Nora Metz and I had breakfast at Sonny’s on Sunday, where we admired the finished mural and discovered two new puzzles—but this post is not about that. We took a little Sunday drive through Banks Township, Nora pointing out where the Evans farm, the Maple Hill School, and Bobby Woolverton’s house used to be—but this post is not about that. Then we went back to Nora’s cottage overlooking Torch Lake to share a cup of tea and some memories.
This post is about that. Someday I am going to write much, much more about Nora. It’s going to take some time. She is 92 years old and has had many adventures. All of them are documented because, as she says, “no one in this family ever threw anything away.” On the other hand, as you can see, no one ever tolerated any clutter and mess, either. Like most of us, Nora has Petoskey stones and agates in water, the better to show off their beauty. Nora washes hers regularly to keep them sparkling.
There are stories to tell you about the agates and the view and you’ll just have to wait, because on Sunday we had other fish to fry. We were going to paw through this little basket:
It is filled with calling cards of every description, along with the sorts of mementoes women have saved forever. They saved these in the 1880s and 1890s, when Eastport and Torch Lake were “woodsy” sorts of places, devoted to lumbering and boarding houses and general stores. Who knew that the hearts of young ladies—and young gentlemen, too—could yearn toward elegance and culture?
Many of the cards featured elaborate designs, but Miss Janie Blakely and her brother Henry favored a more tailored appearance.
Those Guyer boys (Nora has taught me to pronounce it “Gweer” as is proper) were always chasing Powers girls. Eventually Thomas caught Lucinda, or maybe it was the other way around, and in due course Grace was born and grew up to write newspaper columns and the stories that became Grace Hooper’s Pioneer Notes, but that’s another post. Lucinda was quite a catch, a young lady with intellectual ambitions.
Some of the cards seemed designed purely for flirtation. Neither of these is signed, but I expect they were handed over with sparkling eyes. To whom? By whom? Ah, there are some secrets in Torch Lake Township.
Miss, The Moon and Stars / Give a brilliant light / If I meet with no debars / I'll spark you Sunday night
CAUTION. Dear Miss: The accompanying Chromo is a good illustration "dons in ile" of the gent who escorted you home last Sunday evening as he appeared at three in the morning while ascending to his room. The Society for the "Invention of Cruelty to Animals" wishes me to caution you against keeping him up so late again!
Torch Lake Views 
Kathy
March 29, 2010
Nora sounds like a fascinating lady. (She isn’t the one that walks all the time and who could put us to shame, is she?)
Gerry
March 29, 2010
Nope. That would be Donna Moll. Even Donna doesn’t walk all the time. Sometimes she bicycles–a 3,500 mile tour to celebrate her 80th birthday, for example–and sometimes she skis. Downhill.
Nora volunteers for the historical museum, drives herself to hair appointments and the market and social visits in Traverse City, and keeps herself and her house looking simply wonderful. When I grow up I would like to be just like her.
Sally Ann
March 29, 2010
So…are Thomas and Herman Guyer the boys from “Whistle Up the Bay?”
Gerry
March 29, 2010
They are two of them. The third is Theodore, who married another Powers girl (Lucy C.–it’s a long story). Herman married Lucy Archer. This family can drive genealogists crazy.
Fee
March 30, 2010
Somehow, I can’t see my teenage daughter’s collection of text messages lasting quite as long as these charming cards.
As a child, I used to love going through my granny’s collection of “odds and sods” as she called them – wedding invitations, thank you letters and the like. I must ask my mum who has them now.
Gerry
March 30, 2010
After my mother’s funeral my sisters and I made a beeline for the closet shelf, pulled down the old green leatherette jewelry box, and sat around it on the bed, going through the bits and pieces and telling stories and laughing and crying. There was the felt and cork pin I’d made for her 40 years before, “Mom” spelled out in macaroni. There were the shells Susan sent her from Fiji. The locket Cheri gave her. A cat pin from Mary. Tiny framed photos of her grandchildren, Rob the Firefighter and AM the Astonishing. Some “scatter pins” that she’d made the year she and Ann Campbell did crafts together.
There was another jewelry box on the dresser, with some nice pieces she liked to wear. It sat ignored as we pored over what she loved most: the tender evidence that her children loved her, the souvenirs of old friends.
Find the “odds and sods” and go through them with your mum. She’ll tell you the stories.
p.j. grath
March 30, 2010
Oh, Gerry, I just LOVE this stuff! True treasure! And finding this post today is just too serendipitous for words because this morning, out with Sarah for a run at the nearby wild area with the old quarry-pond, I met a basket-maker from St. Petersburg, collecting Florida’s version of “sweetgrass” (very different from what goes by the name in northern Michigan). So your pictures and story delighted me and brought forth deep sighs of satisfaction. Thank you!
Gerry
March 30, 2010
Oh, my. PJ, I love sweetgrass and baskets and the combination is utterly irresistible. I do believe it’s your blogly duty to post photos and the story of the Florida basket maker.
Kathy Wms.
March 30, 2010
We have always known that Nora is a treasure.
Gerry
March 30, 2010
Ah well, I feel it is my blogly duty to occasionally restate the obvious. BTW – welcome back!