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Thursday, March 13, 2014

It's Enough to Make a Person's Head Spin


That’s my current short answer to the perennial question, “What’s new?” Will returning summer visitors even recognize little Northport, Michigan? There are changes afoot almost everywhere you look in our little village these days. Photos below show only a few, and you have to be kind of a visionary to be able to picture what things will look like come May, let alone June or July. Let's start down at the Depot, where renovation has expanded beyond the little stone building  to the caboose.



That's the scene down near the marina. 

Out at the south end of our block of Waukazoo Street, lots has been happening for months, as Tuckers of Northport charges toward completion. Here's the scene as of Wednesday, March 12. 



And all that activity is only outdoors. Plenty is going on indoors, too. Here's how the main floor of Lelu Cafe looked this morning, while all the coffee-drinkers were cozily crowded, out of the way, into the bar:




Change! Novelty! Expansion! Growth! During the couple of "warm" days we had, there was activity at Northport Brewing Company, but I didn't see anyone doing anything there yesterday or this morning, so no pictures of that. 

David Grath has doubled his gallery/studio space, and I'll devote a post to his space soon. Meanwhile, although there are no painters or carpenters at work in Dog Ears Books, things are happening there, too, on a daily basis. For one thing, with every new book order I put in I include a few items no one has (yet) asked for, such as this little gem:


So we have surprises for you, too.

And now an important date to mark on your calendar: Friday, June 13. Mark it now! Add 5 p.m., Dog Ears Books. I'll let you know more as time goes by....

5 comments:

Dawn said...

Sometimes progress makes things unrecognizable...but once we get over the shock it's often good. Mostly.

P. J. Grath said...

SATURDAY THE IDES OF MARCH UPDATE: Opening date for Northport Brewery is Saturday, May 24!

BB-Idaho said...

The caboose; an historical railroad memory. There is a consumer niche, very small, of
old guys that are train nuts
(er-enthusiasts) and they are drawn to the architecture. For
example or example, et ad nauseum . As one
of the nuts (er, enthusiasts) I would note that although a small niche, it is fanatical one.
Last summer my poor wife sat in
the cupola of an Abiline & Smokey Hill RR to accompany me on a ride
in rural Kansas...heck I even paid an extra $5 for moving up
from old passenger car!



P. J. Grath said...

BB, how is it possible this has not come up before? I come from a railroad family! Grandfather a steam engine, then diesel driver for the Pennsylvania, father a surveyor for the Milwaukee Road and then longtime head of survey department for a smaller railroad outside Chicago. Love trains!!! Your "poor" wife could have a MUCH worse fate.

BB-Idaho said...

I guess I blame it on growing up
near a railroad; learned to read
from boxcars before I went to Kindergarten.."All The Way With Santa Fe, Burlington-Everywhere West" etc. It was in the 40s and they were all steam engines. I
figured the main job of the engineers was to wave at us kids.
So in old age, I have a huge railroad in the basement; over
a hundred locomotives and some
650 railcars. The Mrs. notes that were the bathrooms not upstairs, I would never be seen.
After our caboose ride, I got on the net to track its history: it
was formerly Union Pacific 25455
and a blogger wrote that his dad
made his last trip from Green River to Salt Lake as a conductor.
Checked into a motel and passed away. I'm sure each caboose and
locomotive has a history of its
occupants. The Milwaukee Road
had a spur into our home town,
Eau Claire, and I used the walkway on their RR bridge over the Chippewa River daily on my
trek to and from Jr. High. Some of the more spectacular routes
of the MILW have been turned into trails in rugged N Idaho, complete with tunnels and high
trestles outfitted for bicycle and foot traffic. Now you have me going...I better quit!