Disappointment and hope at the same time…

January 19, 2015

I attended the Dr. Martin Luther King Day March Down Main Street today in Milford, MIchigan. This was the 10th annual celebration of the King Holiday in Milford and I have to say that it was a disappointment on one level, but holds out great hope at MLK image over DOwntown MIlfordanother level. The disappointment is at the relatively low turnout and the obliviousness of the local population to this event. Several people stopped to ask what was going on when they saw the small crowd gathered in the Prospect Hill parking lot and when they saw the march kick off.  That is unfortunate testimony to the lack of press coverage in this area and the general lack of appreciation and understanding of the work that Dr. King did and the importance to every community of diversity and acceptance of that diversity.

The hope that I saw for the future was the in the faces of the youth in attendance. There are people who were not there so much to honor Dr. King; after all they were not even born when he was leading the fight; they were there because they believe in the message that he delivered and the causes that he worked for – diversity, peace and non-violence. For them, this day was about believing in concepts as much as celebrating the life of one of the champion’s of those concepts. These are young people who are still willing to get out and march for something and against the prejudice and discrimination that they can still see all around them. These are the young who are willing to say that the job is not yet done and who are willing to take the baton and continue the fight.

There was disappointment at those drivers who were annoyed and impatient that they were inconvenienced and slowed by marchers through the downtown area; but, there was hope in the fact that those who marched and carried signs and listened to the speakers get the message that Dr. King lived and died to deliver. The “I have a dream” speech that Dr. King delivered on the Washington Mall was played as the parade progressed and one couldn’t help but believe that many of these youth share that dream. Because of that the dream will not die. The work is unfinished, but the dream is not over. Tomorrow is the official Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, but for today the dream lives on in Milford and the Huron Valley.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Unfinished business…the MLK Day March down Main Street

January 18, 2015

Even though Monday is the official Martin Luther King, Jr, holiday, the organizers of the recognition event in the Huron Valley area have chosen today for the annual MLK March down Main Street. The marchers will begin gathering at the MLK image over DOwntown MIlfordProspect Hill Shopping Center at 516 Highland Ave., Milford, MI 48357. (where Kroger is located) beginning at 12:15. The march is scheduled to step off at 1 PM. The march will begin with a brief speech and National Anthem. 2015’s March on Main Street is from Prospect Hill to the Susan Haskew Art Center (SHAC) on S. Main Street (instead of to Central Park as in the past).

The Huron Valley Dr. Martin Luther King Day Committee is an all-volunteer group made up of adults and students in Huron Valley schools. The committee has added several ancillary events, such as a writing contest and an art contest to allow local students and residents to express what this day and the work that Dr. King did mean to them. The committee also has a web site – www.hvmlkday.org , which offers the following:

Reasons to March – Adapted from Raleigh, Carolina’s 26th consecutive year Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.

  • You should march on the King Holiday if you understand and appreciate the sacrifice and contributions of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • You should march if you too have a vision and desire that one day the King Dream will become fulfilled.
  • You should march if you have benefited by the economic, educational and social remedy which resulted from King’s life.
  • You should march if you have a sense of obligation to help others understand, by your presence, that the King Holiday is important to the Triangle, North Carolina and America (Ed. – Add here that it is important to the Huron Valley area, too).
  • You should march if you acknowledge that the King Memorial March is not a protest march, but rather, an assembly of citizens, from across racial & denominational lines, in a confirmation of solidarity with others who recognize the challenges still facing society.
  • You should march if you wish to set a positive example for young people, of all creeds and races, by participating in a civic event which helps reinforce your values of economic justice, peace and respect for all cultures.
  • You should especially march if you’ve never marched before.
  • You should march if you know…..deep down inside…. that you could/should do more to help inspire and provide a sense of aspiration for our youth.
  • You too should march on the King Holiday if you and your family, civic or church group come to grips with the realization that it is not “uncool” to show support publicly for a message which is still shaping the moral fabric and future of our nation.
  • You should march on the King Holiday because it is an appropriate and honorable response to today’s realities and opportunities.

I would add to the list that you should march because this represents unfinished business about diversity that we still need to work on. I’ll see you there!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Get ready to vote…

January 17, 2015

The polls open at 8 AM Monday morning, Jan 19, for voting on the grants that the Huron Valley History Initiative is vying for against four other communities. Voting continues until 5 PM on Jan 25th. As they like to say in Chicago politics “vote early and vote often”, only in this case it is perfectly OK to vote and many times as you wish.

There will be multiple ways to vote. One way is by clicking on the graphic below, which will take you to the Clarke History Library web site and the voting station that they have set up.

vote graphic

The second way to vote on-line is to post a Tweet or to Re-Tween a post that has the hashtag #DigMilford in it. That’s our unique hashtag for this competition. I’ll be posting a tweet Monday morning with a link to another blog post about this contest and with the hashtag embedded; so, you could just Re-Tweet that post.

postcardThe third way to vote is to send a postcard in to the Clarke Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI  48859. Postcards don’t necessarily have to come from within Michigan, but they do need to have a Michigan theme or picture on them and they should also have the hashtag #DigMilford written on them somewhere.  If you can’t find a Michigan-themed postcard, get a blank one and draw a left handed mitten on it and label it “Michigan”. That should work. Postcards count as 100 votes, so we’d love to get lots of them sent to Clarke Library.

As I’ve mentioned here before, the Huron Valley History Initiative is made up of about 8-9 museums, libraries and historical societies and groups. The goal is this group is to digitize and make available on–line the various collections of historic memorabilia that the historical societies and museums have collected. The project that will kick this off is the conversion of the microfilm libraries that the Milford Historical Museum and the Milford Library have of back issues of the Milford Times weekly newspaper. Those back issues go back to the beginning of the paper in 1871. The Clarke Library grant that we are vying for will facilitate that conversion from microfilm into a digital format and allow the indexing of the issues to create a searchable database.

Look for my kick-off post on Monday, but get ready to vote next week. Dig through your old boxes of pictures and stuff to see if you have an old postcard off something from Michigan that you could send; otherwise stand by to Tweet. Have a great weekend.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Voting for Huron Valley history…

January 13, 2015

I’ve mentioned this here before and your will see it again before next Monday. I’m the President of the Board of the Milford Historical Society (MHS). We run a small museum in Milford that is open 8 months of the year. The Milford Historical Museum, like many small town museums across America focuses upon local history, in our case the history of the area surrounding Milford – The Huron Valley area. The museum houses memorabilia of various sorts that have been contributed by local residents. It also houses a unique collection of microfilmed copies of the local weekly paper – The Milford Times – going back to its beginning in 1871. The Milford Times like many small town weekly papers, is a great source for historical material on the life and times of Milford and the surrounding area. The ads alone would make a great graduate degree study in the changing tastes of mid-America.

microfilm readerWhen this archive was conceived and created back in the 1970’s the most logical medium to use was microfilm, which is what it is recorded upon to this day. Microfilm has a very long life, but the technology has been supplanted by newer, faster and certainly more useful technologies. The microfilm library that we have is not indexed (other than by start and stop dates on the film reels) and cannot be searched. It is a tedious process to find a specific issue and an impossible task to find all mentions of a specific subject. We hope to change that and make the files searchable, while at the same time moving to a newer technology that will last long into the future.

Our Museum and the Milford Historical Society has joined forces with the Milford Library, the Highland Township Library, the White Lake Township Library, the Commerce Township Library and Historical Societies from Highland, White Lake (and Fisk Farm), and Commerce Township (and Byers Farm) in a project that has been named the Huron Valley History Initiative. This group has joined together to facilitate the project to convert the copies of the Milford times that exist on microfilm in the Milford Historical Museum and at the Milford Library into a searchable database that will be house on a server that will be accessible to the group members. The resulting database will be indexed and searchable. The groups have also committed to the digitization and addition of other of their records and memorabilia, such as old photos, cemetery records, tax records and such. Once done the resulting database will allow a very rich search environment for historians and genealogy researchers.

The tasks that must be completed to realize the vision of having all of this history on line are formidable, but they start with getting the current microfilm library scanned in and converted to digital format. To that end, the group has applied for a grant from the Clarke Library, which is associated with Central Michigan University. Clarke accepts annual grant requests for history-oriented projects from around the state of Michigan and then chooses one request to fund. The choice involves letting the communities that will be impacted by the grant work vote on the importance to the community of the proposed work. The Huron Valley History Initiative is one of the five finalists for this year’s Clarke Library grant. The voting is done within a one week window, from Jan 19 until Jan 25.

vote graphicBeginning Jan 19, members of the community (or anyone for that matter)  may “vote” for the project of their choice by using Twitter to post a Tweet with a unique hashtag (in our case the hashtag is #DigMilford) or they may send in a post card with some Michigan theme or content (a picture of something in Michigan) addressed to Clarke Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Clemens, MI  48859. The postcard should contain the hashtag DigMilford on it to identify it as a vote for our project. You can click here to view the poster that we’ve created and which will be in store window in Milford and in the libraries mentioned. The Huron Valley History Initiative has also created a Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/huronvalleyhistory ,which you can visit for more information. The Clarke Library also has a web page that will allow you to vote, just remember that our hashtag is #DigMilford.

I encourage all of my readers to Tweet or re-Tweet during the voting window using the hashtag #DigMilford. Admittedly, this is a “cause” that doesn’t pull at the heartstrings like most of the health and welfare causes that we are all bombarded with all of the time. The needs in those areas are great all around the world and I encourage you to do what you can for them and give what you can. In this case, we aren’t asking you for any money, just a few moments to Tweet or re-Tweet something with the hashtag #DigMilford to support our project. Of course, if you do happen to have a Michigan-themed postcard and want to send it in to vote for us, that would be great. Postcards count as 100 votes, so that counts as a lot of Tweeting. Send your cards to – Clarke Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Clemens, MI  48859. For my international followers, perhaps a postcard from your country to the library with something historic in your area would be counted – just make sure to put the hashtag #DigMilford on it.

I’ll post a reminder on Monday, Jan 19 when the polls open. Thanks for your support.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Progress without destruction – #DigMilford

January 5, 2015

“You raze the old to raise the new.”  (Justin Chen), as seen on the Jack’s Winning Words blog.  In modern terms this concept is sometimes called creative destruction. The idea seems to be the need to tear down the old to make way for the new. It is applied to buildings and industries and sometimes, unfortunately to relationships.

I’m not a Luddite by any means; however, I have a conflict of sorts with this concept, especially the rather cavalier discarding of everything old to make way for the new. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I’m currently the President of the Milford Historical Society – a group dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Milford area.  old millThe name Milford came about because the area provided ample water-power sources and one could easily ford the Huron River at this point in the Huron Valley. Many mills of all sorts were built in Milford, none of which exist today. They were all torn down to make way for progress. Other communities that didn’t do so now have a nice attraction for visitors to see how things were done more than a century ago. All we have now are pictures of the mills in our Milford Historical Museum. Perhaps preserving at least one mill would have been a good idea.

Entire industries also get destroyed by progress and some of that is inevitable. The entire industry built around the horse and carriage as a means of transportation was rendered obsolete and Eire canaluseless by the invention of the automobile. The rise of the railroad industry put a quick end to the nascent industry devoted to building canals to allow for transport by boat. Eventually the railroads, at least as a means of long distance travel, were largely obsoleted by the rise of the airplane and the airliner. The railroad industry shifted almost completely to bulk transporting, which is does better than airplanes.  There are lots of other examples. Of course, not all progress has been accompanied by the demise of earlier industries. In some cases the new didn’t replace anything old; it just allowed new things that hadn’t been done before. One could argue the case for computers or the Internet as examples; although there were some things that were probably displaced by them, too.

Sometimes we allow new relationships to tear down old ones, often due to the demands of either the new or the old. New friends or loves in our lives demand attention, which is often time taken away from an older relationship. That does not go unnoticed and can sour the previous relationship. In the case of your life partner, there can be only one at a time, both legally and practically. Other long-term relationships, especially those of blood, can also get displaced. There’s an old saying that mothers everywhere know is somewhat true – “a son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter’s a daughter for all of her life.” Many moms feel displaced by their son’s wife, at least partially; but the woman to women relationship that remains between the mom and her daughter may just get stronger as the daughter matures.

Can there be progress without destruction? Can new things develop without tearing down the old? I think so. There is no doubt that the old will be somewhat displaced by the new; however, perhaps the old can assume a new role and not be completely destroyed. At a minimum, some examples of the old should be saved as part of our history and heritage, so that our children can see and appreciate how things were before the world that they live in came about. That is the role of our museums; a role that should be supported by the community, both financially, so that they can continue to exist, and by the community’s use and participation in their programs.

Our Milford Historical Museum is one tiny repository of history in our little corner of the world. It operates totally on donations, both from the community and from the membership of the Milford Historical Society. You can learn more about it at our web site – www.milfordshistory.org . We are currently involved in a project to preserve a key part of our history by bringing an microfilm readerimportant part of it into the 21st Century. The Milford Historical Society has for some time been collecting and preserving copies of the weekly publication The Milford Times on microfilm. Microfilm is an industry that is ending – displaced by the more modern digital means of storing things. The old microfilm machines are hard or impossible to buy or maintain anymore. So, we have joined several other local historical groups and libraries in the area in a project to have our microfilm library of issues of the Milford Times dating back to 1871 digitized into a searchable dtatbase. This is a valuable historical research resource that will become much more accessible once we get the library digitized, indexed and on-line. The project will go on to digitize images of our Museum’s collection of old photos and other memorabilia.

You can read more about the microfilm digitization project at our web site, as well as how to vote for this project in a grant competition in which we are a finalist. Between January  19 and January 25, any Tweets on Twitter that carry the hash tag #DigMilford will count as a vote for this project. I hope that many of my readers will vote for us and our project to preserve the history of the Milford area. I’ll post another reminder closer to the voting window dates.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Nationally aclaimed pianist coming to Milford

September 28, 2014

The Milford Historical Society proudly presents highly regarded Ragtime pianist Bob Milne in concert at The Milford Presbyterian Church, 238 N Main St, Milford, MI 48381, on Friday, October 24 at 7 pM.

 Click here to view the event poster with ticket information. An afterglow event follows the concert. Read the poster for details on how to attend that event. Proceeds go to support the Milford Historical Museum.

bOb Milne - RagtimistConsidered by many to be the best Ragtime/Boogie-Woogie pianist in the world, Bob Milne specializes in this music style that developed in America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Although Bob Milne comes from a classical background, having excelled as a French horn virtuoso at the Eastman School of Music, he is completely self-taught as a pianist, playing totally by ear.  When he took up saloon piano-playing on the side, he discovered what fun entertaining his listeners could be, and how natural it came to him.

Early on in this new career, Bob became fascinated by the Ragtime music found on nearby player pianos, and how listeners enjoyed it.  His “internship” lasted 25 years; he has even written a book on these experiences, The Journeyman Piano Player.

Bob naturally progressed to the concert stage, acknowledged by many as one of the best pianists of our time. He is now constantly performing across the country (and sometimes beyond) from concert halls to festivals, and everything in between, and still having fun with his audiences exhibiting ballistic speed as well as subtle harmonies.

Known as a “Ragtimist” (a term he coined), Bob Milne quickly made himself a dedicated student and presenter of this true American musical form, having acquired both a vast repertoire of tunes and extensive knowledge of their origins.

These histories and the stories of the piano players who were playing them are anecdotally incorporated into BobBob milne at piano Milne’s presentations.  (Bob also teaches music history at Florida Atlantic University every winter, and conducts a Music Retreat in Lapeer, MI each September.)

It comes as no surprise that the Library of Congress designated him a “National Treasure” when they documented his expertise for future generations, and that the U.S. State Department has utilized him as a “Musical Ambassador” in Japan and Switzerland.

Bob Milne brings endless enthusiasm, enchanting ease of playing, and an engaging manner while telling stories about Ragtime and Boogie Woogie music with warmth and humor.

Today Bob is well-known as an outstanding pianist specializing in Ragtime, Boogie-Woogie, the Blues, and the Player Piano styles of the turn of the century.

As a sample of the wonderful evening that you’ll be in for, click here for a short video clip of one of Bob’s performances.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Off to a good short start…

September 2, 2014

The weeks after a three day holiday always seem a little weird, but in a good way. This week in particular is strange because the schools started in this area today; so, traffic was up significantly as those parents with school buslittle princesses and princes who can’t walk to school or  ride the buses are transported by dads on the way to work or moms still in their pajamas. Perhaps many of them are “schools of choice” kids who can’t ride the buses, but I doubt it. More likely, they are our local versions of  Honey Boo-Boo. I guess the short week helps make the transition back into the school routine a bit easier for the kids.

Short work weeks are always a bit confusing, because the start feels like it should be Monday, even if it is Tuesday. By the time you get used to that, it’s already Wednesday and the week’s half over already – Yea! Wouldn’t it be great if every work week were only four days? There are some European countries that have proposed doing just that. They are looking at having four 10-hour workdays and then three day weekends every week. I could see that, since many already work 10-hour days (most without the benefit of overtime).

The people who really don’t like these short weeks are the garbage collectors, who have to make up that lost collection day by doubling up somewhere. Of course they will start entering the fall leaf collection period soon, which really doubles up their work with recycling bags of leaves.

Also this week…

The new minimum wage increase started in Michigan yesterday and so far the world has not come to an end.money paid The wage for our food servers and other minimum wage jobs moved from $7.40 an hour to $8.15. It will continue to gradually increase to $9.25 hour in 2018. Of course there was grousing about this by many small business owners who fear that raising prices to cover the new costs will drive away customers. The bottom line; however, is that this increase will impact only 4-5% of the workforce. Meanwhile, a new study commissioned by the Michigan Association of United Ways finds 40 percent of Michigan households with at least one worker don’t make enough money to meet basic survival needs.

Home Tour picture 1The countdown to the next big weekend in Milford started on September 1. The big Home Tour Weekend is September 20 and 21. The 38th annual Milford Home Tour will take place on that Saturday and Sunday, with 5 historic Milford homes offered for public viewing on the tour. Tickets for the Tour are on sale now at several locations in Milford – Acorn Farm, Main Street Art, Your Nesting Place, the Milford Township office and of course at the Milford Historical Museum. Tickets are $15 for adults and $13 for youth and seniors. The tickets are good for both days and include visits to the Log Cabin in South Side Park, a visit to the Milford Historical Museum and a walking tour of Oak Grove Cemetery. For more on the Home Tour, click here.

In addition to the Home Tour, the big weekend includes The Milford Car Show on Sunday all down Main car show graphic 1Street and into Central Park, with over 300 cars on display; and a Tractor Show out at the Huron Valley State Bank parking lot near the corner of Milford Road and GM Road. On Sunday the Milford Rotary also stages its annual rubber duck race in Central Park, this year expanded to include a family fun picnic event starting at 10 AM. Several hundred bright yellow rubber ducks are dumped into Pettibone Creek, which leads to the Huron River; with the first few RotaryDucksducks to make it to the catch net at the end leading to prizes for the duck owners. The first place duck earned its owner $2,000 last year. Events for the kids, plus food are part of the family fun day. Plan on spending the day in Milford on that Sunday. There will be something going on for everyone in your family.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Get into the 4th of July Parade…

June 15, 2014

The Milford Historical Society invites you to participate in the 2014 Independence Day Parade. Our Parade will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Friday, July 4rd.   As you know this Parade is an opportunity for business and individuals to “Toot Their Horn” and show community spirit at the same time.  The Parade will begin in downtown Milford and end at Huron Street. Participants can begin staging in designated areas by 10:00 A.M.  Below is a link to the Application for the parade.  Please complete and send  or fax back.

 

The theme for the Parade will be:

Our  Milford,

    “A Small Village with a Big Heart”

 

parade band pic

We ask that your float, music or demonstration somehow relate to the theme through the use of colors, etc.

To participate in this year’s Parade, please fill out the attached form and return to the address below, with a stamped, self-addressed envelope so we may mail back to you your assigned parade spot.

We will be mailing back to you, in the envelope you have provided, confirmation of your placement in the Parade.

If you have any questions, or require additional information, please feel free to contact me.

In order to offset the rising cost of running the parade we are asking business participants to consider also including a donation to the Milford Historical Society with your application. Your donations of $10 – $50 will help keep the Independence Day parade going. Thanks

Sincerely,

 

Katherine and Russ Rheaume, Parade Coordinators

PO Box 685

Milford, MI 48381-0685

248-684-7373      248-684-0070  Fax   Email  krhea31888@aol.com

______________________________________________________________________

PARADE  PARTICIPANT  RULES  AND  REGULATIONS

 

The Milford Historical Society Independence Parade is an entertainment event.

It is geared for both businesses and families to show off our town and support this

great country where we live.

 

*    All vehicles towing floats should be driven with a clear path of vision.  People

walking along side should help with keeping children from stepping in front of the vehicle and getting injured..

 

*    The Parade line up will be mailed or e-mailed about a week before the event..

We ask that each participant respond by phone, E-mail, etc. that they have received their Parade Spot Number at that time.

 

*     Entry themes or props must not be based on controversial, political or social

issues  Naturally, no alcoholic beverages or banned drugs are allowed.

*     Parade participants are permitted to distribute material while going down the

parade route.  Absolutely nothing including candies, toys can be THROWN

at the parade viewers.  Michigan State Law prohibits throwing items in a parade.

Please hand these items to the parade participants. We don’t want anyone hurt while running into the traffic to pick up items off the ground.

.

*    Please do not leave any large gaps between your float and the one in front.

The Parade is usually video taped and video copies are shown to the community and nursing homes throughout the year.  Large gaps destroy the continuity of the

parade.  We suggest no more than 20 feet exist between each exhibit.

 

*   An announcer will be reading your provided script promoting your exhibit as you

pass by.

 

*   Milford Historical Society volunteers wearing MHS T-Shirts will be situated all

along the route to assist and answer any questions that arise.

 

*   We encourage animals in the Parade, but insist that they not be dangerous and are

properly trained to be among people while leashed, ridden, hooked up, etc.

 

*     The Milford Historical Society reserves the right to restrict, limit, accept or reject

any exhibit application.

 

*    Our goal is to have everyone go home after the event with fond memories of

a Parade well done in a safe, fun  and interesting manner

 

Click here to get the parade application. Print it out and return it (see address above) or Fax it in (248-684-0070) to reserve your spot in the 2014 Independence Day Parade on July 4th.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Remember those who fell and those who served this weekend…

May 23, 2014

It’s Memorial Day Weekend; a time that younger people may see as a nice long weekend start to the summer season. It’s much more than that, of course; it is a time to pause, reflect and say thank you to the men and women who have served and are serving in our nation’s Armed Forces. We especially take time to remember those who sacrificed their lives in service to out country.

Memorial Day 4On Memorial Day there will be the traditional parade of veterans in Milford, Michigan, along with all of the hoopla that goes along with a modern parade – marching bands from the local schools, Military vehicles of all types, scout troops and more.

And then there are the veterans – hundreds of men and women from wars stretching back to WWII and forward to the actions in Afghanistan and Iraq of today, and covering all of the time in between.

Thousands of people line the streets of Milford, standing and applauding continuously as the groups marches by 2-abreast. As a marcher for the last few years, I can tell you that it is a great feeling to experience this outpouring of appreciation; especially so for us who march in the View Nam Veterans contingent. We had no such welcoming parades back then.

The Milford Memorial Day parade steps off from the VFW hall on W. Commerce St.at 11 AM and all veterans are
welcome to join the march. For those who cannot walk the parade route there are volunteer Jeeps for transport along the parade route.

There is another experience that I encourage you to have, if you have the time over the weekend – visit the Petpic88 Cemetery in South Lyon/Lyon Township at Milford Rd and 11 mile Road and pause to see the War Dog Memorial.

This cemetery has been in existence since the 1930’s but only in the last few years has it been reclaimed from the terrible condition that it was in and a monument to the K-9 heroes of several wars was enhanced. There are dogs buried in this cemetery that were in service as far back as WWII.

 

 
There are literally hundreds of pet buried in this location, both dogs and cats. There are also many dogs that pic90served overseas in our wars buried in the cemetery, including its newest hero Sgt. Mina, a veteran of 9 tours in Afghanistan and 2 in Bosnia. You can read Mina’s story by clicking here.

 

You can read the back story on this wonderful facility and the rescue effort that is still under way to reclaim this final pet resting ground from nature at their web site – Michigan War Dog Memorial. It had fallen on hard times and been forgotten for years when the current rescue group found it and started work in 2010. They have succeeded in cutting back enough of the overgrowth and cleaning up the area that you can now get an idea of the size of this place, which houses hundreds of pet graves. They’ve also added benches so that people can sit and contemplate these largely unsung heroes of our past wars.

It’s really a pretty awesome place and one that cannot help but bring back memories of some loved pet from longpic86 ago, or maybe a service dog, police dog or military dog that you knew.

 

 

To watch a YouTube video about the cemetery and the reclamation effort, click here.

Go to their Web site if you’d like to help with a contribution or volunteer to help with the continuing reclamation work on this unique cemetery.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Three little words that can change your life… Let’s talk trash!

April 21, 2014

Sometimes the simplest little things can have big impact on our lives. In this series of posts I examine very short sentences (each just three words long) that can make a difference in your life. If you have a three word sentence that changed your life somehow, share it with me and I will share it with the world.

From one of my favorite sources of inspiration – the blog Jack’s Winning Words – come today’s three little words –

“Let’s talk trash!”  (T-shirt Slogan)  A study has shown that each American creates 4.5# of garbage every day…close to a ton a year.  Tomorrow is Earth Day, and the suggestion has been made…to see if you of can go the whole day without creating any garbage.  I’m going to try; how about you?  Maybe we should put a reminder note by the waste basket.   There are many ways to protect the environment.  Do you have any ideas?      😉  Jack

 

OK, so it’s not talking trash like you might have initially imagined. Earth Day is tomorrow April 22. Earth Day is one of those days of celebration that can easily get lost in the calipee of daily life. It’s easy for some to dismiss it as a gathering of “tree huggers” or environmental busybodies; however, we are all along for the ride on planet Earth, so we all play a part on how our ride looks. Do you know someone whose ride looks more like a waste container on wheels  than a car – full of empty coffee cups and fast food bags? Maybe you live next to someone whose yard could serve as the set for a horror movie, with old cars up on blocks and junk lying around everywhere. Maybe you should intercede and say to them – let’s talk trash.

In your daily life do you spend any time at all thinking about how much waste and trash you contribute to the problem? Where does it all go? If you said, “to the curb in the trash bin”, then you are a part of the problem. It’s where it goes after that which is the issue that is one of the central themes of Earth Day. You’ve probably driven by those huge mounds of trash in land-fills and maybe you’ve wondered about what is going on under all of that trash and dirt. What chemical reactions are taking place and what toxins are being released and then where do they go? Those are all concerns on Earth Day and reason enough to raise the issue – let’s talk trash.

One of the other focuses on Earth Day is to create and promote the use of natural products or sustainable products as they might be called; these are products that are not artificially made, but which occur or grow in nature. Some of them are products that can be recycled and used more than once. Most of them are not harmful or certainly less harmful than many of the modern man-made products that have been created as substitutes. Most will also naturally break down and return to the earth in the some useful form; or at least not in a toxic form. Hopefully these are the substances in the things that are put out for recycling and which will not contribute to eh landfill; but if they do end up there at least they won’t add to the toxic mix – let’s talk trash.

Probably the most insidious thing that mankind has done with modern science is to develop the concept of “packaging”. Almost everything that we buy these days is sold in a package of some sort and it is that packaging that makes up the bulk of the mass in our landfills. In most so-called developing countries and indeed in the great majority of the world’s population things that are needed on a daily basis are purchased and consumed in some small quantity on a daily basis without any packaging. Then there is us – the so-called developed countries – the U.S, Europe, Japan and a few others – who have embraced the concept that everything that we buy should somehow come in a bag or a box or some other form of packaging. We have created our own trash monster in the name of personal convenience. That’s how we have come to create our average of 4.5 pounds of trash a day – by throwing away the containers that our stuff comes in. Let’s talk trash.

Earth Day is about more than just trash; it is about doing things to lessen your negative impact on the earth – to conserve or at least waste less, to cut the pollution that you personally create and hopefully even to contribute in some positive way, to give back to the earth. Here’s a link to a good article about 50 tips for making a difference on Earth Day. The Web site EarthDay.org also has a program going called a Billion Acts of Green which has collected over 1 Billion pledges from people of small things that they will do to help with the effort to create a more sustainable future on Earth. As they say in Washington, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real numbers. So, go there and sign up to do your part. Just commit to do some small thing differently. Maybe for you it can be taking some action to reduce the amount that you transport toe the curb every week. Let’s make a difference – let’s talk trash.

What do you plan to do on Earth Day? Since it’s not a national holiday, most of us will have to get up and go to work. They probably won’t even observe a moment of silence at work in honor of the day; but that doesn’t mean that you can do something. Maybe you can bring a little plant to work to place in your office or cubicle or just on your desk. That tiny addition to the office environment will do two things – clean a little bit of air and remind a few people about nature. Maybe instead of wadding up and tossing the report that you just finished reading you can find the paper recycling box at your office (if your office doesn’t have one, start one), or maybe you can just read you emails and reports on-line, instead of printing them off to read. Every little bit helps and evety little bit that you don’t do helps too. So at work on Earth Day  – let’s talk trash.

If you live in the Milford, Michigan area here’s a link to our local Earth Day events.

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Posted by Norm Werner

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