Old houses demolished and the new year

I DRIVE TO Hannibal twice a day for work. In the morning I usually cross the Mississippi River in Quincy since I'm at 9th and Broadway. So there's a lot of driving on U.S. 61.

There is an old farmhouse on the west side of the highway about a mile before you get to Doyle Manufacturing. It's abandoned and ready to fall down, windows and doorways boarded up, gutters sagging, paint peeling. You wonder who lived there, how old it is, what stories the walls could tell.

There's been activity on the property lately. It looks like something is going on. Is somebody attempting to save the house? Or are they giving up and just going to knock it down, finally?

No saving. Lots of knocking down. Yesterday I drove past and the house is now a pile of rubble. Workers were sifting through the mounds of dirt and wood. 

Some places beg to be torn down. There was an ugly Quincy house at Sixth and Jefferson recently demolished, thank goodness. It was an eyesore. Yet somebody built it, somebody lived there and maybe took care of it years ago. Do their spirits cry when the house comes down?

The debate about preservation versus renewal is fierce. Both sides are understandable. I'd rather try to save something then knock it down. But sometimes there's no choice.

There's a bit of anger because somebody let this old farmhouse go. Why? Did it get passed down in the family and did the kids just not want it anymore? Too many painful memories? Did something terrible happen in the house? You gotta put lots of love into maintaining older properties, which is code for old houses are expensive.

The old farmhouse just seemed to lean drunkenly to one side, as if it was giving up. So in a way it's a good thing it's coming down. Maybe something else will be put up in its place.

At 24th and Broadway there was an ugly bank building which recently came down. Sure, there are people who worked there and have fond memories. It was undoubtedly considered modern and eye-pleasing when it was built. Something else will go up, and in 50 years we will probably have AI tell us it's ugly and not feasible anymore.

Build it and tear it down. You come up with the metaphor. Maybe it's appropriate on New Year's Eve, where we start over and hope for better things.

Anyway, I need to keep my eye on the road, especially on that stretch of U.S. 61, where vehicles enter the highway from tiny side roads without caring you are going 65 mph and are going to crash into them. Happens once a week.

But I'll keep an eye on the property. Maybe it will sit vacant, memories the only thing left. Or maybe somebody will put something else up there, garish or beautiful. They will build it. 

Who knows how long it will stand.

 

Death, finality and Christmas

Uncle Peter’s Lake Michigan Beach.

I CORNER NO market for misery. We all go through ups and downs. We all deal with death, finality.

It's a hammer blow and it leaves you reeling, especially at Christmas.

My uncle, Peter Hart, passed away Dec. 26. I will miss him and it seems surreal that he's gone. Peter died on his own terms after a long fight with cancer, with his family near, at home, in his sleep. My cousin Roland said they've been dealing with grief for a while, knowing he was terminally ill.

But death itself brings a new finality, and that's where the world gets ... murky.

I am still angry about my friend Jeff Vankanegan, who died Nov. 23. He and his wife and family and close friends went through hell in his final months because he had a rare neurological disease. I was praying hard as death closed in that he go to a better place. He did.

And now he's gone, and it's final. It's like trying to see in the dark, or swim through lava.

My brother Steve and I had a great talk with Peter on Sunday. He wanted us to know how important family was to him. After talking to him, I went into a strange daze.

In Holland, Michigan, Christmas Eve found Peter's family surrounding his bedside, knowing he'd be leaving soon. In Quincy I brought lunch to the Blessing lab for a friend, part of Peter's message to "be a light." Then I found myself in church that night strumming away and completely out of it. I think it went OK. 

Now Peter is gone, and his wife and children grieve and move on. It's hard to describe, this huge void, but we've all been there and we all have different coping mechanisms.

I'm at a loss for words. So I'm going to let a few other people explain it.

First, this comes from 11-year-old Henry Shelley, the son of my cousin Maaike, who lives in Ontario.

"Christmas is like a magnifying glass for your life. - if things are going great, the holidays are so much fun and exciting; if you're struggling with something, the holidays can make things extra hard. Everything is magnified."

Maaike and Brian are raising amazing humans.

This is from cousin Natalie Hart, daughter of Peter.

"I feel like I understand how people came up with the idea of Purgatory. Not for theological reasons, but because of how in-between things feel for us when someone we love dies. Life has changed, but it also doesn't feel like it will when the reality of loss settled in. Yesterday I kept looking for a checklist for what to do after a loved one dies and none of them seemed right. But then I realized I was just in-between."

And finally, from my aunt Willa Hart, sister of Peter, in reply to Natalie's comment.

"I understand you. You feel like you should be able to move on faster than you are. After all you had plenty of time to get used to the idea he (Peter) was going to die soon. But then it actually happens and it seems so surreal. Death is a mystery and so  hard to accept even when it's expected. The more you loved someone the harder it is. Give yourself lots and lots of time. Death stings for a long time and then very slowly your grief begins to shift. Always loved and never forgotten."

Geesh. Just give Aunt Willa a doctorate in Understand Life right now.

I am playing three shows in the next five days, so that's how I'm going to deal with it. I'm raising a glass at each one to Jeff, Peter, and all those who have departed. I'm just going to ... keep going.

That's it! 2025 - Just Keep Going.

Peace.

Ten years later, it's still Been So Long

LIKE MOST THINGS about Second String Music, memory is kind of a blur. For more than 11 years was quite the adventure, and every now and then I miss it.

I just realized the infamous "Been So Long" Christmas video, done by the amazing Chris and Victoria Kelley at Table 16 Productions, is 10 years old. Ten. TEN. Now that is really hard to believe.

It's an original song and the video was inspired by the Cheeks McGee song and video for White Christmas, which was made the year before by the Kelleys in Washington Park and on the roof of our Second String Music building. That video features the Mitchell kids and Lucy, Sheryl's beloved Border Collie. Also I lost my keys while doing a snow angel and found them in the park the next day in the melting snow.

Typical of the Kelley genius and creativity, the Cheeks video was done very spontaneously. It snowed on a Saturday night and they decided to make the video the next day. 

Why we decided to make a video of our own is no longer recalled. Perhaps it was because we let Chris film many of his Full Frame movie scenes on the third floor (it's the room with the red curtains). I do remember not wanting a script and just shooting stuff in the building, and making it goofy.

So, on a Sunday afternoon in early December, Greg Ellery and Adam Yates joined me at the store. Ben Poland and Mike Sorensen were there to help. Chris quickly figured out what we wanted to do and did his usual job of making sugar out of shit, and boom, a few weeks later we had our video.

Yes, we almost got hit by a car on Maine Street. Yes, Angus is eating something disgusting on the sidewalk in the last scene. Yes, that is the legendary office of Mr. Houston on the fourth floor. And I just caught this at about the 55 second mark - the door in the bank vault painted by Jeff VanKanegan. What I wouldn't give to find that door today, long lost and forgotten after several renovations to the space.

So here it is again, 10 years later, as the years and memories blur. The video, however, doesn't. 

Merry Christmas!

Best Christmas decoration ever

 YESTERDAY I WAS picking up labs at Blessing's Express Clinic, where the Sears tire store used to be. No, you can't get your tires rotated or brake pads replaced. Yes, the crew will do a great job looking at your sore throat and figuring out if you have strep.

One of the crew, and I won't use her real name but her initials are Maria, likes to decorate the place. She is really good at drawing spring, summer, fall and winter scenes on the windows. So Christmas is right up her alley. As I was leaving yesterday she said, "Take this and decorate it and bring it back,." It was s small paper stocking. I had no clue what to do.

So I did the smart thing and brought it to Blessing's 48th Street lab. There I left the blank piece of paper with young Lab Brat Ashley, who is constantly doodling and made up a bunch of cool Christmas gingerbread people to put on the doors.

I'm not into Christmas decorations or lights. Christmas at Second String Music featured my comically inept attempts to decorate a fake tree and string lights. In fact, in the last few years, we just left the lights up around the ceiling. Why take them down? They'll just go up again the next year.

Anyway, I figured Ashley would color a nice little ornament. I was wrong. So, so wrong. 

Instead, she made what might be the nicest Christmas decoration ever, in the history of yuletide and glad tidings toward men. 

 It has a musical note for the R. There's a golf club in it. And a guitar, with the right amount of strings and everything! I was blown away and I'm not worthy of such graphic arts excellence. Ashley obviously put a lot of thought into a simple Christmas decoration, and she nailed it.

I brought it to Express on my last stop of the night. Maria and the crew were impressed, to say the least. There are some very cool paper stockings hanging up on walls in there now, and it feels less like a place to get your oil changed or checked for walking pneumonia and much more like Christmas. 

Now mine is up there too and it looks ... amazing.

Almost as amazing as the person who made it for me.

It's the little things, Santa. Merry Christmas Ashley! And everybody else too! See? A little Christmas cheer can go a long way.

 

Coco and the Lions - ROAR

 COCO AND I are watching the Lions play the Packers tonight. Coco is a huge Lions fan. Coco thinks she IS a Lion. I just go along with it for the sake of domestic peace.

I've been a Lions fan since moving to Michigan 44 years ago. The great thing about living in Quincy is that most Lions games (until now) aren't on television in this market and people usually feel sorry for me when learning my devotion to a historically bad team. 

Not now.

Last year the Lions were good. Really, really good. So good they should have gone to the Super Bowl, where they would have clubbed that team west of here, the one with all the fair-weather and bandwagon fans. In a very short time, Detroit got an excellent young coach, an experienced gunslinger quarterback, two amazing running backs, the best offensive line in the NFL and a defense that bends but seldom breaks. 

Coco getting pensive before a Lions game.

 

Unlike that team to the west, the Lions haven't relied on pure luck to go 11-1. True, the Bears did fall apart in the final seconds a week ago - but being a Lions fan for so long, it's impossible to have any sympathy for a team inventing ways to lose games.

Coco and I warmed up for tonight's big game by watching Michigan beat that team to the south last Saturday. I wasn't going to watch - I thought for sure Michigan would get trounced. Instead, it was the other team who played like it had a huge anchor tied to its feet. 

As far as the end of the game, Coco and I were disgusted at both teams and it tempered our love of the college football. Many things do. Still .... Michigan has won the last four games. Can't do anything about that, team down south.

Coco is a bit nervous about tonight - Green Bay smacked Detroit last year in the game at Ford Field, and the Packers are very good. I may have to give Coco a kitty sedative before it starts because she gets quite vocal and upset. Or she is napping on my lap with one eye open watching the game.

Cats are multitaskers, you know.

Wouldn't it be great if the Lions keep winning and get to the Super Bowl? Coco all but guarantees it. I'm not that dumb. But we will watch, together, fingers and paw crossed, and hope for the best.