June
13, 2016
Greetings
from The Other West Coast,
Of
course I love her. She is beautiful, interesting,
generous, fun, warm, exciting. She is unique.
She is all of that and of course so much more to be discovered.
She
offers so much to everyone, and each of us finds that special connection that
brings us back to her. She is
unassuming, still living up to her real potential, struggling a little with her
identity.
She
sits on the edge of this peninsula, braving months of lake effect snow and
roaring winds in the off season, but gaining a huge pay off when the snow
melts. A small town, if you weren’t paying attention it would be easy to
miss. But once you find your way there,
it’s hard to resist.
Yes,
Thanksgiving dinners, and fall color tours and Christmas Eve, the neighbor
scraping jingle bells on the roof of the house so the kids would hear Santa. Tromping through deep snow to the icy edge of
where the world meets the lake.
Marveling at the sculpture nature made on the lighthouse.
But
she will always be summer for me.
The
mournful, insistent howl of the horn from the harbor, and gathering the kids to
race to watch the Badger go out, still a big occasion, even knowing it will
happen again tomorrow. Walking along the
rocks at the harbor, following the water’s edge to the breakwall, and out to
the lighthouse and back again. Driving
to First Curve. Exploring the dunes.
Soaking in the sun on nearly perfect sand, a beach that rivals Hawaii and
Florida or nearly anywhere that water meets land. Years of Fourth of July parades and sojourns to
‘Park Dairy’, and running the Lakestride, shuffling through the Art Fair. Watching Ludrock become a new tradition.
I
am not a native, and I don’t live there, but I was adopted into the fold of
Ludington years ago. I have watched her
come into her own, stumbling and struggling to move from the shadow of lumber
and trains and the Watchcase factory and become the destination that she is
meant to be.
And
then there is this; I love her because she has a sense of humor.
This
weekend the Ludington community gathered around a cause. It was inspirational to watch; thousands of
people volunteering to stand in the sun for a purpose that restores your faith
in humanity.
To
construct an ice cream sundae, half a mile long.
There
are enough causes for all of us to get behind, and the people of Ludington do
their share to make the world better place.
For me, watching people do what was needed to make assemble a 2971 foot
long dessert was making the world a
better place.
There
doesn’t need to be a good reason to create the World’s Longest ice cream sundae. It’s better if there is no good reason.
Even
so, House of Flavors, possibly the Center of the Universe for All Things Ice Cream,
decided that if anyone should claim the Guinness World Record for the longest sundae
it should happen in Ludington. And so it
did.
It’s
an impressive feat, if you stop to think about it, and I tried not to. Marshalling the people and the product, and
timing it all so that there was something other than a half mile of gooey soup,
is nothing less than a marvel of organization.
Imagine
hundreds of tables stretching through town, a nearly endless rain gutter
manufactured right on site, taped in place and lined with foil. Thousands of hands scooping ice cream,
dousing on chocolate, spraying with whipped cream and topping with cherries.
And course,
someone had to eat it all. It was a
chaotic, cacophonic consumption of copious calories.
There is no
shortage of challenges in our world, and no day dawns without tragedy and
strife. It is all we can do to cope
sometimes, let alone find ways to enjoy the day, let alone encourage others to
that light. I’ll be honest, too many
days go by that I would not be tempted to see a giant sundae put together.
Records and
accolades aside, seeing the town of Ludington rally around a half mile of fun
was inspirational. It reminded me of the
dozens of reasons I love her. Reminded
me to seek out the next silly reason to stop and sit in the sun.
Hope
this finds you getting a double dip,
David
Copyright
© 2016 David Smith
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