Alfred Timothy

My mom used to make 2 types of ground ham salad sandwich; one with pickle relish and one without. The one without was especially for me. I had this thing about foreign matter in my sandwiches, mostly having to do with green things and crunchiness. The only time she ever made these were when we went on trips. Those long, long trips up North. We'd stop at some rest area by Grayling or Gaylord or someplace beginning with a G and have a picnic. And that was kinda fun but I was 12 years old or so, so it wasn't like 7 or 8 year old kinda fun. I was more concerned about looking uncool, being seen with my parents in front of...you know... perfect strangers.
What I was excited about was seeing my brothers who were 10 and 12 years older than me.
After they left for college and I was no longer their punching bag, I actually worked up a little loneliness for em. I'm only now able to recognize their holding me down and cuffing me repeatedly across the face as endearing and will forever cherish those moments.
We finished the picnic and made for Mackinaw City and then onto Mackinac Island where my brothers were employed as carriage tour drivers over summer break.
When on the Island, I always thought of myself as a more seasoned traveler that had a step up on your average, every day brand of Island tourist. Justified by the fact that my brothers actually WORKED there and KNEW OTHER PEOPLE that actually WORKED there.
To further this feeling of self-imposed entitlement, my older brother Tim, who just entered med school, hooked up with a girl who's family owned the Iroquois Hotel. Now whether my dad was practicing solidarity or my brother happened to get him a nice discount, The Iroquois soon became my folks Inn of choice.
During the Summer breaks ahead - carriage tours turned into odd jobs - odd jobs turned into a bartending gig at the hotel for my brother and before anybody knew it, there was a wedding on the horizon.

Yes, there's more where this came from.

Photo from stayonthelake.com