Paging mikefmich, tponetom

[tponetom]

Paging mikefmich,
Mike, I had read one of your post/replies a few weeks ago that made me smile. It mentioned that you had sold a hunting camp in the U. P. and was having second thoughts about doing that. Ouch! You had touched a nerve. My second best love affair has been the U. P, for most of my 82 years.
Today, Feb. 10, you touched another nerve, To wit:
YMCA @ Harper & Gratiot.
90 cents an hour.....think it was 1966.
From 1957 through 1970 that was my ‘pied-a-terre,’ as it were. No, I did not live there but every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and every Saturday morning I was hammering that little black ball in the handball courts.
I remember Charlie Swineford was the Executive director there at that time.

[mikefmich]

HEY TOM!
I really enjoyed your postings about how you came into your hunt camp in the U.P....not awfully far from where I was at for many years. For awhile I was looking for your next story in that series.
My place was near Boot Lake, south of Shingleton.....my memories are fond, strong, and now laced with melancholy due to the passing of most of my local hunting & fishing budds from earlier years.

Did you see my other post in that job thread? About my swimming lessons with "Cookie" circa 1956-1957? Did you know who he was? Think his last name was Cooke, hence the Cookie nickname.

My job there was during my later HS days....used to work with some younger youth groups who met there two days a week.

[mikefmich]

This was the thread I was hoping you had a Part 3 for.
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...ries-[[tponetom)

[tponetom]

Mike,
As I am fond of saying, “Everything that goes around, comes a round.” I should create an acronym for that statement.
Harold Cook, aka Cookie, was an assistant to Charlie Swineford. When Charlie took a job in New York, Harold took over his job as Director.. He is/was the nicest fellow I have ever known.
The Northeastern Y held an annual handball doubles tournament known as the A - Z tournament. The best players at the Y were paired up with Class B players.
I had just joined the Y in 1957, about 2 months before that tournament was played. As a rank beginner I was teamed with Cyril D. Cy was an outstanding player. We won that tournament because I followed Cy’s advice, which was, “Keep the hell out of my way.”
3 Years later, after I had earned my bones by winning the Class A tournament, I was paired with Harold as my partner. He never played regularly but he was a very good and steady player and we were a perfect match. We won that tournament and I emphasize the “we.”
Re: “Thanks For The Rememory” thread, part 3? I have over two hundred “unfinished” letters, stories, adventures and simple notes, not to mention hundreds of phrases and words that I write while ignoring whatever is on TV.

Then I try to remember why I wrote them and what was I going to apply them to.
“Countin’ Flowers on the Wall” and “Cats in the Cradle” has been needling me of late. I know what I want to do with either of them, but as Pinocchio would say, “Oh my brain is not so good, cause my heads made of wood,”

[mikefmich]

50+ yrs later my visual memories are pretty fuzzy, but if Cookie knocked on my door and still looked the way he did in 1956-57, I would still recognize him. He was a very nice person, and always had time even for the little kid I was then. Don't remember why, but I do recall seeing him again in the early 60's.....but I'm pretty sure he was gone by 66-67 when I started the youth group job.

Do you know what became of him? I would guess him to be....ahh, mid to late 70's today if he was still amongst the land of the living.

Page me again if you post more UP memories......I really enjoyed what you wrote.