker 2: you just started one of your first reunions together. I'm
Speaker 2: sure you know back in those days it was penpal stuff.
Speaker 2: There wasn't an email until about nineteen ninety or so.
Speaker 2: You know that being a college professor, you thought we
Speaker 2: had we were privy to that sort of stuff. We
Speaker 2: had an email. Okay, So I remember you folks. You'd
Speaker 2: sit up on the porch at Laschans and and that
Speaker 2: turned into a yearly event and Brian and I would
Speaker 2: see every year. And then let's talk about chit chat.
Speaker 2: I see lots of T shirts, hats, stickers, we have
Speaker 2: the merch, yes, the boat that never happened or has happened.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about chit chat. Yes.
Speaker 3: Well, And like Kim said in ninety four, she I
Speaker 3: graduated and she had her second baby. She goes, let's go,
Speaker 3: let's go to the island. So we decided to go
Speaker 3: and we were hanging out and having so much fun,
Speaker 3: but so much of the and people would say, what
Speaker 3: boat are you waiting for? And we got tired of that,
Speaker 3: so we said, we're not waiting for a boat. We're
Speaker 3: on a boat. And we made it up and created
Speaker 3: a virtual boat and it was all women crew and
Speaker 3: so and then Kim that the pivotal thing was that
Speaker 3: Kim bought a monogram machine. Yes, and when you buy
Speaker 3: a monogram machine, you can be anybody you want to
Speaker 3: be and so and so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm like, all right, then, well, Kathy's a
Speaker 4: professor of communication. So we're, you know, thinking of a
Speaker 4: boat name. Got to have a boat names, you know,
Speaker 4: in boat colors and all that, you know, and we're like,
Speaker 4: it has to do something with talking, and that's when
Speaker 4: we came up with chit Chat. Yeah, and our colors
Speaker 4: are hot, pink and black and yeah. The monogram machine
Speaker 4: did change everything. It did.
Speaker 3: So what we would do is we would gather and
Speaker 3: make up our story about where we were in the
Speaker 3: race and how we did and what boat we were,
Speaker 3: and we had to always pick something that kind of
Speaker 3: flew under the wire, but so that people because there's
Speaker 3: you know, there's a couple of three hundred boats maybe
Speaker 3: in the race, and you had you couldn't stand out
Speaker 3: too much because then they would realize that this was
Speaker 3: just a ruse. And then eventually we would the people
Speaker 3: we really wanted to let them in on the secret.
Speaker 3: We let him know. But that was in nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: four or five, I think maybe six, maybe the boat
Speaker 3: was born and we were sitting on the docks in
Speaker 3: the marina and all of a sudden we just said,
Speaker 3: chit chat because it's all bs, so it's just chit chat.
Speaker 3: So we made it up. And then we've met so
Speaker 3: many friends through the years with that, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of a silly little thing, a made up boat, and
Speaker 3: people get to really get big kick out of it.
Speaker 3: So one year, Dick Jennings with a Chicago yacht club,
Speaker 3: was racing two boats, and we had known him for
Speaker 3: several years and he thought our story was hysterical and
Speaker 3: he said, you girls need to race one year to
Speaker 3: make your story better. And so he's I'm racing two
Speaker 3: boats next year. One boat's just going to be for
Speaker 3: a lums, bringing back a bunch of old guys who've
Speaker 3: all you know, they don't need to prove anything. I've
Speaker 3: got an Andrew's seventy two boat and we're gonna put
Speaker 3: you on there if you want to come, So get
Speaker 3: yourself to Detroit on this day and I'll pick you
Speaker 3: up in a white van. And I remember looking at
Speaker 3: him and thinking, are we gonna do this? And she said, yeah,
Speaker 3: we're gonna do it. So we're reading Sailing for Dummies
Speaker 3: on the airplane.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you would to tell some yeah,
Speaker 4: and then we then they're like, we had to go
Speaker 4: to Canada, like Dick always kept his boat in Canada.
Speaker 4: And we're like, holy crap, oh god. Then we had
Speaker 4: a bottle of cheap vodka in our bag and the
Speaker 4: poor kid that was transporting transporting the van got stopped
Speaker 4: at the at the border and they're like, what is
Speaker 4: this in your you know this alcohol? I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: Oh my god. It was it was just it was
Speaker 4: such an experience. It was such a gift from Dick.
Speaker 4: God rest his soul. He Yeah. The pie Piper had
Speaker 4: the Chicago to mac Race or for twenty five years.
Speaker 4: Yeah the record, Yeah, oh sure.
Speaker 2: Pipe Piper was a famous and that's what the referring
Speaker 2: to folks. Was I think it was a seventy Maxie
Speaker 2: or seventy.
Speaker 3: That boat was and then his real pipe piper was
Speaker 3: a Santa Cruz seventy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, can I say what the shirts are that
Speaker 4: I wanted to make up after that race?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's it's a PG show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a PG show. I would.
Speaker 2: I would, Well, that's that's true, throw it up there
Speaker 2: and if the editor doesn't like it.
Speaker 4: So we were actually the fifth boat in so the
Speaker 4: so the alumni crew boat beat Dick's boat in. So
Speaker 4: he was like, I don't know, the eighteenth boat in
Speaker 4: his his his racing boat. So I wanted to make
Speaker 4: a shirt for him that said we licked Dick.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm not sure that I'll make it through the
Speaker 2: editor or not, but well, we like your style. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would be remiss if I didn't mention that wind
Speaker 2: Hawk just crossed the finish line probably in the last
Speaker 2: ten minutes from Chicago. You know, that's a one oh
Speaker 2: four catch, or maybe it's one o two. It's over
Speaker 2: one hundred foot long. That that boat has a fireplace
Speaker 2: on it. It's an amazing well, of course it's amazing ship,
Speaker 2: and they're the next nearest boat is about fifty miles out,
Speaker 2: and then the pack starts about seventy miles from that.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be a late finish, well into
Speaker 2: this evening and then all day tomorrow. And where where's
Speaker 2: the chit chat right now? In this race?
Speaker 3: How far over?
Speaker 2: Let's oh no, oh, well you should try being the
Speaker 2: pickle boat sometimes, yes, that's fun. The pickle boat can
Speaker 2: be fun. So you know you've run the whole gamut.
Speaker 2: You started off summer employees and then you became routine visitors.
Speaker 2: Now you've I don't want to use the word fabricated,
Speaker 2: but you've invented. You've invented this identity as the chit chat.
Speaker 2: Your perspective of perspective of MCINA over the last forty years,
Speaker 2: well forty two now, I guess, good, bad and different.
Speaker 2: Where are we at in your eyes?
Speaker 4: I would say when we first started, it was an
Speaker 4: affordable it was an affordable like good girls get away,
Speaker 4: you know, to take a group, and unfortunately it just
Speaker 4: has become almost price prohibitive. You know, it's it's a
Speaker 4: just how much it's changed as far as what's being
Speaker 4: bought by other bigger companies and what we call bouged up.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, it's just bougie. And with bougie
Speaker 4: is price increases. So it's kind of it's sad to
Speaker 4: us because families can't come.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think families probably have to make decisions,
Speaker 4: you know, can we pay for the parking, the tickets,
Speaker 4: the bike rental. It's a lot. I mean, it's and
Speaker 4: it's sad. I just you know, I think, I mean this,
Speaker 4: the most majority of this place is a state park
Speaker 4: and people should have access, and I just feel like
Speaker 4: that has become prohibitive, which is all.
Speaker 2: It's a battle right now. That's that's for sure, And
Speaker 2: more on that at a later date. But do you
Speaker 2: still when you when you get near the bridge and
Speaker 2: you look over, do you still get butterflies and you
Speaker 2: see the al?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: See we do.
Speaker 3: And the magic of the place, I think is in
Speaker 3: its eccentricities and so even and I think that's what
Speaker 3: makes me really sad as it's becoming more and more bougie,
Speaker 3: or you know, it looks more and more Disney World
Speaker 3: in some places, but there's still pockets that retain its character.
Speaker 3: And so that's what's so fun to us, and it's
Speaker 3: as much of the people. We both get the town
Speaker 3: crier than the newspaper and read it religiously and call
Speaker 3: each other and say, oh my gosh, so and so
Speaker 3: died or so and so's retiring, and do you remember this?
Speaker 3: And our husbands make fun of us because every time
Speaker 3: the town crier comes, we just are absorbed in what's
Speaker 3: We're slightly obsessed. And we have a tradition of when
Speaker 3: we cross into the state line into Michigan, we take
Speaker 3: pictures and go woo woo, and then when we go
Speaker 3: when we see the bridge, and we just have all
Speaker 3: our little traditions. But a very special part of this
Speaker 3: has been Jane Winston. So in nineteen ninety six, I
Speaker 3: think we were at the Mustang Lounge and we met
Speaker 3: a couple Jane and John Winston, who were there and
Speaker 3: they were wondering what this group of women were doing.
Speaker 3: And we told them, and John said, tomorrow night, come
Speaker 3: over for drinks on our porch, and we said, you.
Speaker 4: Better, you better not. We're there.
Speaker 3: And we've maintained a great friendship. And Jane is now,
Speaker 3: you know, eighty five years old, and we stay with
Speaker 3: her off and we're staying with her this time, and
Speaker 3: so she's a special She wrote the article that was
Speaker 3: in the Macanol Living and she's a special Cottie Joner
Speaker 3: here who's become a very very dear friend of ours.
Speaker 2: She's a great writer. She did some writing for mcin
Speaker 2: Island News and Views back then.
Speaker 4: Do you remember you probably do that she had a
Speaker 4: book that you put out like it was an anthology
Speaker 4: of Michigan writer.
Speaker 2: All right, right, yes, yes, I do remember that, yeah, And.
Speaker 4: I actually have two poems in there really yeah. So
Speaker 4: the first one it was about my mom when my
Speaker 4: little sister got married, called the mother Ship that got published.
Speaker 4: And then there's also a poem about the chit Chat, yeah,
Speaker 4: which I have if you would like.
Speaker 2: To hear it. I think we'd love to hear it
Speaker 2: now as good as time as in it.
Speaker 4: All right, all right, oh okay, I might have to
Speaker 4: get you have eyes on you. Thank you? Right here
Speaker 4: we go. So this was written for the chit Chat.
Speaker 4: Every year, as you mentioned, we come up here and
Speaker 4: it's always a different group of women. There's kind of
Speaker 4: a core group of both my sister in laws come,
Speaker 4: but then it's always like you know, eight to ten
Speaker 4: women that come up. So it's always interesting, you know,
Speaker 4: just how it all comes together. And as Kathy mentioned,
Speaker 4: every year is just different, which we always look forward to.
Speaker 4: This was written in nineteen ninety nine The Maiden's Voyage
Speaker 4: by Captain Kim Beach. Each year we set Zale on
Speaker 4: a maiden voyage of sort to the island of Mackinaw,
Speaker 4: the most magical port. Our boat was finally christened. As
Speaker 4: we sat on the docks, the chit Chat was launched
Speaker 4: over by Katonic and Rocks. It's an all female crew
Speaker 4: that completes the ship's log our seamanship equal to the
Speaker 4: saltiest dog sailors at sea. We chart the course of
Speaker 4: our lives. The manifest a blend of friends, mothers and
Speaker 4: wives with a mission of fun the living seas we
Speaker 4: do rome, but each year in July, the Chitchat sails home.
Speaker 4: On the deck of the boat. We share laughter and tears.
Speaker 4: We tell stories of life and reveal our deep fears.
Speaker 4: The voyage is deemed therapy by all the crew members.
Speaker 4: Our spirit's renewed by the spark of friends embers. The
Speaker 4: Chitchat is more than a boat that's not here. It's
Speaker 4: a celebration of life and those people we hold dear.
Speaker 4: The bridge is in sight. Now will race to the shores.
Speaker 4: The chitchat sails in as the bold cannon roars as
Speaker 4: she glides to the docks and comes to rest in
Speaker 4: her slip. We are thankful for our journey aboard this friendship.
Speaker 2: That's very nice, what a great story. Just the fact
Speaker 2: that you've been friends since nineteen eighty three, and you know,
Speaker 2: this island has cultivated so many lifelong memories, not only memories,
Speaker 2: but friendships. Just I don't know if you saw it
Speaker 2: on Facebook. Just yesterday, a kid working in the shop,
Speaker 2: he just started working at the Cannonball on Friday, started
Speaker 2: chatting up a girl that worked there, and they realized
Speaker 2: they went to kindergarten together, and then they remembered each other.
Speaker 2: But they've been working together six or seven hours before
Speaker 2: one of them realized they knew each other eighteen years ago.
Speaker 2: And I think there's so many stories of lifelong friendships
Speaker 2: were kindled off one year, or some folks many years
Speaker 2: that worked here.
Speaker 4: I think it was just a couple of months that
Speaker 4: changed both of our lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously, no regrets, No, oh no, Sometimes I wish
Speaker 3: we'd come back that second year instead of Hilton Head.
Speaker 3: But I'm kind of with Kim. It wouldn't have been
Speaker 3: the same perhaps, And you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: When you have a home run, it's kind of tough.
Speaker 3: And who would know that we'd be sitting here in
Speaker 3: a podcast session with this kid who was the sidekick
Speaker 3: for the barbecue.
Speaker 2: Well, it's better to be a sidekick than a side chick.
Speaker 2: I always say so, Kim. Cathy, thanks so much for
Speaker 2: pedaling all way out here just to chat. It's a
Speaker 2: great story. I think the chit Chat. I followed your
Speaker 2: boat a few times. I've had to look and say,
Speaker 2: is this thing for real? This year? Finally? Is it
Speaker 2: for real? Maybe? You know you've talked about the island
Speaker 2: getting too bougie, so maybe you have to downgrade. You
Speaker 2: could you could sell the chit Chat and buy the
Speaker 2: Little Bob or something. Oh, you know, change it go
Speaker 2: from a go from a seventy two to maybe a
Speaker 2: j boat or something that might be worth it. But
Speaker 2: thank you, any any parting words of wisdom to maybe
Speaker 2: first year summer kids. It's it's it's middle of July,
Speaker 2: almost the end of July. They're probably looking at their
Speaker 2: bucket lists. Do you have any advice for them?
Speaker 4: Wow? Yeah, just do it all. Don't say don't say
Speaker 4: no to anything. I mean, you know, if somebody wants
Speaker 4: to go kayak, if somebody wants to you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know. There's so many things to do on this island.
Speaker 4: I would just say trying and try and do them all.
Speaker 3: And I say watch out because the bug will get
Speaker 3: you and you've fallen in love with the island and
Speaker 3: this will be an ongoing thing. So beware of the
Speaker 3: magic of Mackinac.
Speaker 2: That's pretty good advice. I would say, beware of the
Speaker 2: magic of Macinaw. That should be on a T shirt perhaps, folks.
Speaker 2: Once again, this is the Macina Island Moment's podcast, brought
Speaker 2: to you from mackin Island by a born and raised Islander.
Speaker 2: I'm Jason saint Anson. Everybody, good day.