YES, there is ..................

I am sitting out on the porch this morning, lovely morning in Ohio. The sun is not out full blast yet, but there is a nice cool breeze. The birds seem to approve of the day, they are loud and active. A beautiful morning to sit out here on the porch, second cup of coffee, already thanked HIM for giving me this day to do this.

But, is there anyplace I would rather be, yes, there is.

I would like to be in Michigan, Mullett Lake, near Topinabee, sitting out on a dock that extends out in the water, sitting on a white wooden seat, looking out at the lake. God Summers on Mullett Lake. I have sat out on a bench there and felt His presence all around me.

Why here, Summer memories that go back to the late 30's, vacations to Michigan, some of my fondest memories, and just thinking about it, I am walking right back in to my childhood. Topinabee is all the good memories of childhood. A grocery store, a post office, a filling station and a few other buildings, but heaven to a young boy, on vacation with Mom and Dad.

In those days The Topinabee Hotel was the essence of elegance to me. A railroad track ran through the town, with a small station at the hotel where the guests would disembark and start their vacation. It no longer exists, as does the past, but the memories are vivid to me.

Mullett used to be a Summer haven for the "Detroit" underworld. They had their own guarded community down the road a bit, gatehouse guard and all. I imagine Fitz and many others I knew visited there. Years later, I worked for some of them in Nevada, Fitz, Mert Wertheimer, Danny Sullivan I think all visited or had Summer places on Mullett.

They all ate at the Hack-Ma-Tack Inn and some kept their powerful speed boats on Mullett and used the boats to go to Canada and bring illegal booze back to Detroit, in the old days. The lake is part of an inland waterway that goes in to the Great Lakes.

One of my "Bucket List" items is to make it back to Michigan one more time, and to spend a morning sitting out on that dock, and then, in the evening, watching a sunset on Mullett Lake.

.......... "backward, turn backward, oh time in they flight ........."

My handshake ..... with greatness

A few years ago we were vacationing in Northern Michigan on Mullett Lake. We had all of our kids, and my daughter from New York, Debra, flew in for a few days. We had a great time, a vacation I will never forget, for a number of reasons.

When it came time for Debra to leave, I had to drive her to Lansing for her return flight home. It was a pleasant drive down, and I got to spend some "quality" time with my daughter.

The Lansing Airport, at that time, was not too big, and we had a wait for her plane to come in.

As it got closer to the arrival time of her plane, I noticed an increase in people waiting. I noticed one elderly man in the waiting crowd, looked familiar, but I could not place him, but it lingered in my mind.

Then, it dawned on me who he was, and I knew what was happening.

"That is Magic Johnson's father," I blurted out to my daughter. They it all dawned on me, Magic is from Lansing, the playoffs are over, the Lakers won, and Magic is coming home, and his father is here to meet him. I got excited, I'm going to get to see Magic Johnson. I had Debra rummaging around in her stuff to find me a piece of paper and a pen or pencil, he is going to walk right by here and I am going to get his autograph, actually the first autograph I had ever asked for.

The plane landed, passengers were getting off, I saw HIM get off and start walking for the door. Remember, years ago, small airport, they walked from the plane to the terminal.

There he came, I had paper and pen in hand, he came closer, he saw me, he knew what I was after.

"Sir, I'm really tired, could we just shake hands"? And we did.

When we got back to the lake, I told a few of the kids what had happened. I was popular, walked down to the basketball court, word got around, and many young boys, and a few girls, came over to shake the hand that had just shaken the hand of Magic Johnson.