Originally published in The Cass City Chronicle (July 15, 2020).
​
Some know him as the smiling teller who used to wait on them at the Pinney State Bank. To others, he is known as an excellent baker and a grower of flowers.

But Cass City’s Don Greenleaf is best known for what he readily admits is a gift given to him by God — his music.

From playing at weddings and funerals to using his talents at church, Greenleaf has had a profound musical presence in his community, one born out of a love of music that began at a very early age.

“We always had a piano in the house. My mother played and my grandmother played, but I always pretended all the time I was growing up that it was an organ,” he recalled.

That love of organ music was deepened during a visit to an evangelistic meeting in Saginaw in the 1950s.

“It was in the old auditorium in downtown Saginaw, which is no longer there. I saw my first organ there, and...that just did it. I remember running away from my parents and sitting on the front row so I could watch the man (playing).”

Greenleaf’s parents encouraged their son’s musical interests, purchasing record albums of the same organist he watched so attentively in Saginaw.

“I listened to those by the hour, I never got tired of them,” he said.

In addition to record albums, Greenleaf’s parents ensured he had piano lessons.

“I took lessons first from Ruth Esau,” he said. “But I could play the lesson by ear, so I wouldn’t
read the music. I was in first grade.”

As a boy, the Cass City native’s musical appetite and style was influenced by musicians near and far. Gospel musicians Helen Barth and Al Smith were particularly influential.

“As I got a little older, my aunt brought home a player and radio combination type thing, it played
45s,” he said. “Well, then I would play from the piano. I would hear the songs...on there that Helen
Barth and Al Smith were singing, and then I would play with it on the piano, one finger at a time.”

Locally, it was Emmaline Bullis, the pianist at the First Baptist Church, who influenced the aspiring musician.

“I used to try to emulate her,” Greenleaf said. “I used to see her every Sunday morning, every Sunday night. I just loved Emmaline and the way she played.”

When Myrtle McColl donated a Hammond organ to the Baptist church in memory of her son in 1960, Greenleaf, then a sixth-grader, knew the Hammond was for him.

“I had to learn that,” he said. “I can’t explain it. It was just a fascination. It was the sound, everything about it was fascinating to me.”

Local organist June Deering instructed Greenleaf on the organ for a year, but she soon learned what Ruth Esau and other instructors had learned about her student— he could play by ear.

“I wouldn’t study,” said Greenleaf, who progressed under the direction of his teachers, but as a young man longed for more instruction. “I didn’t read (music) well,” he explained, “and I didn’t know much about music, so I worked with a man who was a piano major at Northwestern University one summer in Bad Axe. And then I went to Gull Lake.”

The Gull Lake Bible and Missionary Conference, held at Gull Lake Ministries in Hickory Corners, brought in well-known Christian preachers, evangelists and musicians each summer. Two of the musicians featured at Gull Lake, John Innes and Merrill Dunlop, had a profound impact on Greenleaf. After hearing them play, he realized that if he was going to be a better musician, he needed an intensive musical education.

“I knew I couldn’t carry off the things that I heard anymore (by ear),” he said. “So, I went to Bad
Axe and studied with Hazel Krueger for 12 years, classic music. That was when I was 25.”

Greenleaf took his studies with Krueger seriously.

“Mrs. Kruger had to take me right from the very bottom, right from the C-scale on. I learned scales and arpeggios — all those things, all technique, because I had never had any of that,” he said. “I knew I had to do it now or never.

“I would get up early in the morning and practice before I went to work, and then I would
take my lesson either in the evening or on Saturday afternoon,” Greenleaf added. “She would have me in recitals, and I would learn things by Bach and Mozart. I would memorize those
things and then do them.”

Since those early days, the Hammond organ has been Greenleaf’s instrument of choice.

“The Hammond was invented by a clockmaker back in 1935,” Greenleaf said. “His clocks
weren’t selling so well, so he was getting to the point where he needed a new invention. He was a marvelous inventor. So, he invented the Hammond organ with the tone wheel generator and with
the drawbar system, whereby you could control every aspect of the harmonics you were using.”

For Greenleaf, and many Hammond enthusiasts like him, a Hammond organ is nothing without a Leslie speaker, a unique invention of radio service engineer Don Leslie in the late 1930s.

“Don Leslie used a rotating device in both the treble and the bass, and when you played the Hammond through it, it gave it a totally different sound,” Greenleaf said. “[It is] much warmer and much richer and just very, very different from what the Hammond sound (by itself) was. It was not produced as a substitute for the pipe organ, which it will never be, but with the proper equipment on it, you can produce pipe sounds.”

Whether playing the organ or the piano, Greenleaf has had a prolific career as a local musician since
the 1960s.

“As time went on, I became church organist,” he said. “And then I played for several years at
the Little Funeral Home. I played an hour before the service and two hours on the evening before. They had a full-sized Hammond, which was a real delight to me, because the church at that time did not have a full-sized Hammond.”

In addition to playing at his church and at the funeral home, Greenleaf has played a variety of venues, including numerous weddings and evangelistic crusades in Bad Axe and Akron.

“I love to accompany. That’s my favorite thing to do,” he said.

Today, Greenleaf continues to play at funerals and community events. He also plays the organ
and, occasionally, the piano, at First Baptist Church each Sunday. But as much as he enjoys playing for the benefit of others, Greenleaf says his music is ultimately an offering back to God.

“Everyone isn’t given a gift in music; they’re given a gift of some sort, but I realize that God just gave you that. I was able to develop it to a degree — not to the degree that I would like, because I would like to be a classical musician if I could carry it off.

“But probably that would never be the heart of what I wanted to do. The purpose of the music is to give back to God what He’s given to you and to glorify Him."

This article was originally published in The Cass City Chronicle (Cass City, Michigan) in the April 1, 2020 edition.

Editor’s note: The following story was submitted by former longtime Cass City area resident and historian Ty Perry, who today resides in Las Vegas with his wife and daughter. “Recently, I was thinking about the Covid-19 pandemic and how similar the reactions/precautions are to those of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918,” Perry commented. “I decided to do some digging around on the Chronicle archives to read about what was happening in town at that time, and I was fascinated by the similarities.”

Dr. Loring Miner was doctor to Haskell County, Kansas’ 1,720 residents. He enjoyed reading Greek classics and tending his small medical parish. But in the first two months of 1918, his life and practice suddenly became less routine.

The people of Haskell County were presenting with influenza symptoms, if they ever were able to present with them in the first place. Many of the county’s strongest and healthiest young people were dying unexpectedly, first experiencing chills, fatigue, and fever, then developing pneumonia and suffocating to death.

Although the illness’ spread was localized and soon ended, Dr. Miner was concerned. He alerted officials at Public Health Reports, a weekly medical journal that notified physicians of outbreaks, to the strange case of Haskell County. His warnings went unheeded.

In the fall of 1918, however, people around the world began experiencing similar symptoms to those of Dr. Miner’s patients. Throughout Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, healthy young people fell victim to the flu symptoms, which quickly morphed into pneumonia. Victims’ skin turned blue and their lungs filled with fluid, ultimately suffocating them to death. Soon, the disease became known as Spanish Influenza, due to its especially deadly impact on the people of Spain.

In Cass City, word of the pandemic had residents and civic leaders on edge. A special meeting of the village council was held on October 12 “for the purpose of taking action regarding ‘Spanish Influenza’.” The only problem was that little could be done. There were no vaccines or antibiotics. The only thing officials could do was to advocate quarantine and good hygiene.

Dr. F.L. Morris, the village health officer, reported that, while no cases of the flu had been reported in the town, precautions should be taken to prevent it. The village council responded by banning all public gatherings and closing the town’s “school, churches, lodges and theaters”, from Sunday, October 13 through Monday, October 21. Hopefully, by then the mounting tide would be stemmed.

Word of the global scale of the pandemic and its vicious spread alarmed Dr. Morris, aware that the end was not in sight, suggested the ban on public gatherings be extended indefinitely. At the October 25 village council meeting, Morris reported that there were several confirmed cases of the flu within the village limits, a startling fact considering there had been no cases reported just a week earlier. “Influenza cards” were printed and placed on the doors of infected homes as warnings to would-be visitors to stay away.

Dr. Morris told the Chronicle that the flu “is infectious by direct contact and if we do not run into it, we stand 99 chances of not getting it. So we will ask you again, be patriotic and stay at home. There are several cases in the country and it has been deemed wise not to open the windows at the post office on Saturday night and please do not congregate there or any other place.”

Unfortunately, some in the community did not heed the doctor’s orders. Thinking their symptoms were mild or that they had become well, the sick gathered with healthy members of the community and transmitted the flu to them. The train depot closed, because all of its staff had contracted the flu, doubtless caused by their frequent contact with people going to and from the city. In Caro, the sugar factory was forced to close, due to a shortage of healthy men to work it. By November 15, there were 80 cases of the illness in Cass City and the village had run out of cards to put on the doors of those infected.

So bad was the spread of the flu that William C. Gorgas, Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army, offered the following guidelines for the public to avoid contracting it:

1.) Avoid needless crowding; influenza is a crowd disease
2.) Smother your coughs and sneezes; others do not want the germs you would throw away.
3.) Your nose, not your mouth, was made to breathe through. Get the habit.
4.) Remember the three C’s--a clean mouth, a clean skin, and clean clothes
5.) Try to keep cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep.
6.) Open the windows always at home at night; at the office when practicable.
7.) Choose and chew your food well.

On November 11, the armistice was signed by the Allies and Germany, bringing World War I to an end. But for Cass City residents, the good news would soon be mingled with tragedy.

In early November, a 32-year-old Cass City native, Edward Kissane, visited Port Huron. A few days after his return to town, Kissane’s neighbors noticed that they had not seen him around his place for a while and decided to check on him. What they found was a severely sick Kissane, who was beyond medical help. He died on November 15, the first and only casualty of the flu inside the village limits.

Despite Kissane’s untimely death, by November 22 local and state officials were cautiously optimistic that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Morris, who had himself contracted the flu a few weeks earlier, announced that the number of cases in the town had diminished significantly, but warned that residents should continue to exercise caution. Michigan Governor Albert Sleeper issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he thanked God “that a dread epidemic has been stayed, through the prompt measures taken by the public health authorities throughout the State and the intelligent cooperation of the whole people.”

While isolated cases of the flu continued to be reported throughout the town--the Brock family on Woodland Avenue, for example, was sick with the flu and pneumonia--Dr. Morris was encouraged by the decline in its spread. On December 1, the ban on public gatherings--one that village officials originally thought would last just eight days--finally came to an end after 48 days. A community church service was held at the Baptist church in thanksgiving.

It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population, 500 million people, contracted the flu. Globally, some 50 million people died as a result of the illness, 675,000 of those deaths being Americans, one of them Edward Kissane of Cass City, Michigan.

The origin of the Spanish Flu is still unknown, although some scholars trace it back to Dr. Mine’s patients in Haskell County, Kansas. How such a global pandemic could begin in a rural Kansas town remains an unanswered question.

Despite more than a century of medical and technological progress, the world finds itself in a similar situation to that of 1918. Currently, no vaccine is known to prevent Covid-19, and medical and community leaders are urging the public to practice “social distancing” and good hygiene.

While we have no evidence that the Spanish Flu caused a local shortage of toilet paper or other supplies, we do know that the public was concerned. In fact, one local drug store advertised that the “Spanish Influenza Strikes Quickly-- Don’t be caught unprepared--an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
​
It all goes to show that what goes around comes around.

Like many children, Steffin Bader grew up watching the Detroit Pistons with his dad, hoping there would be a day when he, too, might be on the court.

Although his dream has taken a different form, the goal is within his reach, but he needs the community’s help to get there.

“My dream used to be to play professional basketball,” Bader said. “As I grew up, my dream quickly
changed to wanting to be someone who makes professional sports run so other kids are able to enjoy it the way I did.”

The Central Michigan University (CMU) senior is now within reach of his “dream-come-true”, thanks to a project in his sports management
class.

“I’m majoring in sports management with a minor in professional sales,” Bader noted. “The goal is to
sell the most tickets (to Detroit Pistons’ games). It’s a competition amongst the entire CMU Sports
Management Program. The student that sells the most tickets before the end of the season gets an internship with the team in corporate sales.”

Bader, who has been vigorously pursuing the top sales title since the project was launched in January, has learned much along the way. “I’ve learned perseverance,” he said. “I have been determined to make my dream become a reality by coming up with some new and creative sales and marketing strategies to get tickets sold.”

Bader’s “can-do” attitude is paying off. “I’m currently in second place in ticket numbers — behind by eight tickets but leading the class in overall sales revenue,” the 2010 Cass City High School graduate said. “I’m just a small town kid with big time dreams, and winning this competition is the first step in making my dream become a reality.”

And that’s where he’s hoping his community will lend a hand.

Thanks to the relationship between the Detroit Pistons and the sports management class at CMU, Bader is able to offer special deals to the public.

“I can sell any ticket for any place in the Palace,” he explained. “Every ticket I sell is already discounted cheaper than face value. I can also get a lot of other incentives attached as far as food vouchers, pictures on the court after the game, welcome signs on the big screen, etc.”

In addition, Bader has secured special privileges for those who buy tickets to the March 28 game against the Miami Heat. “I have a deal going with the Pistons that anyone that buys tickets for the game gets a court access pass to go on the court and take a shot,” he said.

For more information, or to purchase tickets to an upcoming Detroit Pistons game, contact Bader at (989) 954-5454 or email him at [email protected].

This article was originally published by ​The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY — Nestled in her home in a quiet corner of the snow-laden village is Gail Smith. Entering her house with its bookshelves lined with a diverse array of titles, colorful art adorning the walls, and a friendly greeting at the door from her blind cat, Bo, it’s little wonder that she and her home are visited by friends from around the globe – people who feel that she is a woman who has changed not only their lives, but in a very real sense, the world.

It all started in the late 1990s. Smith was looking for both a new vehicle and a new home. Her first problem was solved when she purchased a car from her daughter in Ohio. Her second problem was solved driving it home to Iowa. “I was driving the car from Cleveland to Iowa, got onto I-75, and saw a sign for ‘Port Austin’”, she says. “I turned right and headed to the Thumb.”

“I chanced by sheer accident through Cass City,” she says.

According to Smith, what she saw that late summer night driving through the village was endearing.

“I was so struck by Main Street, the families walking home,” she says. “I thought, ‘I want to live here’.”

Not long after her initial pass through town, Smith sold her Iowa home and moved to Cass City. Her love for books and culture brought her to Rawson Memorial District Library where she soon became involved with the Friends of the Library, and hosting bus trips, which function as fundraisers for the organization.

Smith’s most fulfilling activity, however, was not discovered until five years after she moved here. In 2005, she visited her son and his partner who were hosting a foreign student while the student attended a summer language camp.

Over dinner she was informed that the student was in need of a home for the school year. It took some prompting, but Smith agreed to host the student if another family could not be found.

Shortly after returning to Cass City, Smith received a phone call informing her that the student had already been placed with a family, but that a young man from Taiwan was still in need of a place to stay for the year. His name was George Yang, and he became the first of Smith’s foreign “children.”

Since that time, the Gail Smith residence has become a mini-United Nations, with 11 foreign exchange students visiting from 9 countries, including Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Moldova, Germany, Armenia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Korea.

In 2006, Smith became an Area Representative with the American Scandinavian Student Exchange Program (ASSE), an organization whose stated purpose is “to foster international understanding through educational and cross cultural programs”.

As a representative of ASSE, Smith has a host of responsibilities, including finding homes for foreign exchange students, making sure the living arrangements and family dynamics are suitable for them, and acting as a “neutral party” students are able to take their problems and concerns to.

For the kids she has placed, Gail Smith is more than a host – she is a beloved mentor and friend. “From the very first second we met, I knew that I could absolutely trust that woman with everything,” says Amulya Badmaeva, a Russian student Smith placed with a Cass City area family. “There’s something about her that makes you feel very comfortable around her. She helped me to grow and mature as a person.”

George Yang, Smith’s first exchange student, echoed Badmaeva’s sentiments, “She’s like my family there, and she surely offered a great, memorable year in my life.”

Perhaps Lars Weigmann, who hails from Germany, summed up Smith’s impact on the world best. “I am of the opinion that Gail really impacted the lives of many kids, including mine, with her work with exchange students,” he says. “And because of that fact you really can say that she impacted the whole world by bringing American culture and lifestyle into the lives of many foreign kids.”​

This article was originally published by The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY — She has been described as a woman who “bursts with adolescent girl power” and “a quirky girl with a whole lot of spunk, energy, and dedication.” But to her Cass City friends and family, she is Brittany Nicol — the girl with big personality and gobs of talent.

Nicol says she always has had an interest in music and theatre. She largely credits her grandmother with taking the time to help her and her sister, Alyssa, learn to play musical instruments and to sing when they were growing up. The impressive list of instruments she plays includes the oboe, piano, guitar, ukulele, and hammer dulcimer, as well as various percussion instruments.

As a student at Cass City Middle School, and a member of the Academic Track team, Nicol says her interest developed into a passion. “Academic Track helped my interest in musical theatre flourish into something I could do for a career,” she says. “It was by far my favorite part of middle school.”

Nicol, the daughter of Jim and Jeanne Nicol of Cass City, started preparing for her future career early. In the fall of 2007, she enrolled in Interlochen Center for the Arts, an institution whose stated purpose is to “[engage] and [inspire] people worldwide through excellence in educational, artistic and cultural programs, enhancing the quality of life through the universal language of the arts”.

For Nicol, her time spent at the center was life-changing. “Everyone always laughs, but I describe it as a ‘magical place’,” she says. “Interlochen is my favorite place in the whole world. I really came into my own at Interlochen and was surrounded by people who were as passionate about the arts as I was… Interlochen (and my parents) taught me what good work ethic and focus is and that I can do anything I set my mind to.” That combination of passion, work ethic, and focus have served Nicol well, as she continues her education at Michigan State University.

The decision to become a Spartan, however, was not part of the original plan. “It’s actually a funny story,” she says of her decision. “I applied many places for my undergraduate degree, but they were all Musical Theatre programs. After some thinking (and almost going to college in Oklahoma) I realized I would rather be closer to home and go to a program that was centered around acting instead of singing and dancing. Also, since I had such a different experience for high school, I wanted to go to a public university.”

Today, Nicol is pursuing her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Theatre, with an emphasis in acting – a pursuit she is, by all appearances, both enjoying and excelling at. “It’s a program that I had to audition into and I have about 15 other people in my class receiving that same degree,” she says.

Nicol has received rave reviews for her performances in 14 different productions at Michigan State University and in the Lansing community. The Lansing State Journal says that Nicol’s scenes “are passionate and forceful, revealing a fragility in even the most intelligent and outgoing of souls.”

While her participation in an eclectic array of productions has been a thrill, Nicol says she does have her favorites. “Pump Up the Volume was a great experience because I really connected with the guest director that came from New York. I also just finished Xanadu where I did the whole show on roller skates. That was definitely a learning experience!”

For Nicol, the end is in sight, as far as her time at Michigan State University goes. After graduating in May of 2014, she plans to take her career to the next level. “I’m planning to move to New York City to pursue Musical Theatre. I’m very excited to make the big move!”

While the excitement of big-city life looms on the horizon, Nicol isn’t quick to forget where her roots are. “I think of how great it was to grow up in a small town community,” she says. “I loved going to football games and being involved in my church.”

Nicol credits the members of her support network with helping her achieve her goals. “I have an extremely supportive family, some great friends, a very supportive boyfriend, and I have had some amazing opportunities,” she says. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of the things I’ve done without the unending supports of my parents. So many thanks to them. My mom always jokes that I have to thank her first when I get a Tony. If I ever get so blessed to have such a high honor, you bet I will! “

For more information about Brittany Nicol, her career, and background, visit her website, www.brittanyannnicol.com.

This article was originally published by The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY — There’s no saying what will happen when a seed of talent is nurtured — take Cass City’s Roger Parrish, for example. The combination of raw talent, encouragement from his parents, and opportunities to hone his skills proved to be just what he needed to blossom into the village’s “music man”.

Parrish’s talents were “inherited”  from his mother, Elena Stoll Parrish, whose musical abilities included singing, as well as playing a variety of instruments, including the piano, organ, and harmonica.

“She never had the opportunity to take lessons,” Parrish says of his mother. “She played by ear, without notes.”

As a boy, Parrish’s parents encouraged his musical talent. They bought an old upright piano from Cass City High School for $5. It was on this piano that Parrish’s mother taught him how to play by ear — something he picked up on quickly. “She taught me a couple of hymns, old traditional hymns,” he says. “[Playing by ear] made sense to me.”

When he was about 10 or 11 years old, Parrish began taking piano lessons from Ethel McCoy, wife of a prominent town doctor. He was under her tutelage for a couple of years, during which his natural talents were refined.

As time went on, Parrish had opportunities to grow and share his gift of music. At the ripe age of 15, he became the organist at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Cass City. During his high school years, he was the school choir’s pianist, played at various local functions, and was a drummer in the band at Cass City High School, where he was graduated in 1950.

After high school, Parrish enrolled at Central Michigan University. When he returned home from school on the weekends, his schedule was full – teaching piano lessons Saturday afternoon, playing for area dances Saturday night, and serving as church organist on Sunday morning.

In 1954, Parrish graduated from Central Michigan with a degree in education with a minor in choral music and piano. It didn’t take him long to put his education to good use.

“There was an opening in Caro for elementary music,” he says. “There was no school building at that time, so they had classes in area churches. I’d get in my car and go to the different churches [to teach].”

The following year, Parrish took a job in his hometown, teaching choral music for grades 1 through 12. “There was no music room at Campbell Elementary at that time, so I had to literally push a piano from one room to the next,” he says.

Parrish taught students the fundamentals of music and was a great promoter of vocal talent among high school students. “There were some very talented students at that time, as there are now, I imagine,” he says.

Not only did Parrish teach music – he composed it as well. Among his compositions are Cass City High School’s anthem — “Alma Mater, Hear Us Now”, “Rhapsody of the Red Bird”, “A Tribute to Mother Teresa”, (written 5 days after her death in 1997), as well as a host of Christmas songs, such as “This Child of Christmas”.

“It was a highlight of my life,” Parris says of his time teaching in Cass City. “I enjoyed it very much.”

In 1970, having taught at Cass City for the past 15 years, Parrish decided to resign and take his musical career in a new direction. He headed to California, where both family and opportunity awaited him. There, he worked as an entertainer in various venues, one of which was the prestigious Stardust Country Club in San Diego.

From there, Parrish worked in a variety of places, including Indiana, Virginia, and Florida. While in Miami, someone suggested that Parrish apply for work with a cruise line. “I applied on Thursday, was hired on Friday, and set sail on Saturday,” he says.

His job with the cruise line took him to South America and the Caribbean Islands. He worked with them for two winters before retiring in the mid-1970s.

Since that time, Parrish has used his musical abilities to benefit the Cass City community. He was the organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church for 15 years, and has played and sung his original music in other churches throughout the area.

Today, Parrish is active with the Tom Thumb Singers, where he serves as the lead piano accompanist. “I enjoy hearing and playing the music of the Christmas season,” Parrish says. “It’s very inspirational.”​

​CASS CITY — Most people look back fondly on special Christmas gifts they received as children. For Kevin Gracey, it is the gift his brother received that he remembers best, because it led to a life-long hobby for him.

It all started during the Christmas season of 1973. “My younger brother went to Bad Axe and told Santa he wanted a train for Christmas,” Gracey says. A while later a phone call came, informing Gracey’s brother that he had won a drawing for a model train set.

For years, Gracey tried to get his brother to give him the train. His mother, however, always intervened, advising Gracey’s brother to keep the set. After ten years of asking, Gracey finally got the train, trading his keyboard to his brother in exchange.

The joy of owning that first train sparked in Gracey a desire to continue collecting – a hobby that continues to this day. Gracey still has that first train, a 1973 Lionel Blue Streak Freight. “My prized one is my first one, because I know where it came from,” he says.

His initial interest in trains, however, has expanded to include train displays. “To me, it’s the operating accessories,” he says, citing the saw-mills, buildings, lights, and other accessories that help to create a winter scene for the trains to travel through. “It’s a blast. The people who say, ‘I had this when I was a kid’ [make it enjoyable].”

Today, Gracey enjoys sharing his passion with the public locally, setting up his display during Fall Family Days at the Thumb Octagon Barn and during the Christmas season at Rawson Memorial District Library.

“I love Christmas,” Gracey says. “I love the lights, and especially with Christmas, people come into look at it…it’s satisfying. It’s a good hobby.”

During most of the year, Gracey’s display is housed in his basement. “I have a 4’x20’ display and it’s solid Christmas – buildings, lights, everything to do with Christmas. It’s a year-round thing.”

Gracey is quick to point out that he couldn’t maintain the display without the help of his wife, Diane. “My wife has everything labeled in tubs,” he says. “She does all the landscaping.”

In addition to his display, Gracey enjoys buying and selling trains. “I’ve been to some shows and set up to sell there,” he says. “But sometimes it’s a two-hour drive, an hour to set-up, then a seven-hour day with the display.”

With the advent of Ebay and other online markets, Gracey says he doesn’t do the shows any longer. He does give a word of warning about online markets to prospective train collectors, however. “Be very careful. You need to know what you’re looking for,” he says, referencing the varying degrees of quality and prices.

During the holidays, Gracey will be setting his train display up at Rawson Memorial District Library in Cass City. He says he is hoping to run the train on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the month of December.

“This year we’re going to do Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” as our theme, he says. The display will feature buildings, characters, and scenes from the famous Christmas story.

Gracey says children love watching the magical, miniature “winter wonderland”. “The kids, if you get something they can relate to…it’s just that much more satisfying”, he says.

In addition to the display, the public is welcome to enter a raffle for one of two H.O. model trains donated by Cass City resident Stanley May. One train is guaranteed to go to a child, while the other will be given to a person of any age. Tickets are $0.50 each and will be available for sale at the library until December 20. For information about the raffle, contact the library at (989) 872-2856.

For more information about the display, or collecting train sets, contact Kevin Gracey at (989) 415-7036.

This article was originally published by ​The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY -- One never knows where a childhood interest might lead them.

Cass City’s Richard Berweiler discovered that what started as a boyhood fascination with auto design developed into a lifelong hobby and career.

It all started in the 1940s when Berweiler was a child.

“I had an uncle who was interested in cars and he would take me around to car dealers,” Berweiler said. While perusing the latest selection of sedans and station wagons, Berweiler picked up brochures, which showcased the modern designs and conveniences of the current autos, and included glossy photographs within their pages.

“I’d cut them up for scrapbooks, not knowing what they were,” Berweiler says of the first automotive literature he acquired. All of that changed, however, in the early 1950s when his passion for cars began to take off.

“I had the interest in car design,” Berweiler said. “My uncle would take me to auto shows, and up and down Livernois Avenue on Sunday afternoons, looking at cars.”

When he wasn’t viewing cars in person, he was studying the sleek designs of the latest models in his ever-growing collection of automotive brochures.

It didn’t take long, however, for Berweiler’s appreciation for car design to develop into a career pathway. While a high schooler, young Berweiler sat in on a presentation given by a General Motors representative. His topic – engineering and auto design. “He recommended … the Art Center in Los Angeles,” Berweiler says of the representative’s advice for aspiring engineers and auto designers.

According to Berweiler, that piece of advice was very valuable. From 1954 to 1957, he attended the Art Center, learning to fine tune the natural artistic abilities he already possessed. His education at the institution proved to be a good launching pad for his career.

The year he left Art Center, Berweiler was hired by General Motors as a tech stylist. “Basically, [my job] goes back to the old fashioned 4-view line drawings of the cars,”  he says. From there, he worked his way up through the ranks to become a studio engineer. It was from this position that Berweiler retired in 1987 – 30 years after joining the company.

As all retirees must, Berweiler had to make a decision about what he would do with his newly acquired spare time. It didn’t take him long to figure it out; he would continue pursuing his love of collecting automobile brochures.

In the early 1980s, Berweiler had joined the Automotive Literature Collectors’ Club. It was through this organization that he found other like-minded collectors throughout the country and globe. His interaction with fellow collectors increased dramatically in retirement, trading with people from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, England, and even as far away as Tahiti.

Berweiler’s collection of automotive literature has grown far beyond the scrapbooks he compiled as boy in the 1940s. Today, he has more than 38,200 automotive brochures from just about every American auto manufacturer, and several foreign makers. Of all 38,000-plus, he says his favorites are the Cadillacs, especially his 1928 brochure, as well as the Packard and Lincoln brochures of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Where does a person store that many brochures? In their basement, of course. Rows of neatly organized shelving units, built by Berweiler and organized according to the make of each car, house the thousands of pieces of literature.

Using a spreadsheet, Berweiler has meticulously catalogued each brochure on his home computer, noting the year, size of the document, number of pages, and other detailed data pertaining to the catalog.

After more than 65 years of collecting, Berweiler says he is beginning to wonder about the future of his hobby.

“We’re going into a period when car manufacturers are discontinuing printing literature … They’re going digital,” he says. “I feel this hobby could come to an end in the next few years, because they’re going to quit printing, and will [instead] put it all online.”

For now, though, Berweiler is going to continue collecting. He is routinely in contact with fellow collectors throughout the world and enjoys sharing his passion with others.​

This article was originally published in ​The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY — Few people return to their hometown to find their name emblazoned on the village limits sign welcoming visitors to the community. Even fewer people will man shuttles into space. Cass City native Brewster Shaw, Jr. has had both experiences.

A recent visit home for his 50th high school class reunion provided some time for Shaw to reminisce about his early life in the Cass City area and his illustrious career with NASA.

For many young people, leaving their small hometown after high school is a top priority. It wasn’t for Brewster Shaw. In fact, he credits the life lessons and experiences he had in Cass City with forming a solid “launch pad” for his future. “We lived on a farm. When you live on a farm, you learn a good work ethic. You know, it’s just part of growing up, part of your existence. Cass City was a very comfortable community … it was a great place to grow up.”

Shaw’s greatest role models were his parents. His mother, Ione Shaw, was a teacher in the Cass City public school system for many years and his father was a farmer. “I still hear my mother correcting my English and telling me what the proper way to speak is,” he says. “I still feel the presence of my father offering me the opportunity to do hard work, but then feeling good about what I accomplished.”

Shaw, a 1963 graduate of Cass City High School, took an active role in the life of the community. For him, school athletics was a way to burn energy and make friends. “I’m not a big guy, I’m not a great athlete, but at Cass City High School I was able to play athletics,” Shaw says. “I played football for Mike Yedinak until senior year, and then the coaching staff changed. I played basketball for a couple of years for Irv Claseman, but I was short and slow, and so senior year I didn’t even go out. And I ran track – ? mile, mile kind of stuff, because I’m not fast. Had we lived in a big city with a much bigger high school, it wouldn’t have been that way. So, I thought that was a positive.”

In addition to athletics, Shaw dabbled in the music world — a hobby that paid off…literally. While his junior high trombone career was short-lived, playing in a rock band for his senior trip turned out to be beneficial. “[Playing for the senior trip] was a good primer, because I paid for the majority of my college education by playing in a rock band at the University of Wisconsin, which was relatively lucrative.”

When it came time to make plans for college, Shaw says he was a typical high school senior. “I wanted to go to school out of state, because I felt like I needed some space between myself and my parents at that particular time, not unlike a lot of 18-year-old guys. My mother and my three older sisters had all gone to the University of Michigan; my father had gone to the University of Wisconsin, so it was a fairly easy sell to get my parents to support me going to the University of Wisconsin.”

For Shaw, going to space was not an early aspiration. “When I was growing up here…I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says. “Math was something that was relatively easy for me, and I liked physics, so I got a University of Wisconsin catalog and started flipping through. My dad had an engineering degree, so I looked into engineering and I found this thing called ‘engineering mechanics’ and read all the courses for the 4-year program. I thought those looked ok, so that’s what I signed up for without having a clue what I would do with it.”

It wasn’t until college that Shaw began to think about a career with NASA. “There were three or four things that created this perfect storm of an idea.” The first “ingredient” for that storm was a love for flying planes. “One of the drummers in our band was a private pilot,” Shaw says. “He took me flying one day and I’ve never stopped flying since that day. I got a private pilot’s license while I was in college.”

The second component was a celestial mechanics course at the University of Wisconsin. “I enjoyed that course a lot,” Shaw says. “[It was taught by] a professor who did become a role model, sort of a mentor, that I liked very much.”

The third contributing factor to Shaw’s pursuit of his career was a sense of awe at man’s rapid development of space technology and exploration. “That was in the mid-60’s and I was watching, like everybody else in this country, us getting ready to go to the moon. And all of those guys that were involved in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were military test pilots. So, it seemed like the only avenue to do what they were doing, which intrigued me, was to be a military test pilot.”

The final part of the equation stemmed from current events. The Vietnam War was in full swing and the call of the draft was inevitable. “We had gone recently to a lottery system,” Shaw says. “I had a very low lottery number. It was pretty clear I was going to be drafted.” Faced with compulsory recruitment, Shaw had a decision to make. “I could allow myself to be drafted into the army, or I could choose to fly and maybe someday get to get to test pilot school…maybe someday I would be able to do what those guys were doing, those guys who were getting ready to go to the moon.”

When those four components came together, Shaw’s “perfect storm” began brewing. In 1969, after his completion of Officer Training School and attending undergraduate pilot training, Shaw entered the U.S. Air Force. He served during the Vietnam War, attended USAF Test Pilot School, and realized his dream of becoming a test pilot.

In 1978, NASA selected Shaw to be a United States astronaut. For four years, he was involved in various technical assignments. But in 1982, Shaw was “tapped on the shoulder” and assigned to a flight. Three years later, Shaw boarded STS-9 Columbia, which he piloted.

“Like a sledge hammer hitting the back of your seat.” That’s how Shaw describes the initial jolt of the rockets attached to the shuttle, as it lifts off the ground. He says he knew that the ascent into orbit would be rough, because of the accounts of other astronauts. As he spoke, tears welling up in his eyes, it was apparent that he did not expect the beauty and sense of awe he would feel as he caught his first glimpse of earth from space. “It’s an experience everyone should have a right to,” he said.

The years since that first extraterrestrial trip have been anything but boring for the astronaut. In 1985, Shaw was shuttle commander for STS-61B Atlantis. Four years later, he was shuttle commander yet again, this time for STS-28 Columbia.

Following his career as an astronaut, Shaw served in various NASA management positions. He retired from NASA in 1996, choosing to work in the private sector. His career path took him to Rockwell International, a leading manufacturer for the aircraft/space craft industry. Rockwell was soon acquired by Boeing, where Shaw worked as a senior executive official until his retirement, in 2011. In 2006, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation inducted Brewster Shaw, Jr. into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Today, Shaw and his wife, Kathy, live in Houston, Texas. They enjoy traveling, visiting their children and grandchildren, and making occasional trips home to Cass City.
​
Shaw has by no means abandoned his love for adventure. On any given day, you may find him riding his motorcycle cross country, or flying his plane – yes, his own plane – in the Texas skies.

This article was originally published by ​The Tuscola County Advertiser.

CASS CITY — The advent of spring means many things — the migration of snowbirds (feathered and otherwise) back to their northern homes and the blooming of flowers.

For Cass City businessman Scott Ackerman, it signals the beginning of the busy season for him at Ackerman’s Bike Repair.

The business, which is now the Thumb’s leading bike shop, started out on a whim.

When Cass City’s True Value Hardware Store closed in 1985, Scott Ackerman found himself without a job. His search for work took him all the way to Flint but proved fruitless.

“I went all over and couldn’t find a job anywhere,” he says. “So, I said ‘Well, is there anything I could do that I have experience doing until something else comes along?’”

It turns out that that “something else” was repairing bicycles.

“I fixed a few bikes in my dad’s driveway, then eventually moved to his shed,” Ackerman reports. “I was given some used bikes, and sold them locally.” Unemployed, but realizing he had both a knack for bike repair and a growing clientele; he began putting together a business plan.

One of the first and most important components of his plan was to find a permanent location. After looking at several storefronts on Main Street and other locations, Ackerman was directed to a lot at the end of Pine Street. He removed an existing building from the property, and then began building the structure his shop currently occupies, in 1991.

“I started with four new bikes and very few parts,” he said, smiling.

“I bought out a guy in Caro and stored the parts in my church’s garage.”

Looking to expand his business without accumulating a great deal of debt, Ackerman says he started out slowly and steadily gained momentum. “The economy was still pretty good in the ‘90’s and things just built up from there.”

Today, 28 years after its humble beginning, the bicycle repairman says his business is still going strong. “I’m the only full bike store in the Thumb.” With between 40-60 bicycles ranging from child to adult models on the floor at any given time, the selection is surprisingly large for being in such a small community. “[The store] seemed like a lot of space when it was being built”, the owner says as he looks over the room, now filled to capacity. “But I still wouldn’t want it any bigger.”

From children’s and BMX styles to mountain bikes, hybrids, and the increasingly popular  cruiser line, Ackerman’s diverse stock of bicycles mirrors the variety of terrains and uses people will encounter in the Thumb region. “There are certain brands I don’t carry, but there are no types of bikes I cannot get,” he says.

In regards to sales, Ackerman is a proponent of quality bicycles, but says he won’t force anyone into a product they aren’t interested in. “I carry quality bikes. They’re high quality compared to the department stores’. There are so many things the average person doesn’t realize about bicycles, but I’m not the type to push everyone into a top quality bike. Not everyone has $200 to put into one.”

The store owner says that, while the prices of his bikes are a bit higher than the department stores due to their higher quality, his prices are very fair. “I stay below the suggested retail price. I’m still cheaper than city prices.”

When it comes to buying a bike, Ackerman offers consumers a few pointers.

1. Look for aluminum wheels with aluminum hubs and stainless steel spokes.

2. Aim for a lighter bike – the lighter the bike, the easier it will be to pedal.

3. If you’re in the market for a higher quality bike, prepare for a more comfortable seat, long-lasting and better quality paint/decals, and a stronger frame.

In addition to his selection of bikes for sale, Ackerman is primarily known throughout the area for the work his business’ name advertises– bike repair. “The only bikes I won’t repair are the ones that aren’t repairable,” he says with a grin. While the shop is open year round, the busy season runs from the beginning of April through the end of June. According to Ackerman, during the summertime, the Thumb is a vacation spot for many from the Detroit area. “When they get a flat tire, they go to the phone book and find my shop. The only other bike shops are in Bay City, Saginaw, and Port Huron.”

“I don’t expect every customer to understand all the components of bike [repairs and sales],” he commented. “But I’m here to explain all that.”

Ackerman’s Bike Repair is located at 6247 Pine Street in Cass City and welcomes the public to stop by. For more information or to schedule a repair, contact Scott at (989) 872-4930.​