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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 March 10, 2014- - No. 125 |
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The guy that writes the stories for the local paper recalls a winter much like the one we are experiencing this season. The landscape was deep in a mantle of snow, the temperature seldom broke over the zero degree mark, and the Grand River was frozen solid from bank to bank. That was a winter in the nineteen seventies.
Tim Dunlap, from Pennsylvania, was a cross country skier. He was living temporarily in the old school house at 88th Avenue and Leonard Road. Jim met Tim there in the woods nearby and they headed south to the river. Crossing Rice’s Bayou seemed safe enough, no current under the ice there. Another hundred yards or two and they were ready to shuffle their skis out onto the Grand. With unspoken reluctance they moved forward in anticipation of reaching the opposite bank. Within a short time, and some feeling of relief, they had accomplished their goal. They followed the ice through the channel that led into the Bass River gravel pits. Acres and acres of ice and snow filled their view, with a sunken barge at its center; a portion of its hull partially protruding above the surface of the ice. One dark spot in the endless white and quiet of the late afternoon lay in view before them.
On their return trip, the two guys skied up to a small cabin on the narrow peninsula that separates the gravel pits from the river. As they peered into a window, to their surprise, a small fire flickered in a fireplace within. And a voice: that said “come on in”! Bob Vanburen pulled a simmering kettle form above the fire and poured three cups for tea. His reclusive life along the river suited him fine; he had been there for years. For cash he drove a school bus, crossing the river each day on the ice or in his small boat; with time off at freeze up in the fall and breakup in the spring. All of that was a long time ago. The two skiers haven’t encountered each other since those times. Someday they will get together and tell it all over again as if it had happened only yesterday. |
