Friends in high places

Recently I had the opportunity to escape from the office for a long three-day weekend to Galveston, Texas to attend a gala fundraiser for the Galveston Seafarer's Center. As some folks know, though I was born in Michigan, I spent most of my life in Texas. I grew up in Galveston and attended college at the University of Texas in Austin.

It was fun being able to revisit some of my old haunts together with my brother and my old college and high school friends.

The real reason we were down there, like I said, was thanks in large part to my mom, who is the port chaplain of the Galveston Seafarer's Center. The center helps people who basically make their living on the sea from all over the world. The center provides these seafarers a "home away from home" and a chance to escape from their ship for a few hours to hang out in a relaxed environment, call home to their families and use the Internet. To hear a very compelling story about the Seafarer's Center, click here and listen to the story of a Bulgarian seaman who was helped by the center and later provided help to the survivors of Hurricane Ike.

The Seafarer's Center, like much of Galveston, was virtually destroyed when Hurricane Ike blew through the island in 2008. Much of the island businesses are still rebuilding. The dinner my brother and I were invited to is the center's largest fundraiser of the year and helps with the cost of the center's operations.

This year, the band that the Seafarer's Center booked for the event knew of my brother and I because we had a band in Galveston years ago. They saw our new band, Delirious Love, on Facebook, and invited us to come play a few songs with them.

After kicking into "Mustang Sally," we got another surprise. The mayor of Galveston is a drummer and he enjoyed our style of music so much, he asked if he could sit in for a few songs with us. A fun time was definitely had by all and we're looking forward to next year's event.

It was nice being able to go to Galveston and see some familiar faces and share our music. It was even more fun being able to spend a weekend with my mom and step dad and stepbrother and sister.

High school reunion

Chelsea High School’s Class of 1975 held their 35th class reunion on Aug. 14 at the Bollinger Farm in Chelsea. Classmates that attended the reunion where: (Front row, left to right) Daryll West, Don Pierson, Gary Stephens, Dave Leach, Linda (Simon) Stegmeyer, Carol Schroen, Cindy (Minix) Messner, Cindy (Frisbie) Gauss, Faye (Weirich) Bollinger, Cindy (VanRiper) Fischhaber, Debbie (Bertke) Mazurkiewicz, Julie (Asmussen) Doty, Jody (Daniels) Novak, Robin (Schnieder) Valdez, Cindy (Harook) Hoover and Merry Hoffmeyer.
(Middle row, left to right) Anne (Treado) Mann, Beth (Branch) Tobin, Sheryl Cantrell, Diane (Bycraft) Parisho, Valerie (Robertson) Paladino, Tim Eder, Becky (Clemons) Powell, Don Messner, Kathy (Dunn) Finger, Janis (Hopkins) Knieper, Dan Foytik, Karl Gauss, JoAnn (LaFontaine) Gould, Gregg Burg, Terry Satterwaite, Mark Pennington, Ishmael Picklesimer, Todd Ortbring, Perry Johnson, Don Bollinger, Laurie (Mann) Porter and Frank Grohnert.
(Back row, left to right) Vic Steinbach, Terry Ellenwood, Rick Robbins, Sandy (Walker) Scott, Basil Scott, Kathy (Kuhl) Groom, Tim Guenther, Ron Kiel, Glenn Alter, Rick Sweeny, Dale Heydlauff, Duane Luick, Paul Wood and Tres MacCollum.
Missing from the photo was Dan Barnes, Dan Lancaster, and Mike Piatt.

Sean versus food

On Aug. 10, Heritage Newspapers reporter Sean Dalton was drafted to take the U's ultimate cheeseburger challenge. The challenge consists of a 2 pound burger with all of the trimmings, 1 pound of french fries and 1 pound of onion rings. The challenger must consume the entire meal within 45 minutes.
The results of the contest will be posted online with video at www.heritage.com in the coming days.
The U Pizza and Burgers is located at 3901 Jackson Road in Scio Township. For more information, call 1-734-369-8444.
Do you think Sean won? Tell us your opinion.

Exploring Chelsea

Being fairly new to the Chelsea community, earlier this month at the Sounds and Sights Festival gave me a chance to stretch my wings a bit in an informal setting and explore the downtown area for myself. I have to say, Chelsea is a fun city!

Since I arrived downtown on July 30 around 5 p.m., my first destination was to find some source of sustenance. Eating out can be tricky on a journalist’s salary, especially when there’s rent and bills to be paid.

A quick check of the ol’ wallet yielded a brand new crisp $10 bill, so I decided the best use of my money was to head down to Jolly’s. For those of you who don’t know, Jolly’s is the newest sandwich and hamburger joint located inside the Gourmet Chocolate Café. Their freshly baked bread and hot grinders are to die for.
My favorite sandwich is their club. The meat is warm, the bread melts in your mouth, and the bacon is actual bacon, not that skimpy grease-soaked imitation bacon you get on your hamburger at fast food restaurants. These sandwiches are the real deal, and at $5 apiece, you definitely get your money’s worth. Since I still have change left over after the sandwich, I decided to sample some of the Gourmet Chocolate Café’s selections as well.

I’m a huge chocoholic, so shopping for just the right treat to satisfy my sweet tooth is a mission in and of itself. I’m sure I annoyed the young woman behind the counter who so graciously put up with my antics –– mainly how much something cost and how much would $1.25 yield?

Finally I settled on something called “sea foam,” which I never heard of in my life. It looks like a chocolate covered marshmallow but its texture is similar to the crunchy goodness of malt balls combined with the chewiness of Butterfinger peanut butter. The result is a delectable ball of melty chocolaty goodness.

Satisfied, I ventured back out to Main Street entranced by the sounds of the Howling Diablos coming from the entertainment tent behind the Common Grill. The Diablos music isn’t usually my cup of tea, but after listening to a few of their tunes, these master musicians roused even the toughest wolves in the crowd with their funky jam blues and Detroit rock and roll.

On Saturday, the afternoon started off with steady rain that kept many visitors huddled under tents or umbrellas. It was fun to watch the Cirque Amongus show on the Chelsea District Library lawn as real performers tried to balance their act while staying dry and keeping dozens of children entertained in the process.

After about 20 minutes and no sign of the rain letting up, my brother and I decided to chance it and make a mad dash to the social tent to listen to the Chelsea House Orchestra perform while drying off and indulging our appetites with various selections from the food tent.

The CHO was impressive. These young musicians had me hooked from the minute they started. The violinists were absolutely amazing. You would be hard-pressed to find talent in this area or even the state that could rival the CHO.

Making our way down Main Street, we spoke with many local merchants and visitors, who all had positive things to say about the festival. Our second stop was at the Mission Marketplace, where the folks at Mindo Chocolates were busy demonstrating how to grind cocoa nibs into chocolate liquor. A brief demonstration was all it took to hook my brother, who decided to buy several bars to take home (with the help of his big brother). I also picked up a few pieces of jewelry to take home to my girlfriend. We both agree that the Mission Marketplace is unique.

Our final stop was to see Toppermost perform at the Gourmet Chocolate Café. My brother and I are huge Beatles fans, and any chance to see a band perform the music of the Beatles is a treat. Usually you can’t get anywhere near the stage when a Beatles tribute band performs, but we got close enough to Toppermost to take a few photos and talk with the band before the show. It was, as the Beatles might say, “fab.”

Though there is still plenty more to see and a lot more people to talk to in Chelsea, my goal of exploring the city was accomplished. I can see why a lot of residents cherish their small town. It’s like an undiscovered gem waiting for others to find.

I look forward to attending many more festivals and events in the coming months and years while working to serve the residents of Chelsea and Dexter. My next venture will be exploring downtown Dexter for the city’s annual Dexter Daze events. Let the fun begin!

An intern's thoughts on working with Heritage Newspapers

Hi, my name is Justin Lockard. I'm 22 years old and I guess you can say in the time reaching this blessed age I haven't been such a saint. Over that time I've lost, lived and learned a lot of great things, which makes me who I am today — a much wiser person in all aspects of myself and my life.

I work very hard,attend school, and I have lots of positive role models and friends. By all means, I stay out of drama. Oh and I might add I'm very smart — that's my intellectual side. I'm a fun guy. I like anything positive. I love to sing, and I hope to go somewhere with that gift one of theses days.

For the past four Mondays, I have been interning at Heritage Newspapers, learning how to write stories,edit, and research.

I must say that in this short time I have experienced a lot. My very first day I got to help shadow an exclusive story about a new law being passed in order to allow any one person to profit from selling baked goods and vegetables. I got to meet Gov.Granholm. I also got to shoot video, and I was on the news. My family loved that.

For the remainder of the time I've been here I have researched stories and written stories, one of which was published in the Chelsea Standard newspaper.

Learning these things have inspired me to want to write more and learn more. Being exposed to this kind of work has taught me you can never know enough about one topic. Everything is precise and well written. This has been a fun experience for me.