MSHS Principal Resigns, 78-Year-Old Cyclist Nears Journey's End, the Brownstone Is Revived, the Smokehouse is Cooking, TV19 Challenges TV6, and Money Rules Sports, or Does It?
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
AN UNWELCOME SURPRISE…Jonathan Young, the principal of Marquette Senior High School, has resigned to take a position with the Marquette-Alger Educational Service Agency (MARESA)…Young had been principal at MSHS for the last eight years…“It was his decision,” Superintendent Zack Sedgwick says. “He wanted to take another job.”
“I spent the first third of my career teaching,” Young explains, “the next third as a building principal, and now, as I am in the final third of my career, I am looking forward to working in this new capacity.”
Young, in leaving, has nothing but good things to say about MSHS, the faculty, and students. His own kids went to the high school.
The timing of the resignation—a month before the fall semester starts—is a little unusual…Superintendent Sedgwick says the MSHS job has been posted locally and statewide…It’s a good job in a great place. Should be plenty of applicants.
And before anybody brings it up, no…No, the Redmen controversy did not play a part in Young’s decision.
NOT FAR TO go now…Bruce Closser, the 78-year-old Marquette cyclist, has arrived in Oregon, and is now nearing the end of his amazing 4200 mile journey across the United States… “I’m trying not to think about the ending,” he says. “There is a tendency to rush into the last few weeks in order to get to the end…I didn’t start this for the end. I started it for the journey and I try to enjoy it every day.”
Closser has Parkinson’s, although remarkably, the disease doesn't seem to affect him on his bike. “My body is doing more than just holding up,” he says. “It’s thriving.” How many 78-year-olds can say that?
The greatest impression he’s gotten on his journey? “That people are kind and that this is an enormously varied and incredibly beautiful country…” He has experienced it like few of us ever will.
And when he finally gets back to Marquette, what does he intend to do? “Connect with my friends and go for a motorcycle ride…” No pedaling required. And he’ll resume his work with Start the Cycle, the inspiring program that enables young people potentially at risk to get on bikes with their adult mentors.
During these confusing, polarizing, and sometimes frightening times, it seems like we’ve found a hometown hero: a wise, humble man who’s defied age and infirmity to accomplish what younger and healthier men and women wouldn’t even dare to try.
THE BROWNSTONE INN, after being shut down for several months, is revived, and dare we say, improved?…Sure seems that way…More attractive, with landscaping, in the front. Much bigger parking lot…And inside—a fresher looking dining area and bar. The menu? Huge, and varied…The food, excellent, and the portions, large…Maybe even too large…Oh no, wait. This is the UP where diners like their plates filled. Never mind. The portions are just right…
HAVE YOU EVER driven by the Lake Superior Smokehouse in Harvey on a Friday or Saturday evening? A jammed parking lot, with overflow cars frequently lining the nearby streets…So, the restaurant, now almost four years old, must be raking in obscene amounts of cash, right? “We’re doing all right,” says modest owner Scotty Arbour. “We’re still growing but nobody’s getting rich…” He thinks about it for a while longer. “We’re right where we want to be.” He and his staff have certainly outperformed expectations; some of us (Who, me?) questioned whether a lone restaurant in a residential neighborhood four miles from downtown Marquette could make it. Arbour and his barbecue have provided the answer.
THEY’RE CALLING IT the “Gray Divorce Revolution.” That is, old people deciding after decades of living with their spouse that they don’t want to live with that spouse anymore…The divorce rate for people over 50 doubled between 1990 and 2010, and is still rising…Reasons: More women have achieved economic independence and don’t “need” a man, and both husbands and wives deciding they’ve grown too far apart over the years; they’d rather live alone even if they’re 60, 70, or 80.
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN watching WZMQ TV 19’s promos, you’re probably not aware that the CBS newcomer recently was named “Best Newscast” in the UP by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters…Quite an honor for a station that’s been on the air for only about a year…and yes, a bit of a slap in the face for UP heavyweight WLUC TV6. We should note that TV6, as always, won a slew of other awards from the MAB.
WZMQ, despite being outmanned, continues pressing forward in its news coverage. They’ve appointed NMU grad Sophia Murphy as their new Michigan State Capitol reporter…She started part-time at the station, then moved to full-time reporting, and now she’s heading to Lansing.
As for the unoccupied, prime streetside space below the TV station on Washington Street—a former pub—it remains strangely empty. Currently no plans to find a tenant for the space.
SO, FOR THE last couple of years, we’ve seen many college athletes making hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars while they attend college…And now, in the latest shocking move, all the traditional leagues (Big Ten, SEC, Pac 10, etc) are either breaking up or expanding because…..MONEY. There’s no such thing as amateur athletes anymore, no such thing at the big universities as a “student-athlete.” Such a quaint notion…Of course, you don’t want to begrudge these young athletes their rewards if companies are willing to fork out the cash, but let’s not pretend that money doesn’t rule everything in this country. It does. And everything else languishes in a distant second place.
ON THE OTHER hand…More than 2500 racers will take off in The Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic on Saturday…It may be the biggest bike race in the Midwest. Seventy percent of the riders come from outside Marquette County…Sure, there’s a handful of modest cash prizes for the winners, but for the overwhelming majority of the riders, the joy is in the sweating, the camaraderie, the perseverance, and the achievement of a personal goal…Yeah, those things still matter.
And no, Bruce Closser will not finish his cross-country journey in time to make it to the Ore to Shore start line.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
—Marcus Aurelius
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Bruce Clossner's story is uplifting and quite a testimony to the human spirit. I have been riding a bike since I got my first Schwinn and my dad had to put training wheels on it. While the training wheels may have lasted a week, my love of biking has simply grown over the decades. I'm neither a competitive biker nor a speedy one. I like to ride for the shear enjoyment of being outside, seeing the sites and stopping to talk with people. I can say with certainty that I have never seen such rude bike riders as I have in Marquette. These bikers do not obey the laws. They cut in and out of traffic and think nothing of cutting in front of other bikers and walkers, sometimes too close for comfort. These bikers do not announce they are behind other riders and never announce when they are passing.
The flip side to this is that I have never seen such rude drivers who do not stop for bikers or pedestrians. Heavens, even the police don't stop for us. To those of you who do stop for bikers and pedestrians, who use hand signals when turning on your bikes, and do loudly announce that you are passing: we say thank you.
There are some who do yell, "on your left," or ring a bell. I do both. I also notice that there are bike riders who are texting while riding their bikes. I also noticed today a walker crossing Third and Washington streets talking into his cell phone, unaware of what was going on around him and just sauntering across the road. And you, Lakegirl, are right about the ear buds and headphones. Technology, while great, has allowed for people to ignore their surroundings and not pay attention to what is happening at that moment. When people asre so divorced from their environment: that can be dangerous.