Speaker 1: Welcome to Macina Island Moments, hosted by lifelong Islander Jason
Speaker 1: Saint Aje. Through conversations and interviews with Foe Island locals
Speaker 1: and residents, Jason will bring you the real stories and
Speaker 1: characters that to find life on the island. Whether you're
Speaker 1: a seasoned visitor, new to Macina Island, or even an
Speaker 1: islander yourself, you'll be sure to learn firsthand about the
Speaker 1: island with Jason on Macin Island Moments.
Speaker 2: And welcome to another edition of the Macina Island Moments podcast,
Speaker 2: the only podcast brought to you from Macin Island by
Speaker 2: a lifelong islander. Folks, we're trying to get back on track.
Speaker 2: I know I've been kind of intermittent with our podcast uploads,
Speaker 2: but was a busy summer and a busy fall. But
Speaker 2: we're going to try and get more and more coming
Speaker 2: at you. And first of all, we want to thank
Speaker 2: today's sponsors. Sponsors the Mustang Lounge on Macin Island on
Speaker 2: Astro Street, Michigan's most historic tavern. Parts of that building
Speaker 2: date back to the seventeen hundreds. In fact, this morning,
Speaker 2: I was thinking about the Mustang and kind of chuckling,
Speaker 2: you know, on the island before the advent of cell
Speaker 2: phones and emails and text messaging. For a large group
Speaker 2: of us, the Mustang was kind of the first digital
Speaker 2: bulletin board, if you would. And what I mean by
Speaker 2: that is the guy like me might walk in. You know,
Speaker 2: the Mustang opens around ten, but the day bartender's in
Speaker 2: there at seven thirty eight am getting things ready and
Speaker 2: cleaning and such, and so you might walk in the
Speaker 2: door be unlocked. You'd walk in around eight o'clock, eight fifteen,
Speaker 2: and you'd say, hey, Adele or Gila, one of the
Speaker 2: morning bartenders say, I got to run to a shboy
Speaker 2: can tell Arman that part didn't fit, and I'll go
Speaker 2: pick one up, be back at three, Yeah, okay. And
Speaker 2: then maybe an hour later Arman would walk in and
Speaker 2: say anyone seen Saint aj and Dell or Gila would say, yep,
Speaker 2: he said the part didn't fit. He's running to sheboy
Speaker 2: going to be back around three, to which Arman may say, okay, well,
Speaker 2: I'm heading to play golf. I'll see him probably tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Then okay, fine, I come back around three, I say
Speaker 2: where's arm and they said he went golf in Okay, great,
Speaker 2: I'll catch him up tomorrow. Now, that wasn't just a
Speaker 2: me and Arman thing. There was probably ten, fifteen, maybe
Speaker 2: twenty people a day who ran in out of there
Speaker 2: with their daily messages and and what they were up to.
Speaker 2: And I never thought about it till this morning. But
Speaker 2: poor deb and Gila. They're expected to are Adele and Gila.
Speaker 2: They're expected to remember not only drink orders and wait
Speaker 2: tables and do all their work. But they're trying to
Speaker 2: shuffle half a dozen or so orders a day of
Speaker 2: folks just stopping. And this is not their job. This
Speaker 2: is just just kind of how it worked. And I
Speaker 2: was kind of chuckling about that this morning, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure it's like that in a lot of small town bars.
Speaker 2: But since a Mustang as our sponsor today, I thought
Speaker 2: i'd bring that one up. So it's January. It's mid January,
Speaker 2: and it's pretty cold. I woke up as about six
Speaker 2: this morning, and tomorrow it's supposed to be below zero
Speaker 2: in the morning and kind of warm up to about
Speaker 2: three or four degrees in the afternoon, then go below
Speaker 2: zero again. Not uncommon for mid January. This is kind
Speaker 2: of what it's supposed to be doing. A lot of
Speaker 2: question about the boats. How long will the boats still run?
Speaker 2: The ferry is still running as of today. Just talked
Speaker 2: to Larry Rickley. He said it's a lot open water.
Speaker 2: This morning he went outlooked and so I suspect today's
Speaker 2: boat at least the eleven thirty departure will be okay.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people don't really understand how
Speaker 2: that works. There's not a set day or time. Arnold
Speaker 2: Ferry doesn't call up and say, okay, Wednesday at noon
Speaker 2: is going to be it this time of year, it's
Speaker 2: day to day and oftentimes it's trip to trip. And
Speaker 2: what I mean by that is, you know, as the
Speaker 2: ice comes in, the wind can blow a lot of
Speaker 2: ice in, or the temperatures can drop and freeze the
Speaker 2: boat at the dock, and the locals no. You know,
Speaker 2: if you've been here long enough, you can look out
Speaker 2: the window, you can realize that you know, this is
Speaker 2: probably going to be the last week, or this is
Speaker 2: going to be the last weekend. You better start stocking up,
Speaker 2: you better get stuff you need moved moved, and that
Speaker 2: sort of thing. But you know how it really works is,
Speaker 2: you know, they might load the boat up, put the
Speaker 2: passengers on and they can't get out of the harbor,
Speaker 2: and they say, okay, that's it, and the boat docks
Speaker 2: for the winter, you know, until spring breakup. Sometimes the
Speaker 2: captain runs the boat, gets it all the way to
Speaker 2: the island and then says, I'm gonna wait an extra
Speaker 2: twenty minutes on this boarding and that's it. I'm going
Speaker 2: back to saying this. We're tying up. There's too much ice.
Speaker 2: We can't do it anymore. So as you can see,
Speaker 2: it's not a oh we have seventy two hours, Oh
Speaker 2: we have till Friday. It is this time of year.
Speaker 2: You better be ready because the boat could lay up
Speaker 2: at a moment's notice. And you know, it's been a
Speaker 2: good years. It's mid January and the ferry's still running,
Speaker 2: so it's hard to complain. So today we have a
Speaker 2: real special treat folks. We're gonna head over, gonna take
Speaker 2: the portable studio with us. We're gonna head over to
Speaker 2: the West Bluff. We're gonna go chat with Dale Gallagher.
Speaker 2: Dale's an absolute legend, a real gem. He's the real deal, folks.
Speaker 2: He's in his nineties, he's still working. He has a
Speaker 2: memory that's just phenomenal. He quote He can quote years
Speaker 2: and dates and remember everybody who was present. So real,
Speaker 2: nice guy. He's busy, you know. So we're glad he's
Speaker 2: gonna take the time out to chat with us. But
Speaker 2: we're gonna head over. We're gonna pack up, We're gonna
Speaker 2: head over and see Dale, and folks, do I have
Speaker 2: a treat for you today? We have where we took
Speaker 2: the studio on the road and we are at a
Speaker 2: workshop on the West Bluff behind one of those majestic cottages,
Speaker 2: and we are here with lifelong islander Dale Gallagher. Dale
Speaker 2: is the current the grand old Man of macn Island.
Speaker 2: He's the oldest living year round resident. He's just a
Speaker 2: spry ninety two. It'll be ninety three in March, folks.
Speaker 2: This man is working forty hours a week. He said
Speaker 2: he's cutting back. He's down to forty hours a week now.
Speaker 2: But I stumbled into his shop. He's got coffee on
Speaker 2: and he agreed to chat with us for a little minute,
Speaker 2: for a minute or two, Dale, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: So glad you're here.
Speaker 3: Well, it's good to be here, but I'd miss all
Speaker 3: my friends that went before me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll bet and I'll bet you've known a few,
Speaker 2: so Dale has had all the best jobs on mcn Island. Really,
Speaker 2: he was chief of police, I should mention the Korean
Speaker 2: War veteran, and he drove the snowplow. But he's been
Speaker 2: taking care of several of these cottages on the West Bluff,
Speaker 2: those great big houses you see. He's been behind the
Speaker 2: scenes man since nineteen, say fifty five.
Speaker 3: Fifty six, I started taking care of.
Speaker 2: Miltons, okay, and it.
Speaker 3: Went in when Richard bought it. I've been with him
Speaker 3: for thirty five years.
Speaker 2: No, that's amazing. And you know it's funny because nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty five isn't fifty years ago, it's almost well, it's
Speaker 2: seventy years ago. And to imagine this, the same gentleman
Speaker 2: has been behind these places all those years. It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: I also say, for those who don't know Dale, he's
Speaker 2: a dapper man too. He's never had a hair out
Speaker 2: of place. I'm only fifty one, so I've only known
Speaker 2: him a little more than half his life. But I've
Speaker 2: never seen him with the hair out of place. I've
Speaker 2: never seen him in a bad mood. He's always waving
Speaker 2: hello to folks, and in fact, a couple of weeks ago. Dale,
Speaker 2: you probably don't know this. My wife was behind you
Speaker 2: on the boat and a lady kind of cut you
Speaker 2: off a little bit and getting on the gangplank, and
Speaker 2: she said, oh, sorry about that, and you said, go
Speaker 2: right ahead, young lady. I have plenty of time. And
Speaker 2: not everybody is in that kind of a food getting
Speaker 2: on and off the boat, that's for sure. But Dale,
Speaker 2: can you talk a little bit about your chief of
Speaker 2: police time maybe and tell us what that was like
Speaker 2: back in the day.
Speaker 3: Well, when I was twelve years old, I told my
Speaker 3: mother I would never drink and I would never smoke,
Speaker 3: and she said, well, I hope you don't. And I've
Speaker 3: kept my promise that I wouldn't do it. And then
Speaker 3: OJ Smith, who was a chief of police before I
Speaker 3: went to Korean War, called me in and asked me
Speaker 3: if i'd be a night watchman for the city, and
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, I'm not working at nights, I can
Speaker 3: do it. So I started there. That was way back
Speaker 3: in the fifties. And then I come back home from
Speaker 3: the Korean War in fifty four at the end of
Speaker 3: this year, and the first job I had was night
Speaker 3: watching again.
Speaker 2: So then obviously from there, you worked up the chief
Speaker 2: of police. When did you go to work for the
Speaker 2: state park?
Speaker 3: State Park? I went to work in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 2: Okay, and eventually retired from there. Well, he retired from
Speaker 2: one of his jobs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did retire from that one. And then that
Speaker 3: was because my wife had a stroke and nobody was
Speaker 3: home to help with the problem she had that she
Speaker 3: couldn't do it herself. And finally the doctors told me,
Speaker 3: if you don't put her in long term care, you'll
Speaker 3: be here in here next So we had to spring
Speaker 3: her over where she could get twenty four hours care
Speaker 3: and it worked out pretty good. But during my chief
Speaker 3: of police time, I worked for your OJ Smith. I've
Speaker 3: worked for Myron Bloomfield, who was a chief at one time,
Speaker 3: and then I worked for Jack Walcher until he resigned
Speaker 3: and moved to Rudyard. And he said, you know that
Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you to take this job, and
Speaker 3: I said, I don't think I can handle it. He said,
Speaker 3: you're doing all my work for me now, So that
Speaker 3: was really good to hear. So anyway, I took that
Speaker 3: sixty five sixty six ten hours a day, seven days
Speaker 3: a week now and then during that time the chief
Speaker 3: of place because I could run a bulldozer. We had
Speaker 3: the landfill to worry about. So I take my uniform
Speaker 3: off at night and go out there and I got
Speaker 3: two dollars an hour to do the tract to work.
Speaker 2: Will that be the old burners in or.
Speaker 3: That was when we moved nineteen fifty five, we moved
Speaker 3: it from the village behind the village to early farm.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you know, let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: your time at the state park. You must have been
Speaker 2: heavily involved in the restoration of all the buildings in
Speaker 2: the fort and the time.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you in nineteen fifty nine. That was the
Speaker 3: year that missus Lacy was Jim Francis. I was working
Speaker 3: for him too, a part time, and he asked me
Speaker 3: if I would do some shingling because they had twenty
Speaker 3: one hundred bundles of shingles to put on the state roofs.
Speaker 3: And he said, I'll give you porky to work with.
Speaker 3: The two of us did all the roofs in the fort,
Speaker 3: plus the ones on the outside.
Speaker 2: No kidding, I didn't know you worked for the General
Speaker 2: Jim Jim Francis, Folks, he was the biggest contractor back
Speaker 2: in the day.
Speaker 3: But Jim was related to us because yep, our great
Speaker 3: grandfather had one son, and that was Jim's grandpa, right.
Speaker 2: And I'm pretty sure Jim's grandpa was a soldier in
Speaker 2: the Fort or a great he was a sergeant. Sergeant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, John Francis was a sergeant. He used to take
Speaker 3: my mother by the hand and walk her around quite
Speaker 3: a bit. And one of our aunts was born in
Speaker 3: the Fort while he was a soldier. Oh no, kidding, yeah,
Speaker 3: and Ida.
Speaker 2: Okay, sure I've heard of her.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you this question. You've been here
Speaker 2: your whole life, You've been totally a part of every
Speaker 2: fabric of the island. Have you ever sat back and said,
Speaker 2: you know what, I think, maybe I'll move to a
Speaker 2: bigger city. Has it I ever thought of across your mind?
Speaker 2: Or you've been happy here every day?
Speaker 3: Well, to believe it or not, your cousin Johnny that
Speaker 3: I were the same age. I went to work down
Speaker 3: in Detroit nineteen fifty one for Grandpa Chester to on
Speaker 3: the Michigan Central Railroad, and Johnny joined. He signed up
Speaker 3: for the service and he come and asked me, he said,
Speaker 3: come on, sign up with me, and I said, they're
Speaker 3: going to have to come and get me. So they
Speaker 3: did come and get me that same year, and I
Speaker 3: was drafted and I had to give up my job
Speaker 3: at the come back here and go to the service.
Speaker 3: And I ended up out two miles from where where
Speaker 3: Johnny was killed when he should have.
Speaker 2: Been home, right, folks, he's speaking of He's actually my
Speaker 2: great uncle, John D. Saint An. He was in the Airborne.
Speaker 2: He was a ranger of Special Forces and obviously a
Speaker 2: classmate and a baseball teammate of Dale's. And he was
Speaker 2: lost in the Korean War, and obviously before my time,
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 3: Well, in nineteen fifty one, I was playing baseball on
Speaker 3: the side for the railroad company. They had a two
Speaker 3: scouts coming around and try to talk I and my
Speaker 3: brother Jak when I told him he was there, and
Speaker 3: he joke he was painting with my dad on Lefty's
Speaker 3: Milk factory, and they tried to sign us up, but
Speaker 3: it was Philadelphia Phillies. And when j K said if
Speaker 3: I can't play for he tried, I ain't playing for anybody.
Speaker 3: So I said, if he don't go, I don't go.
Speaker 2: That sounded just like JK Folks. Dale's brother JK was
Speaker 2: another Macanon legend and icon. And you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: take this moment to ask Dale if he recalls this
Speaker 2: or has intentionally committed it to no memory. But there's
Speaker 2: a story back in the Palm Cafe. Horns Bars be
Speaker 2: the Palm Cafe, and there's a story about how Dale
Speaker 2: and his brother JK were listening to the Tigers games.
Speaker 2: Now you have to remember back in the day, not
Speaker 2: all the games were televised. You listened to him on
Speaker 2: the radio. Well, the story I got I wasn't born yet,
Speaker 2: but the story I got was Dale and JK were
Speaker 2: listening to the Tigers game and some dock borders came
Speaker 2: in and wanted to play the jukebox and Dale and
Speaker 2: JK said, hey, turn that thing off or listening to
Speaker 2: this game, and those guys persisted, and they said, don't
Speaker 2: play any more music. We're listening to this game. And
Speaker 2: these guys put a few more coins in the jukebox
Speaker 2: and it was one of those big glass rounded over
Speaker 2: I don't know what they called them, electrolas or whatever.
Speaker 2: The story I was told as you and JK picked
Speaker 2: that jukebox up and carried it outside and set it
Speaker 2: on the side. So that did happen. Yeah, gosh, what
Speaker 2: I love to ben there for that man.
Speaker 3: You want to you want to listen to that you
Speaker 3: go outside, That's that's amazing.
Speaker 2: You know you plowed the snow here too for years.
Speaker 2: You mentioned you ran the bulldozer for the state park.
Speaker 2: What you've seen some scenery in the day, huh, work
Speaker 2: in those early morning snowstorms.
Speaker 3: We had some terrible storms in the eighties, except something
Speaker 3: that with our six foot wing plow wouldn't even open up.
Speaker 3: I had. I had to go around ahead of the
Speaker 3: truck with the with the bulldozer with a with a
Speaker 3: bucket on it and uh get the big snow banks
Speaker 3: so they wouldn't get stuck.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So I did a lot of plow on for the
Speaker 3: city when I worked for the city, all the village
Speaker 3: roads and stuff. I was up there every time it snowed.
Speaker 2: No kidding. Now in Dale's time, you know, they just
Speaker 2: started allowing snowmobiles on the island in the in the
Speaker 2: early seventies, late sixties, And it's just for means to
Speaker 2: get around. They're not rent the ball and you're in fact,
Speaker 2: you're not even allowed on half the island with them.
Speaker 2: It's closed because that's just for scenery and state park.
Speaker 2: But before that they had these things called air slaves,
Speaker 2: and I know, Dale was really big. Imagine an airplane
Speaker 2: propeller on the back of it looked like a bob sled,
Speaker 2: and that's how they went back and forth. Now, Dale,
Speaker 2: can you tell us a little bit about how those operated?
Speaker 3: We had We started off with one that Wings had
Speaker 3: that was made for the government, and it was in
Speaker 3: storage and sending this we found out it was for sale.
Speaker 3: I am Jim Perrow, and we bought it, took it
Speaker 3: over here and we made it a little bigger so
Speaker 3: we could haul more passengers and more freight, and we
Speaker 3: went in the business because we had no airport then sure,
Speaker 3: so we were would take you over and back for
Speaker 3: two dollars each way, no money for your freight. Freight
Speaker 3: was free.
Speaker 2: Yeah you hear that boat lines the freight was free
Speaker 2: back and then those days. So like any islander that's
Speaker 2: had to work out on the ice, you certainly mustn't
Speaker 2: remember some close calls.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had we I've had a sink. It was
Speaker 3: underwater for ninety eight feet of water. Both machines. We
Speaker 3: had two of them, build another one and both of
Speaker 3: them went down the same time. Well, when we didn't
Speaker 3: check the ice, when we're just taking somebody's word that
Speaker 3: it was they they were going across and it was
Speaker 3: ice to say, but we lost both of them on
Speaker 3: the same day. And a week later, when the ice
Speaker 3: got heavy enough, we built a tripod and found it
Speaker 3: with a mag magnet and then got the coast guard
Speaker 3: grabbed hook and she hooked it and brought it up
Speaker 3: above what the chain falls and I was back running
Speaker 3: again about three days later.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Like I said, all the all the locals
Speaker 2: have a couple of close call stories and we're going
Speaker 2: to touch on that. As you may know, I'm putting
Speaker 2: a book together about the ice Bridge, and we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about all of these close calls. Have been
Speaker 2: gathering these stories from some of these folks. Dale is
Speaker 2: a lifelong islander. I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 2: have a favorite road or a favorite area I like
Speaker 2: to be on on the island is Do you have
Speaker 2: a favorite spot when you're riding your bike or walking around?
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite spot on the island.
Speaker 3: No, the whole island was interested. I was interested in
Speaker 3: the whole island because I was responsible when I was
Speaker 3: on a police force for the whole thing. Sure, I
Speaker 3: wanted to know what was going on as much back
Speaker 3: where you live out in that area as I did
Speaker 3: in town.
Speaker 2: Right, So now that you're going to turn ninety three
Speaker 2: here in March, you're going to slow down maybe and
Speaker 2: go down to one job or.
Speaker 3: Well, mister Minoogaan asked me when I turned before I
Speaker 3: turned seventy five, when I was going to retire, and
Speaker 3: I said, ask me when I'm eighty five. So that
Speaker 3: didn't take place, so I was ready to hit ninety.
Speaker 3: He thought maybe i'd give it up, but he said,
Speaker 3: I'm not even going to ask you. I said, don't
Speaker 3: because it'll be one hundred and five.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. You know, I'm hopeful at least you're not
Speaker 2: climbing ladders anymore and getting up on roofs. But I
Speaker 2: don't dare ask because I'm sure your daughter Sandy is
Speaker 2: going to listen to this and she probably doesn't want
Speaker 2: to know that.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, I do climb ladders, but if my right
Speaker 3: leg goes up, the left one got to follow. I
Speaker 3: can't bend it because it's in my forth replacement it.
Speaker 3: It doesn't bend. But I go up ladders one step
Speaker 3: at a time. I come down the same way, one
Speaker 3: step at a time. But I'm always a little bit
Speaker 3: leery about setting up scaffolding because I don't have the
Speaker 3: movement in my body on inside hills.
Speaker 2: I think everybody understands that. So I don't mean to
Speaker 2: put you on the spot, but folks are going to
Speaker 2: want to know. You're ninety two, almost ninety three, You're
Speaker 2: working every day, forty hours a week minimum. What is
Speaker 2: your secret? Is it Wheati's coffee? What's your secret?
Speaker 3: I don't drink the island water because when I was
Speaker 3: a city council in eighty three and eighty four, we
Speaker 3: went to our new water plant business. We had done
Speaker 3: away with the chlorine and put start putting chemicals in.
Speaker 3: And I we asked the people that came from planting,
Speaker 3: why do we have to change it. They agreed that
Speaker 3: the water tasted good, you know, when they were drinking
Speaker 3: it right there at the Grand Hotel and the meeting
Speaker 3: we had. And the thing is, when they started putting
Speaker 3: chemicals in, well, a lot of younger people start dying.
Speaker 3: And I and I blame it on the water with
Speaker 3: the cat. Look at Mark, my grandson, twenty years old,
Speaker 3: never drank in his life, and so alcohol didn't do it.
Speaker 3: It was something else he was drinking.
Speaker 2: Well, folks, you heard it here first, Tony Boom. I'll
Speaker 2: be heading down to the Mustang and switching over to
Speaker 2: draft beer. I'm not drinking any more water. I want
Speaker 2: to make it right now. I hope to make it
Speaker 2: to fifty three, much less ninety three.
Speaker 3: And I drink. I drink a lot of a lot
Speaker 3: of soft drinks, and I eat a lot of can
Speaker 3: And the doctor even told me, the doctor Kessler said,
Speaker 3: whatever you're doing, keep on doing. He said, your vitals
Speaker 3: are in the sixties.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, folks, he's not kidding. I'm in his
Speaker 2: shop right now. In addition to all the tools, I
Speaker 2: can see Reces, watch you McCall, it's butterfingers, crunching, munch
Speaker 2: where there's original. He has every snack. If you're hungry
Speaker 2: and you want a cup of coffee, I see nutty buddies, cupcakes.
Speaker 2: If this is oh wow, look it up there. If
Speaker 2: this is a secret of life, I'm in and it's
Speaker 2: pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: Shot I heat you're checking too in the summer type.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Jim, come out and get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he eats the barbecue chicken from the cannonball. There's
Speaker 2: a nice little plug there, everybody, Dale, I sure thank
Speaker 2: you taking the time out of work, and I know
Speaker 2: you don't like to take a break, but this has
Speaker 2: been great, and it's been great hearing your story.
Speaker 3: I'm on call seven days a week, and even though
Speaker 3: I don't really have to work hard in the wintertime,
Speaker 3: I shovel all the snow on probably twenty porches and
Speaker 3: the pathways to them because the fire department wants to
Speaker 3: be able to get to the doors. And I put
Speaker 3: it on the knock box over there with keys and case,
Speaker 3: and they're not here that they can get in the door,
Speaker 3: because I want to make sure they're open to where
Speaker 3: they can unlock them and walk in.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Well, we sure thank you, and folks, I hope
Speaker 2: you've enjoyed this. This is a special guy on a
Speaker 2: special place. And when it comes to true mclanders, they
Speaker 2: don't make them like this one anymore. I will mention
Speaker 2: you know, Bob Gillespie's ninety five, but he now winters
Speaker 2: in Florida, which does make Dale the grand old man
Speaker 2: of mcnland. You're the oldest living year round resident on
Speaker 2: the mail side, and I think it would be Grahama Lorma.
Speaker 3: One thing I wanted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3: When her mother went into.
Speaker 2: Labor, oh, I know the story tell us.
Speaker 3: We were living in Fort Mcinha and we never had
Speaker 3: no vehicles to transport her. We took carrieder down and
Speaker 3: a stretcher down in the South sally Port and the
Speaker 3: medical sunder was where the First National Bank is now
Speaker 3: Scotti McGreevy. My dad, Robert, her dad was on one
Speaker 3: and I was on the other corner. You know, years old.
Speaker 2: I know the story well because Margaret always tells it
Speaker 2: and in fact in the medical records. You know, this
Speaker 2: is Margaret Doubt, our mayor who's in her eighties and
Speaker 2: she's been the mayor of forty nine years, coming up
Speaker 2: on fifty. She often has told me that the journal,
Speaker 2: the doctor's journal, after she was born said mother may live,
Speaker 2: baby won't. And sure enough Margaret made it. But it
Speaker 2: was quite the quite the birth situation. She's told me
Speaker 2: many times that you helped bring her across the ice
Speaker 2: to give birth that night.
Speaker 3: So well, she we had an old building there that
Speaker 3: was the medical center, which was not really a good
Speaker 3: place for delivery.
Speaker 2: Sure, so that wow, Well, I'll tell you what. There's
Speaker 2: gonna be some follow up questions, i'm sure from our listeners,
Speaker 2: So hopefully you'll let me slide by again in a
Speaker 2: month or two and pick up some more conversation from you.
Speaker 2: This has been great, and I sure thank you for
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 3: Okay, well it's my time to have a couple of coffee.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll get out of your way and i'll port
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 3: Thanks Dale, Okay, thank you for coming.
Speaker 2: Jeez, what a thrill that was for Dale to take
Speaker 2: some time out of his day. And he's a lot
Speaker 2: of fun to talk to. We're gonna have to go
Speaker 2: back because there's so much more he can bring to
Speaker 2: this podcast, and we're hopeful he'll sit with us again.
Speaker 2: You know, after I turned off the microphone and such,
Speaker 2: we were reminiscent about his brother JK. And JK was
Speaker 2: a big guy. He was a tough guy, great guy.
Speaker 2: You know. He also ran heavy machinery and worked in
Speaker 2: construction and he liked to have a little fun downtown
Speaker 2: from what I'm told. Now, you know, jk's downtown fun
Speaker 2: time was before my time, of course, but Dale told
Speaker 2: me a story JK had gone. You know, he's kind
Speaker 2: of a he used to rough it up a little bit.
Speaker 2: He'd gone down to the Pink Pony, which was then
Speaker 2: owned by Nate Shane, he owned the Chippewa Hotel, and
Speaker 2: he was and then there five minutes and Nate Chane
Speaker 2: came over and gave him ten dollars to go drink
Speaker 2: somewhere else. And you know, ten dollars was a couple
Speaker 2: of bucks back then, and JK said, okay, So he
Speaker 2: jumped on his bicycle and he decided to head up
Speaker 2: to the Grand Hotel. Well, of course, they don't allow
Speaker 2: you in the Grand Hotel after six o'clock without a tie.
Speaker 2: So JAK took the shoelace out of his shoe and
Speaker 2: tied it around his neck like a bowlet tie, you know,
Speaker 2: the old Western ties. And then he went. And then
Speaker 2: no short amount of time, mister Woodfille and mister Musser
Speaker 2: came over and they gave JK twenty five dollars to
Speaker 2: head back downtown and do his drinking. So Dale and
Speaker 2: I were having a laugh about that, and these are
Speaker 2: the stories I got to go back and hit Dale
Speaker 2: up for. But in the meantime, we're gonna get We're
Speaker 2: gonna try and keep these podcasts going again and a
Speaker 2: little bit more frequently. And I know I get a
Speaker 2: lot of emails folks asking for him, and I'm absolutely
Speaker 2: doing my best. Trust me, But once again, this was
Speaker 2: the Mack and Island Moments Podcasts, sponsored today by the
Speaker 2: Mustang Lounge, Michigan's most historic tavern. I'm Jason Saint Agin.
Speaker 2: Good day,