Sitting at Sam’s
With a few wisps of white above melting into the azure, I sit and watch our Downtown on a casual Friday. Not quite 11:00 a.m. and the parking spaces are full, UPS trucks compete with Fed Ex vans, and people …
Walking on a Wednesday
Your man-on-the-street again, walking on a Wednesday in Downtown Petoskey. It’s a glorious sunny day, maybe in the forties with a breeze loitering from the Northwest. I was stunned to see Lake Street packed with people. It’s a Wednesday for …
A Persistent Fog
Just as spring was blooming among us, the fog rolled in. The COVID vaccines were working, and the mitigation of a gradual increase in business openings was working, then the fog rolled in. As I sit in my downtown studio, …
Ernest Hemingway: A new conversation
It has been a couple of years, but your man-on-the-street has returned from a long vacation and a COVID break. The temperature in Downtown Petoskey was close to sixty-degrees, and smell of spring in the air. I plopped my chair …
A Winter Weekend
After a few months of mostly ice and little snow, the drifts are finally piling up – by the foot! For three solid days, snow arrived with an accompanying blizzard, and with it, there seemed to be a collective sigh …
Hope
As I gaze out my studio window in Downtown Petoskey, I revel in the hope I feel on the horizon. Except for the occasional broken sunshine during the past few days, the hours have been marked by haze, clouds, and …
Sold Out!
As we progress toward COVID vaccinations, there seems to be tantalizing lights near the end of the long tunnel we have been parading through. Downtown Petoskey continues its resilient path, carrying the torch. Tillie’s Tafel at 437 Mitchell Street opened, …
New Arrivals in Downtown Petoskey
There are new arrivals in Downtown Petoskey, and doesn’t that feel good? Sam’s Graces Café, at 324 East Mitchell Street, is a popular eatery relocating from Harbor Springs. They’re looking at an opening around December 1st when owners, Victoria and …
These are Extraordinary Times
I spent the last two weeks traveling through Maine and New England, exploring and enjoying the fall season. I was even able to fulfill a lifelong dream and kayak Walden Pond and walk in the steps of Henry David Thoreau. …
Some Things Never Change
I walked downtown this morning contemplating the past few months. For now, the streets are quiet and the coffee shops and restaurants only beginning to stir; the whir of people and the hum of autos, missing. Then I paused in …
And then the wind…
The July heat finally brought the storms, and the gentle rain began marauding into sideways sheets of water. An eerie quiet, then the alarms, and then it happened. Within minutes of the expired tornado warning, another storm ripped through Petoskey; …
Perseverance
Driving thru downtown, the signs are clear: Closed. This is a quiet time of year, anyway, with many places closed or quiet because of Spring Break, but this is different. There’s silence. And there’s hope. Petoskey is a resilient community. …