Traverse City Record-Eagle

Terry Wooten: Elders Project

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  • "Ragamuffin" country cousings, from left, Gail, Jean, Don, Glenn Neumann, Basil Harris and Polly Stark in 1936. Special to the Record-Eagle

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January 31, 2011

Terry Wooten: Elk Rapids man publishes book of early memories

By Terry Wooten, Columnist ----

Glenn Neumann drifted from job to job after World War II. He couldn't seem to settle down — until, in 1949, one of his dreams came true. He bought an airplane, a Piper J-5 three seat.

"To me it was like looking into another world. One could see things that weren't visible from the ground. There were old logging roads and railroad grades that made up a picture of the landscape many, many years ago. The rivers and streams were life streams to the early settlers. And old homesteads can only be seen from the air. I would almost get lost following trails and visualizing life as it might have been. The higher I flew the broader the view and the more overall picture I got of what I was part of back on the ground."

While being interviewed by Elk Rapids student Angelina Ledezma, Glenn said, "I've been writing a book on my early life for 25 years. 'Penny Pencils' begins far back as my memories go, and ends when I met my wife. Marie typed it up and I made 10 copies. People have been telling me for years to publish it."

"Penny Pencils" is finally out in a limited edition. It's a window back in time to when bear tracks crossed sledding hills, Schuss Mountain Resort was a cow pasture, mosquitoes grew big as partridges, a stump turned into a huge buck, and the night sky lit up orange when smelting furnaces were tapped.

Glenn joined the Navy on his 17th birthday, March 31, 1944, to get away. Before being shipped overseas he was stationed near Los Angeles. Sailors used to hitchhike into towns on weekends. Some of his buddies were picked up by Lucille Ball. In the Pacific he experienced a couple seconds of action on Mios Woendi Island.

Glenn returned to eastern Antrim County, but has lived most of his married life in Elk Rapids raising a family. Collecting newspapers and maps through the decades turned him into a living encyclopedia of the surrounding area. He even invented a word, "Didjeno," as in, "Did you know?"

Glenn is a shy person, but his book isn't. He's past president of the Elk Rapids Area Historical Society, and has a sly sense of humor. If not for the work of such people, and the Elders Project, our future would lose its past.

The following poems are from the Elk Rapids Elders Project.

For more information, call Glenn, 264-6354.

Night Action

I was stationed on a PT boat

supply and repair base.

A future president,

John F. Kennedy,

was the captain of PT 109

a few miles from us.

Don't know whether he visited

our base or not.

All seamen had a month of guard duty.

I caught the night shift,

twelve to four.

My beat was a hundred yards long

on the beach.

There were rumors

of the Japanese coming ashore in the night

and scavenging for food,

which they did

on the bigger islands.

It was the dead of night

with one dim lightbulb

on each end of my beat,

and very quiet.

All of a sudden

I heard this awful thud and loud swish

right behind my heels.

It really made me sweat.

A heavy end of a palm frond

had hit the ground.

That was the most action I saw

in the war.

-- Terry Wooten

Marie

I met my wife

on a blind date,

a box social on Valentine's Day, 1949.

She was a friend of my cousin, Polly.

They wanted to go to this box social,

but weren't sure who

would buy their boxes.

So they called me.

Girls would take a shoe box

and decorate it on the outside,

fill it with sandwiches or fried chicken

and pieces of cake or pie,

enough for two people.

I met them at the Legion Hall

upstairs of the theater

in East Jordan.

There was dancing

and a party.

When they auctioned off the boxes

I bought Polly's.

Another guy bought Marie's,

but she wouldn't sit with him.

So I sat with both girls.

The other guy was drunk.

There were a lot of drunks

after the war.

-- Terry Wooten

Poet Bard Terry Wooten has been performing and conducting writing workshops in schools for 27 years. He is the creator of Stone Circle. Learn more about him at www.terry-wooten.com.

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