New Old Stuff
Some old stuff still persists because it is good. For example good art gets preserved through the ages. So in June, I experienced three old things that are still here because they are good.
First, I took a fly fishing trip up into the “center of the Michigan mitten”, Grayling, on the Au Sable River. In 1959, Trout Unlimited was founded here. The Au Sable was a great fishing river that degraded due to a combination of clear cut logging and commercial fishing. The grayling fish was extirpated from its home town. So Trout Unlimited was founded to help cold water fisheries around the country recover. The Au Sable is the old original but new to me.
Grayling had just installed a high speed charger so the R1T was loaded and Kevin, a new Trout Unlimited friend, and I headed out. We got a call from our hotel saying, you can come up here but forest fire has knocked out the power and unless it comes back on you can’t stay here. Kevin and I decided to soldier on and got lucky as the power came back on late in the afternoon. We got a room and a charge for the truck.
We stopped by to see a friend, Carl, and his property on the river. His home was part of a resort that hosted presidents who fished before the river was degraded. We fished the river that is still healing but now quite healthy and beautiful. Beaver, mink, muskrat, eagles and ospreys joined us on the river. The sandy bottom was easy to wade and invited me into a little danger. I found myself after chasing rising fish a half mile from the nearest on shore path in the middle of the river in the moonlight. Wading a cold river for half a mile in the dark even with a sandy bottom felt dangerous.
Second, in 1977, my dad bought me a Grateful Dead greatest hits vinyl record. By 1983, the famous Grateful Dead song, Ripple, became a personal favorite. However, I was not a groupie and never made a concert. Well this past summer, I went to see the Dead live with my daughter, Emily and her boy friend, Zak. It was a perfect Chicago summer evening at a sold out Wrigley Field. I totally enjoyed the music and the pageantry that goes with a Dead concert. Old men in an old band that were new to me.
Third, Princeton University, founded in 1746, was one of America’s original colleges. My brother, Tim, my niece, Melanie and I had a connection that allowed us to play golf at their college course. Tim and Melanie had played there in the past as college golfers against the Princeton team. However, the old course at the old university was new to me. After a thunderstorm, I got to play and hear a few stories from Melanie and Tim. Getting to be with family during golf is one of the great experiences with great people that never gets old.
New old things are great!
R1T Tour 