Pumpkinheads

Our interim reporter Dave Merchant took these photos at a recent Halloween event at the Dexter Farmers' Market:

Tis the season for spooky scares

Halloween is once again upon us. And, though I don't have any children of my own, it still remains one of my favorite holidays. Though gone are the days of trick-or-treating, my siblings and I still enjoy celebrating Oct. 31 with parties, movies, and all things "scary."

Last week, we took to the stores to find the perfect pumpkins for our annual carving night. For the past three years, since I moved back to Michigan, our tradition has been to carve pumpkins while watching one of the old childhood flicks, this year being "Ernest Scared Stupid." I know what your thinking: There's nothing scary about this movie. And you would be right, there isn't. But it is funny, and downright ridiculous. I won't go into the details of one Ernest P. Worrell, but if you have just the slight interest in ol' EPW, you can read about it here.

However, there are plenty of other scarier film for the true horror fan out there. My favorites are listed below in no particular order:

1) Halloween

2) A Nightmare on Elm Street

3) The Shining

4) Amityville Horror

5) The Exorcist

6) Mirrors

7) The Omen

8) Arachnophobia

9) Saw

10)Mothman Prophecies

Greetings and hello

I just wanted to let those of you who haven't seen or heard of me know that I will be covering some aspects of Dexter and Chelsea events in the community for the next few weeks depending on the health of staff writer Sean Dalton, who is off work due to an accident.

If anyone has events they want covered or information for the paper, please contact me at dmerchant@heritage.com.

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully I will do a good job in the absence of Sean.

Once again if anyone has any ideas, events or just wants to talk, e-mail or call me.

Thank you for letting me serve your communities and I hope I do a good job!

Dave Merchant

The war on recycling

By Elaine Owsley
Guest Writer

Today I parked in front of a stand of milkweed. The pods were beginning to open and the seeds, like giant dandelion fluff, were beginning to escape.
During World War II, we kids roamed the allies and the railroad right-of-ways gathering up milkweed pods at this time of year. They went to manufacturers who packed the seed fluff into float jackets for airmen. Before the days of synthetics, that's what they used for flotation aid.

We were all so well trained –– collecting metals, paper, etc., and when the war was over they said, "Ok, you don't have to do that any more.” Think of all the recyclables we could have processed and all of the energy saved if we'd continued. It’s kind of short sighted.

Someone would come to the schools and pick up the paper bags (since plastic wasn't around) on a special day. We had enormous paper drives, and the metal drives included things like the tinfoil that wrapped pieces of gum and cigarette packages.
The toothpaste tubes were made of some kind of bendable, rollable metal, and those were collected, too.

Coffee cans, any kind of food cans, oil cans, old metal stuff, whatever you could find –– usually in the alleys –– were all collected, and semi-trucks would make the rounds and pick the items up. There were five or six schools in our part of town in about a five-mile radius, so doing the pickup part was a big deal.

We would win arm patches if we brought in whatever it was being collected. I think I still have mine around here somewhere. Our mothers would sew them on our snowsuit or jacket sleeves.

We also brought in the cuffs from our father's suits –– they were changing over to cuffless pants –– and they were gathered up and taken to women who would make quilts out of them for the veteran's hospitals. My mother belonged to a group that rolled bandages for the Red Cross. We saved our used cooking oil and Crisco that had been used for cooking, strained it and saved it to be taken off and used for something that had to do with the war.

Once, I remember the grocery store had a day when you could buy a can of Crisco without a token, if you brought in a can of saved grease. The lady across the street used it to make soap, adding lye, probably, so maybe that's what the grease was used for.

There were bunches of things that weren't available, but we managed to survive. Amazing how puny our little "sacrifices" are today, isn't it? But I don't recall that anyone really felt they were put upon to save, gather, and contribute –– from elementary schools on up.

It's sad, really, that all that training has gone with the years. We all felt part of something big and important –– in this case the war effort.
What if we could fire up that feeling again? What if we could be part of the energy effort, or "earth effort,” or "sustainability effort"?
What if kids could brag that their school collected more paper than another school?

I don't think we've lost the ability to do these things. I think we've just lost the group feeling of purpose. A single-mindedness about our planet and its needs, instead of just our own, is what's needed. We did it before, as the wartime song said, and we can do it again.

Sweetest Day or Hallmark scam?

Everyone keeps reminding me that something called Sweetest Day is coming up on Sunday. The radio, television commercials, and store newspaper ads are all bombarding us and trying to get us to buy something for that special someone on Oct. 17. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that was reserved for Feb. 14. And even then, I don't think you should have to wait for one (now two) days out of the year to tell someone that you love them or that you think about them.

I first came across this holiday in 2006 after my parents divorced. Before then, I never even heard of such a monstrosity. For those that don't know, Sweetest Day was started 84 years ago by a candy maker named Herbert Birch Kingston as an act of philanthropy to spread goodwill to everyone, including the elderly, orphaned and sick. Though ol' Herb might have had the best of intentions, as history has shown us, every deed done with good intentions has the opportunity to become a complete disaster. In the case of Sweetest Day, that is certainly the case.

Though I meay seem like a jerk for speaking out against Sweetest Day, a quick glance around the Internet sphere will show you that I am not alone. Infact, there is one Facebook "fan" page that simply calls itself "F!@# Sweetest Day"

Now, to be fair, I'm not totally heartless. I just find showering folks with gifts just for the sake of it is rather dull. But, for those who feel so inclinded to join the dozens of folks out there who must rush out for that perfect gift the night before Sweetest Day, often crowding the self checkout lanes at the grocery store, do yourself a favor and take the GF out for a nice romantic evening instead. She'll thank you in the end just for thinking about her.

And to all the ladies out there, don't be too mad if your boyfriend or husband doesn't come home with an armful of gifts. It is, afterall, just another day. And we love you just as much as we do the other 364 days out of the year.

D.L.

Chelsea Area Fire Authority's open house on Oct. 10

Celebrity sighting

Chelsea Native and Hollywood actor Jeff Daniels enjoyed an up close and personal seat at Saturday's U of M football game. Daniels was spotted on the sidelines by a Heritage Newspapers freelance photographer. Read our story on the Purple Rose's anniversary here.

Fall weather brings back memories

Last weekend, during a rare break between homework and my responsibilities in Chelsea and Dexter, I was able to enjoy an afternoon at Apple Charlie's Cider Mill near Flat Rock. Though most of the morning was rainy and cold, my girlfriend, brother, and I found some fun with the U-pick apples. After about an hour of picking various apples from the orchard (Yellow Delicious are my favorites), we enjoyed a nice hot cup of apple cider and some apple cinnamon bread.

The fall is one of my favorite times of the year because it brings back so many fun memories of growing up in Michigan. From raking leaves in the backyard with my brother, to trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with mom and dad, there was always something fun and exciting going on in my home.

Memories are funny things. They also make you miss friends and family members that are no longer around. My mom still lives in Texas, and whenever the family up in Michigan does something I know she would enjoy, I miss her even more. Mom always liked cider mills. She also always found a way to entertain my brother, sister, and I growing up.

As we continue this busy week ahead, I urge everyone to take some time out of their day and think about the little things that they take for granted but provide so much fun and entertainment. And go grab yourself a gallon of cider and be a kid again!

D.L.