Lake Michigan Whitefish

Dear George,

In 1695 a French explorer visiting what’s now the U.P. praised the whitefish caught by the Ottawa at Mackinac as follows: "Moreover, better fish can not be eaten, and they are bathed and nourished in the purest water, the clearest...you could see anywhere."  Native Americans in the region made a powder of smoked whitefish to use in soups, stews, and fish pies.  When we were growing up in Menominee in the 1940’s and 50’s, our whitefish came from Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Fishing had been an important local  industry since the 1800’s, and fishing boat expeditions from the twin cities extended from Green Bay into Lake Michigan and even Lake Superior.  An 1899 news story reported that a wholesale fish dealer from Buffalo purchased 15,000 barrels of fish from Menominee and Marinette fishermen for $55,000. The local catch included whitefish, perch, blue fin, and herring.   

Menekaunee fishing boats, Marinette, Wisc. (ca. 1990)

According to the sources listed below, the whitefish has a small head with a blunt snout that hangs over its lower jaw.  Older whitefish develop a bump at their shoulders that makes their head look even smaller.  Whitefish aren't entirely white.  They're greenish-brown on the back, and their sides and belly are silvery-white.  Whitefish have a sharply forked tail which enables them to swim very rapidly.   On average, whitefish measure 17 to 22 inches in length and weigh between two and four pounds.  They can live for over 25 years.  Whitefish are also known as Sault whitefish, gizzard fish, and humpbacks.  Their scientific name is Coregonus (meaning "angle eye") clupeaformis (meaning "herring-shaped").

Great Lakes whitefish spawn from September through January and lay their eggs on shoal of rubble and gravel.  The young hatch in the following spring and are immediately on their own to survive.  At the larval stage, baby whitefish feed on plankton.  Once they're 3 or 4 inches in length, they become bottom-dwelling fish, feeding on snails, insect larvae, freshwater shrimp, and small clams.  Whitefish swim in schools and prefer depths of 200 feet or more in the summertime.  Their natural predators include lake trout, northern pike, walleye, and burbot.   Sea lamprey also constitute a major threat to Lake Michigan whitefish.

Biologists believe that whitefish runs on the Menominee River between Menominee and Marinette ended in 1870, probably because logging and sawmills contaminated the river with a lot of silt.  Much to the amazement of experts, whitefish began returning to the Menominee River to spawn about seven or eight years ago, and they've shown up on the nearby Peshtigo and Oconto Rivers as well.  According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, scientists believe that the whitefish's return is due in part to the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972.  In November 2013 a crew of biologists netted 106 whitefish in a morning's effort at the Menominee River public boat ramp on Stephenson Island in Marinette.  The largest was a 22-inch female, about ten years old.       

Commercial fishing for whitefish is normally done by means of gillets and trapnets.  Whitefish are the most important species for Great Lakes fisheries, and about 8 million pounds have been harvested annually in recent years.  There is some sport fishing for whitefish.  Fishermen use a small hook which is usually baited with a fish egg.  Ice fishing for whitefish is also popular, especially in northern Wisconsin.  The largest whitefish on record was caught in Lake Superior in 1918 and weighed 41 pounds.  Whitefish are rich in vitamins and protein, including Vitamins B6, B12, Niacin, and Thiamin.  A 3-ounce serving provides 1.38 grams of Omega-3 fatty acids, more than pink or sockeye salmon.  Grilled, broiled, or poached whitefish is one of the regular specialties in several of Menominee’s restaurants, and we've never failed to enjoy whitefish dinners at Schoegel’s or Berg’s on Landing on trips home.  In our youth my dad would purchase newly caught whitefish at Pederson's Fisheries in Menekaunee, and my mother would make them the centerpiece of an extraordinary meal.  On my last trip home before my mother’s death, she instructed me while I cooked a broiled whitefish with almonds for dinner at Farm.  It was a passing of the torch.

Love,

Dave

Sources:  www.greatlakeswhitefish.com; www.jsonline.com, "A century later, whitefish are turning up in Wisconsin rivers (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov 27, 2013);  www.michigan.gov, "DNR - Lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis";  www.outdoorblog.net, “It’s a great time to fish for whitefish”; www.rootsweb.ancestry.com, "Fishing", Marinette County Centennial 1879-1979, p. 6;  www.wikipedia.org, "Lake whitefish"

Shooting Hoops

Score Card: MHS Maroon Basketball Team, 1957-58

Dear George,

My brother Steve’s birthday was a week ago.  Were Steve still with us, he would have turned 75, and his birthday is a vivid reminder of how much we all miss him.  The next day I was browsing on a Menominee history/nostalgia website when I came across a couple of Menominee Maroon basketball and football programs from the 1950’s.  I was thrilled to find Steve’s name on the basketball roster for the 1957-58 team, along with many of his best high school friends — Peter Johnson, Bob Picard, Tom Kuber, John Dewane, Jim Payne, Ken Hruska, and others. 

Basketball was a big part of Steve’s and my growing up on the Menominee River bank.  As the older brother, I started playing basketball in sixth grade when my grandfather, V.A. Sr., insisted that I join the Washington Grade School team.  The shortest boy in class with no sports history, the idea of joining the basketball team terrified me, but my grandfather insisted and  soon I became interested in learning to play better.  The D.A.R. Boys Club on State Street in Menominee had a basketball gym, and I started going there every day after school to practice on my own or play pickup games with my age-mates.

My dad bought a basketball hoop and mounted it above the garage door in our cinder-covered driveway.  There weren’t any other kids within a mile of us during our early years on the river, so Steve and I relied on one another as playmates, and basketball quickly became our avocation.  We learned a lot about winning and losing, effort and skill, striving to improve, fair play, and camaraderie.  I was four years older, so I was taller and more physically adept, and our games of horse, 21, free-throw shooting, and one-on-one were often one-sided.  However, Steve, just a third-grader when we started, was a fierce competitor and determined to win.  We’d play for hours on end.  When the sun went down we’d hook up an extension cord to a socket inside the garage, connect it with a desk lamp that we’d tied to a nearby maple tree, and focus the light on the basketball hoop so that we could play until bedtime.  Even the harsh U.P. winters didn’t deter us.  We’d simply shovel off each successive layer of snow and play on a solid floor of ice.  After warming up we’d take off our winter coats and play in our shirtsleeves in the freezing temperatures.   

By the time I left for college Steve was starting ninth grade, had grown a lot taller, and was winning a majority of our driveway contests.  When I came home at Xmas I was thrilled and proud to learn that Coach Bob Noonan, the basketball coach at Menominee High, had recruited Steve and one of his freshman classmates to join the varsity team.  That was unheard of since ninth- and tenth-graders had traditionally only been eligible for the Junior Varsity.  However, Coach Noonan decided that year to get his most promising prospects started at as early an age as possible. 

I wasn’t around for Steve’s high school basketball career, but he went on to win varsity letters for four years in a row.  A bunch of the team members were best friends off the court as well, and they used to convene at my grandfather’s log cabin next door to our house to play poker, drink a beer or two, and carry on.  They were a rowdier bunch than my peer group, and they had many more adventures.  Even though he and Margie moved to Seattle after law school, Steve kept in close touch with several friends from those teenage days.  Peter Johnson’s wife told me many years ago that Peter laughed more when Steve returned to Menominee for family reunions than any other time of the year.  I totally understood that, since I felt the same way.  Despite all their youthful antics, their group enjoyed lots of adult career success, including a couple of lawyers, successful regional businessmen, and the principal, coach, and athletic director at Marinette High.  For myself, I look back upon our thousands of hours of driveway basketball as one of the most enjoyable and engaging pursuits of my youth.  Were it possible for Steve and I to be together today, I know we’d go over to my next door neighbor’s and shoot some hoops in the driveway.  I wish we could.

Love,

Dave

ADDENDUM:



After I did the above blog posting, a Menominee friend shared on the Internet this photo of the 1955-56 Menominee Maroons, my brother Steve's first varsity team.  FRONT ROW: Dale Bero (54), Steve L. (22), Donnie Hofer (20), Al Axtel (12), Jim Payne (10), Fritz Wolf (14); MIDDLE ROW: Billy Wolf (Manager), Wayne Allard (4?), Burke Cooney (30), Ron Janquart (42), Coach Bob Noonan; TOP ROW: Ray Anderson (32), Mike Miller (52), Bob Ziemer (50), Vernon Highdale (40), Dale Minzlaff (54), Freddie Christopherson (?4).  

Cincinnati Zoo Blooms 2016

Dear George,

Zoo Blooms is at its peak at our Cincinnati Zoo.  With over 100,000 tulips, it’s one of the largest tulip displays in the Midwest.  In addition, there are thousands of daffodils, hyacinths, flowering trees, shrubs, and other spring bulbs.  Here are a few tulip facts to whet one’s appetite.  

• There are over 3,000 varieties of tulips in the world.
• The name “tulip” is believed to come from the Persian word “delband" (turban), presumably because of the similarity of the flower’s shape to a turban. 
• During tulip mania, a period from 1634 to 1637 in the Dutch Golden Age when tulip bulb prices reached extraordinarily high levels, some single tulip bulbs sold for ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman.   In one such transaction, a single Viceroy tulip bulb was sold for two lasts of wheat, four lasts of rye, four oxen, eight swine, 12 sheep, two hogsheads of wine, four casks of beer, two tons of butter, one bed, one suit of clothes, and a silver drinking cup. 
• A Turkish legend holds that a prince was so grief-stricken by the death of his love that he rode his horse over a cliff.  A scarlet tulip sprang up from each drop of blood on his corpse, giving the red tulip the meaning of “perfect love”.        
• Tulips are edible, the petals having a mild-bean like or lettuce-like taste.  During World War II numerous Dutch people were forced to eat tulips because there wasn’t any other food available. 
• Tuna stuffed tulips are a classic dish served in Great Britain.  
• The Dutch royal family sent 1,000,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in 1945 as a thank you for sheltering Princess Juliana and her daughters during the Nazi occupation.  Juliana became queen in 1948 and continued to send thousands of tulip bulbs to Canada each year until her abdication in 1980.    
• Tulips reportedly can be used to treat high blood pressure, anemia, circulatory problems, back pain, and a variety of other disorders (just what we oldies need).  
• Red tulips are a declaration of true love; yellow tulips mean cheerful thoughts; white tulips express purity; purple tulips symbolize royalty; and pink tulips mean affection and caring.       

I went to the zoo with Katja the other day to admire the beauties and capture images of the tulip festival.  Here are some tulip pics.

Love,

Dave        

Jan Reus Tulip

Red Emperor Tulip

Golden Apeldoorn Tulip

Banja Luka Tulip

Inzel Tulip

Apeldoorn Tulip

Negrita Tulip

Orange Bouquet Tulip

Monsella Tulip

Princess Irene Tulip 

Monte Carlo Tulip

Merry Go Round Tulip

Shirley Tulip

Daydream Tulip

Orange Sun Tulip

Apeldoorn Tulip

Pink Impression Tulip

SOURCES:  www.alloveralbany.com,  “20 facts about tulips”; www.care2.com, “12 fascinating facts about tulips”; www.cincinnatizoo.org, “Zoo blooms”; www.flowers2013.blogspot.com, “Benefits of tulips”; www.livingartsoriginals.com, “Tulip symbol meanings”; www.medplants.net, “Tulip”; www.poshposey.net, “Tulips trivia”; www.spinfold.com, “Amazing facts about tulips”; www.teleflora.com, “10 weird facts about tulips”, “Meaning and symbolism of tulip”;  www.tulipsinholland.com, “11 fun facts about tulips”; www.wikipedia.org, “Tulip”, “Tulip mania” 

Surviving Amidst the Forces of Darkness

Dear George,

I don’t normally believe in the supernatural, but recent events have got me rethinking the whole nature of reality.  Remember those horror movies where an all-American family moves into a new house and everything starts going awry?  At first it’s just a door slamming by itself or knickknacks jiggling on a shelf.  But then more devastating things start happening to the people, and you’re ultimately faced with the horror that your family is under attack by evil spirits.  While it’s hard to believe, there doesn’t seem to be any other plausible explanation for our recent travails.  

I started wondering about a demonic curse some time back when Katja got into a minor traffic accident on Ludlow Avenue.  The young woman whose car Katja banged into said she was fine and drove off without incident.  A week later, though, Katja and I each got a registered letter informing us that we were being sued for $25,000 – Katja for negligent driving and me for negligence in allowing my wife to drive a car that was officially in my name.  Our courtroom trial was scheduled some 18 months away, and we’ve waited anxiously ever since, imagining all the horrid things that could happen from the evil woman’s lawsuit.  Finally last month, just days before the trial date, our lawyer called and said that they’d reached a last-minute out of court settlement.  That was a relief, though we’d already endured at least $25,000 worth of emotional torment. 

Shortly after our trial was cancelled, practically everything in our house started breaking down.   First, the venetian blinds jammed, sealing us off from the outer world.  Our ice-maker promptly stopped making ice cubes, disrupting the cocktail hour.  Our ecologically friendly toilet got plugged up for the fourth time in a month.  No sooner had the plumber came to fix that problem than we had to call him back when the garbage disposal stopped functioning.  The plumber pulled out about three feet of gooey sludge and said it must date back to World War I.  The final clincher was when our electricity went out and we lost our telephones, internet service, and cable TV for 24 hours.  No cable?  No Internet service?  If this is not the devil’s handiwork, I don’t know what it could be.    

Katja and I were eager to get out of the house last Tuesday to begin our spring quarter classes at the university.  When we returned, we walked in and discovered a full-scale downpour coming through a dozen spots in our kitchen and dining room ceilings.  I rushed upstairs to the bathroom and found that a pipe had burst on the toilet, flooding the second floor bathroom.  The first floor was covered in an inch of water, and, when I checked the basement, the water was pouring through the basement ceiling as well, soaking the endless piles of stuff that we’d accumulated there for decades.  Katja made an emergency call to the the plumber, and I frantically sought some way of turning the water off.  Finally I found a valve in the upstairs bathroom, and I was able to stop the torrent of water that was gushing out of the pipe.  So much water had already escaped that the rainstorm through the ceilings continued for another thirty minutes.  

Our insurance company sent over an emergency cleanup team within the hour, and their assessment was dismaying, particularly to Katja who has put so much energy into household renovation over the years.  Our new bamboo flooring was warped and cracked, and the cleanup crew tore it out.  The walls and ceilings were in jeopardy from water damage (though we’re now hopeful they’ll be salvaged).  Our ruined belongings in the basement filled up three pickup truck loads, much of it valuable, some of it my flea market stuff.  Since Katja had just begun a course on “How to Clean Out Your Clutter,” I’m sure she’ll get an A+ as the prize student in the class.  Our insurance coverage will cover most of the damage, but, nevertheless, having a third of one’s house temporarily ruined and out of access is almost too much to bear. 

I don’t know what you think, but it strikes me that we are the objects of some sort of Satanic curse.  Sleepless at night, it suddenly dawned on me that all these events are due to the Republicans.  Ever since the TV debates began, the forces of darkness have been spreading throughout the Western world.  I’m not sure why our household has been targeted, though I did refer to one of the political candidates as “the devil incarnate.”    I meant it as a joke, but now I think Satan was insulted by the comparison and sent his minions to make our lives miserable.  We’ve been coping o.k., but we still need to take sturdy action.   Tomorrow I am going to the library to borrow a couple of horror movies on DVD.  I want to find out exactly how the good guys in those haunted houses went about conquering their evil spirits.       

Love,

Dave

The Best Things in Life

Dear George,

Lately I seem to be down in the dumps.  It might be the aftermath of a long winter.  Or I could still be mourning the loss of our sheepdogs.  Or maybe I’m just characterologically gloomy.  Whatever the case, I tried making a list of my favorite things in my life.  Like favorite movie, favorite board game, etc.  The longer my list got, the more cheerful I found myself becoming.  This was such a heartwarming task.  After I got about 50 different things, I decided it would be best to put them into alphabetical order and pick the best one for each letter.  I’m putting my list here to encourage readers to try this exercise for themselves.  I’d say it’s guaranteed to boost one’s spirits on a cold, miserable day.  

Best Things in Life

Actress: Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates on Bates Motel) 

Book: the I Ching

Cowboy: Hopalong Cassidy

Downton Abbey character: Daisy

Everyday wine: Gato Negro Shiraz ($5.49) 

Fast food restaurant: Subway (Veggie Delite footlong on Parmesan Oregano)

Gadget: FitBit

Humorist: David Sedaris

Ice Cream flavor: Lemon Flake (Ideal Dairy, Hwy 577, Menominee — long defunct)

Jazz musician: Thelonius Monk

Kentucky day trip: Berea

Line dancing routine: Blue Night Cha

Ludlow Avenue establishment: the Esquire Theater

Musical: Chicago (1975, starring Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera)

National park: Mammoth Cave

Ohio day trip: Yellow Springs

Pop singer (all-time): Patti Page 

Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

Road trip: To San Francisco and back (1959)

Standup comic: Louis C. K. 

Superhero: Captain Marvel

TV show: Ray Donovan (Showtime) 

U.P. legend: Paul Bunyan

Vehicle: 1941 Lincoln V-12 (purchased by my father from Lou Reed, ca. 1952)

Website: Rotten Tomatoes

Xylophonist: Milt Jackson

Year: 1960 (graduated from college; got married; began graduate school) 

Zoo: DeYoung Family Zoo, Wallace, MI (Menominee County) 

Making my list was so pleasing that I encouraged Katja to do it.  I gave her a bunch of categories, and she picked the most meaningful ones.  Here is how her list wound up. 

Best Things in Life

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Book: Moby Dick

Classical composer: Frederic Chopin

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

European city: Venice

Flower: Pansies

Grade school teacher: Miss Kruger, 3rd grade, Spring Garden School, Phila.

Ice cream flavor: Bisque rum raisin

Jazz musician: Miles Davis

Kentucky day trip: Berea

Leisure activity: Reading a book

Movie: Lawrence of Arabia

Newspaper: New York Times

Opera: Madam Butterfly

Pop Singer: Adele

Queen: There’s only one — Queen Elizabeth

Road trip: Our cross-country trip to the West Coast (1963)

Supreme Court Justice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Theater: Fiddler on the Roof

Unforgettable event: Our marriage (1960)

Vacation: Three months in Europe together (1964)

West Coast location: Dixon, CA

X-men: Wolverine

Year: 1969 (J was born)

Zany: Groucho Marx

After Katja finished, I asked how the task made her feel.  Much to my surprise, she said, “Depressed.”  She added, “It makes me feel like I don’t know anything.  I just feel narrow and limited, constricted.”  “But what about all those positive things?” I asked in amazement.  “I have to choose between them,” Katja said, “and that makes me feel bad.”  That was bewildering to me.  I think I will read her list back to her tomorrow.  I think she will feel much better about it.  I’m still confident that this is an excellent psyche-nourishing task, though it may not be infallible. 

Love,

Dave