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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer February 14, 2011- - No. 105 |
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Sandtown Road is in the Upper Peninsula. The name sounds a lot like a place name out of a Steinbeck novel. It isn’t tho– runs east and west between Engadine and Curtis. Tom and Kathy live along that road, north side, midway along the main stretch on ten acres in the woods. It’s a dirt road, mostly. Sandtown as a town or village?, it doesn’t appear that there is or ever was such a place.
Tom retired from teaching high school while still in his mid-twenties, left his boyhood hometown of Grand Rapids to move to the northern woods of the UP. He held the honorary title of mayor of Sandtown for quite some time, years in fact; possibly still does in the minds of some. He and Kathy have been there for a long time.
Kathy grew up in Coopersville where her dad and grandpa owned a business on Main Street. She helped out there at the Trophy Room during her last few years in town before meeting Tom. She up and married the guy and made a permanent move to that same peninsula to be with him and raise a family.
Two young ones, Jacob and Jonel, weren’t, long in showing up to take their place in the new good sized cabin that the couple put together out of salvaged barn timbers. Stone fire place, wood stove, and running water at the hand pump in the kitchen area was what they had.
The couple has been involved in many things over the years together and made a good go of it up there in the North Country. Some years they made maple syrup in their woods; built a new frame house at one point. Tom worked for a dairy farmer, taught adult education classes, did house construction; then delivered the US mail for several years til his second retirement arrived not so long ago. Along with Tom, Kathy raised up the two fine kids that went off to universities and then on to live lives of their own. For some time now she has worked part time for the local veterinarian in town. There has always been a garden out front that keeps an abundance of food on the table and the pantry overflowing with home canned goods. Sandtown Road goes right on by the front yard as it always has; east or west, take your choice. |
