Tales of Grand Rapids

Proud to be a Grand Rapidian

2011-09-25T14:33:00.007-04:00

Yeah, so what, so I don't live right in Grand Rapids anymore. But I lived there long enough to have it's heart and soul absorbed into my own and become a important part of my life and memories.

The other day the family and I went downtown to stroll the venues of ArtPrize 2011. It was the first time doing so. I will comment on the sights and sounds of that in a different blog. What I will comment on here is the experience of walking downtown GR, in a multitude of people both old and new to the city, and the feelings it all invoked.

I have been in and around Grand Rapids, that is, downtown proper, for many many moons. I have seen it as a young young boy when it was still the center of activity. I had wondered its lonely streets during the 80's when it was on the decline, when everything going on was out in the suburbs. I worked down there and frequented some of the "hot spots" in the late 80's/early 90's. You could almost feel the city trying to break out, to shake off the slump it had endured for too many years. I saw old buildings fall to the wrecking ball and saw old buildings be given a second chance and spring back to life. I was even part of trying to create something original in the form of a Grand Rapids superhero team and comic book project: the GRAvengers.

Walking downtown yesterday, I felt that spirit of this old city flow through and into me. I saw a multitude of people walking about, experiencing this "new" city and what it had to offer...and it seems to offer so much now. To me it was exciting. I cannot tell you the feeling of pride welling up inside me as I walked about and looked at what the city of Grand Rapids has become and continues to become.

It made me think again that, Man! I would love to get involved with it creatively again. (I need to get my TALES OF GRAND RAPIDS book done and out there somehow.)

Another exciting part of the jaunt yesterday...bringing the kids down there with us and having them experience "the big city". Yeah, it's not Chicago, but, well, here is Grand Rapids. Everything is here. What more do you want? It's got the big city flavor without being overwhelming. And you can still blast out of its confines and be down along a tree-lined gently rolling river and out driving along some scenic road in the boonies in as little as 5-10 minutes.

I am proud of Grand Rapids, and proud of being a Grand Rapidian.

Remembering This Day 10 Years

2011-09-11T10:43:00.002-04:00

Where was I ten years ago on 9/11?

I was at work, working a normal day in the crazy life of a Quality Engineer at Lear Corporation. I don't recall what I was doing exactly WHEN the first plane hit the first tower and the news started to come in, but I do remember going down to the then cafeteria building/room on the south end of the plant over there on Alpine Avenue.

They had tv monitors up and showing the event as it continued to unfold. I know my co-workers and I stood and sat there speaking out loud, "What the eff?" I recall thinking and probably saying, along with everyone else, that there had been some sort of aviation accident where a plane coming into NY had strayed off course and slammed into a building.

And then when the second plane came in (we saw the actual footage as it played out) and hit the second tower, I think we all went quiet and realized...there was something more going on. I think you could have heard the proverbial pin drop in that room as we watched in stunned and horrified silence at what continued to unfold.

At some point I stepped outside and called home where my wife and one-year-old son were. I wanted to run home and just be with them. There was some realization inside me of the possible horrors now that could attack and destroy MY world. There was some realization that other men and women would not be returning home to their families, and possibly some families (at the time did not know if children had been killed in the attack and plane hijackings) not returning home to their loved ones. A deep deep dread and sadness enveloped me like a pool of black water.

Yes, the world stopped turning that day, and it still seems to wobble quite a bit since. Though I still take as many moments to stand in the warm light of the sun or the cool refreshing rain, a little seed of fear and unbalance resonates inside due to all this.

May God bless us all and may we continue to push for things in our own little circles and the larger circles of community and the world towards the good and the right in the face of chaos, fear and evil.

ALICE COOPER at ROCK THE RAPIDS

2011-08-13T11:31:00.008-04:00

Alice Cooper rocked Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thursday evening August 11th. I went with a buddy from work, kind of a last minute thing. Shelled out 34 bucks for a General Admission + Early Entry ticket.

The main gates opened at 530pm, Early Entry meant you could slip in 30 minutes before the main gate opened, which meant you could set your lawnchair up a bit sooner than the others.

We arrived downtown GR about 450pm, pulled right into a city parking lot that was FREE (holey moley!) after 5pm. Even at that time (450) the gates were up so we pulled in and found a spot to park. Grabbing our lawnchairs, we headed over to the Festival grounds which were located behind the Van Andel Arena in one of the larger parking lots almost in the armpit of the northbound beginning loop of the US131 S-curve.

There was hardly anyone concertgoers there when we walked up to the entry point. After a lawnchair check and tickets scanned, we walked into the main grounds. I grabbed a couple hotdogs from a food vendor and we wandered over to the inside main gate. There were a few people in line here, we were about fourth in line. I sat down my chair and sat down in it and finished up my dogs. I noticed it was a bit after 5pm by this point and asked someone when the Early Entry folk get let in...and was nicely pointed to the gate down the way that let Early Entry folk into the main main grounds.

Oops.

It ended up no big deal because we got in and set our chairs down in line with center of the stage, behind the reserved seating fence, right behind the first row of our fellow general admissioners. In other words, outside of being behind the reserved seating section, truly we had GREAT seat locations to view the main show.

Weather: could you have asked for better weather. It was sunny, in the low 80's, slight breeze. Perrfect! Of course, the festival grounds were located on a black asphalt parking lot so it was still a bit toasty but not uncomfortable. For the price of the tickets, popping in there as easy as we did, and for the performances we were about to see...I was not going to start bitchin' about anything.

I will save you the commentary on the $6 to $8 20 oz beers and get right to the big band performance review ramblings...

BACHMAN-TURNER (of Bachman-Turner-Overdrive fame or BTO) was the big band that opened for ALICE COOPER. Randy Bachman and C.F. Turner were nothing but awesome. Considering they are a 70's band and most likely as old as Alice Cooper (in their 60's), gees louise, THEY ROCKED!

I was weened back in my youth (like grade school) on their tunes YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET and TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS, which are hits from 1974, and they performed these and more of their older hits without a hitch. Vocals were crisp and clear. If I would have closed my eyes and listened I would have thought I was simply listening to a BTO live album recorded in the 70's. Needless to say, everyone who knew the tunes was singing along.

Bachman-Turner left the stage around 830pm after playing for about an hour and a half. It was a great kickoff of a great evening of music.

ALICE COOPER came on at 9pm starting his set with a classic, BLACK WIDOW. It started with the classic Vincent Price commentary (perfect as I recalled one of my first Alice album's THE ALICE COOPER SHOW) and then Alice appeared on a podium above the stage garbed in black with prosthetic spider arms.

I did not write down or memorize the song list but he did all the big hits. NO MORE MR NICE GUY. POISON. HEY STOOPID. COLD ETHEL. ELECTED. ONLY WOMEN BLEED. FEED MY FRANKENSTEIN. I'M EIGHTEEN. UNDER MY WHEELS. SCHOOLS OUT. There were a few I did not know, at least by name, though they sounded familiar. He also did some new tunes which he amply advertised by donning a black leather jacket that had NEW SONG written on the back of it. Ni-ice. One of the new songs from a forthcoming new album is called I'LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF...and it was a instant anthem rock classic in my mind...as I shouted the chorus line I'LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF until my vocal cords shredded.

Some cool moments...upon playing FEED MY FRANKENSTEIN, Alice, dressed in a bloody white Dr. Frankenstein lab coat, threw switches and ramped up the electrode bath trying to bring to life a "dead body". After a huge plume of smoke obscured the stage, a giant Frankenstein monster (somewhat looking like a hulking Alice Cooper-Frankenstein) came out and shambled around the stage. The thing must have been 12-15 feet tall. Massive and awesome!!!

WICKED YOUNG MAN...after this song a pair of executioners came out, one wheeling out a tall and very real-looking guillotine, and dragged Alice over to it, putting his head on the chopping block, and after the precursory drum roll, dropped the blade. Knowing he does material like this, it didn't surprise me nor was very gorey. I heard a few gasps from the audience but perhaps they were totally new to anything Alice Cooper. One of the executioners, after lopping Alice's head off, picked up the dummy head from the basket, paraded it around, then gave it a big kiss on the lips. When the kiss ended, the executioner stepped towards the edge of stage and spewed a mist of "blood" from his mouth into the audience.

ONLY WOMEN BLEED...now I am not saying a performer can't perform or sing when they are older, but when Alice sang this old classic tune (original circa 1975) it sounded pitch perfect, hell, almost better than the original. He sang it while toting a life-size female doll with a face made up like she was dead. He sang the tune with such conviction and emotion I was almost thinking he might be crying...well...a cry for his living dead girl. It was beyond awesome.

I'LL BITE YOUR HEAD OFF...a new tune from forthcoming new album WELCOME 2 MY NIGHTMARE (coming out this September). It was wild. It was crazy. And we were all singing the chorus like mad men. It was one of those tunes that if they could play it a second time it would have been just as much fun.

SCHOOLS OUT... everyone was singing along with this one. The bonus was Alice and the band slipped in a bit of PINK FLOYD'S ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL. Again, beyond awesome.

All in all it was an awesome concert, an awesome set of classic rock bands. We went away very satisfied and very hoarse.

A few comments about the crowd...mostly was made up of older folks, ya know, 40+. The whole event was very well done with a goodly amount of Security who were very cordial and didn't stand around all uptight...though there were a few idiot crowd-members who surely tested their meddle. There were some younger peeps behind us, looked to be in their early 20's....hell, perhaps late teens. Don't know. One of the girls in the group quite often was screaming and acting slightly insane. I am fairly sure it was because she could scream and act slightly insane in that crowd...it was all for show...

OR...the whole Alice Cooper experience totally freaked her out, was too much for her young mind, and it sent her screaming and acting insane. We'll go with that reasoning. LOL

Father to Son to Sons

2009-02-08T21:56:00.002-05:00

Took the older boys on a little Sunday drive this afternoon, partly to get them out of the house for the littlest ones naptime, and second because it was a beautiful weekend and they needed to get out and stretch their legs during this lull in this winter season. We went down to a nearby park, closed for the season, parked the van on the side of the road, and went for a little hike. Christopher kept bringing up the old house in Rockford where we had the woods right behind the house and could explore. He liked doing that so walking through the woods at this park was a good time for him. There was a little stream we followed and we trudged through the snow, broke through shallow pools of ice and water, etc. After that little jaunt, we jumped back in the van and, after getting a few pops and a snack at the local gas station, I took them down Indian Mounds Drive, starting at Johnson Park and heading towards Grand Rapids. I informed them my dad used to take me down along the river here for drives, just to check out the area, the woodland, the river. Th kids and I stopped at the old train trestle, now part of Kent Trails, and walked across it. Back in the van, we drve to the CSX Wyoming train yard and checked out some of the parked trains (from the safety of the van).

The inner bonus...I got to take my kids on a little jaunt down alon the southwest side of town, down near the river, like my dad used to take us kids when we were young. Simple stuff. No money required, but ohhhh the value in doing those simple little things.

New site

2009-01-19T21:06:00.003-05:00

New site up...www.peterwelmerink.com. Mainly doing it to showcase my written work that is available out there, and, who knows, perhaps through some stuff up there about future model train layout just for shats and gaggles.

Feel free to check it out.

www.peterwelmerink.com

Ice Skating at JPB

2009-01-04T10:23:00.003-05:00

I don't see it much anymore, people skating on the duck pond at John Ball Park. Perhaps they are not allowed in this age of liability for even twisting your ankle while walking through the park woods and potential for lawsuits. I can understand why, I suppose, the City doesn't point out this place anymore as a "Come on! Skate Here!" place to go in the chilly winter months.

Back in my day, and days before me, the frozen pond, both during the day and during the dark winter evening times, was packed with a collection of young and old with silver metal blades skimming across the frozen glare, hand-in-hand or by themselves, trying to be a ballerina on ice, spinning, falling. Speedy skaters of the devious but playful nature would snatch the hat off your head and be off. Young lovers--puppy or otherwise--mittened hand in mittened hand, would skate around the island, round and round, perhaps stopping around the darkened and somewhat hidden eastern side to steal a quick kiss.

The pavillion would be enclosed during the winter months. Within the "hothouse" you could sit down on a green splintered bench, unarmor yourself from your wollen tapestries, and defrost yourself while talking to your friends or watching who was coming in and out of the place.

I used to make the one-block trek from my parents house, skates tied together at the laves and hung over my shoulder. The bright farmlight that hung over the hothouse and the pond was like a huge star, a directional beacon, to guide me to the icy playground. It was always exciting to get to the corner of John Ball Park Boulevard and Fulton, gaze across the street, and see the small crowd of people collected on the frozen pond. Friends were there. Potential romance was there (if you found a girl and asked her if she'd skate around the island with you). Besides sledding, winter, back then, was all about ice skating.

Woodland Scenics Part 1

2008-12-31T13:18:00.003-05:00

I grew up roughly a mile away from the downtown area of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The hum of tires and the sound of truck engine braking (rather loud downshift gear noise) was prominent from the expressway from the top of the hill to the northwest of my childhood home. In the summer, the street and sidewalks were hot and hard...nothing like stubbing your big toe on a slab of unforgiving cement.

What luck though to grow up three houses away from an area of woods untouched by human hands, well, at least untouched by human machines. As a boy and with friends, we touched this area of woodland with hands, and shovels, digging into the earth and making our "forts", breaking off sticks and using them as makeshift guns to play "army", sitting on the huge fallen tree which sat at the top of the woods, picking off its dying bark and chatting about the world beyond our gathering place.

In the summer, thick within the foliage fold of green, it was like walking in a faerie kingdom. The sun filtered through the canopy of trees in golden beams, it was like walking through warm spotlights. The area was alive with squirrels rummaging through the ground cover. A occasional rabbit would burst from the brush and be lost amongst the greenery. In the winter, the white snow lay thick upon the ground. The trees bare and brown. The sky above, void of green canopy for cover, was leaden and cloud-clogged. It was a quiet place with the chill breeze blowing about the sleeping woodland, woodland waiting for the warmth of the spring sun to touch it again. We would go sliding here, not far from the warmth of our homes.

The woods near the house was a bonus playground in the middle of the city.

How lucky we were indeed.

Riding

2008-08-03T22:58:00.002-04:00

5-year decided to GO FOR IT today, and try his luck on a 2-wheel bike versus the 2-wheel/2-training wheel model. He just decided to give it a go. I let him try out riding his older brothers bike, then when that went wll, I took the training wheels off his bike and...HE WAS OFF! It was amazing, and a very very good thing.

It's great watching kids hit these milestones. And it is great for the kids. I stand there, thinking, the next taste of freedom...first, learning to walk, second, learning to ride a bike w/ training wheels, then the big step, the 2-wheel without those training wheels where you can zoom and turn and go crazy. Can chase the brother and other kids without being on the weenie-bike. Freedom, baby! Good job, MG!

Good stuff.

Salute to George Yohe

2008-07-15T19:00:00.004-04:00

A guy who worked at my plant, as a line supervisor, who I did not know very well, but he was placed in high regard with everyone, and my gut instinct is he was a good man, died today after a tragic motor cycle accident. He was on his way home from work Monday morning at around 1030am, when a truck pulled out in front of him. He died Tuesday, July 15 at 430am. He was 55 years old. Not old at all. And had a family.

It is a very sad and tragic thing when a person dies in that way, especially leaving behind wife, family and friends who will surely wonder why a good man had to die and had to die in such a way. Wasn't like he was messing around. Not some young punk doing something stupid, not paying attention to his surroundings.

Anyway, here's to you, George. May God have a cycle for you in Heaven, and may you ride on.

What positive can be taken from this? George did not suffer long, nor did he have to endure years of pain or handicap from an obvious very traumatic event. The good Lord took him and ended his brief pain, deciding his best purpose in life at that time, was to be risen up to be at His side, and watch over all us here still on Earth.

Could be worse - Part 1

2008-07-14T22:21:00.003-04:00

I got a good job. Lucky in this day and age, especially in the automotive industry and especially in Michigan. I have been lucky to be steadily working all these years. I only experienced a layoff once waaaay back in 1991 when I was working at ATS. Other than that I have been able to keep steadily employed all this time, and been able to maintain/retain my job even when faced with plant closings and company downsizing. I don't see myself as anyone special, that I am some miracle worker or some Einstein-know-it-all when it comes to Quality...I have just always worked hard, cared about what I do and the places and the people and to make a go at it, to succeed, to progress, to take chances (ie, try to take on more and try to move up the food chain at work).

I have been very lucky when it comes to work and holding a job.

And that's definitely a good thing.

Thanks Lord (and my current employer). :)

When it rains...

2008-07-07T22:49:00.003-04:00

Had a fairly massive (but short lived) downpour today during the lunch hour. heading out for lunch with a couple co-workers, big ole drops started to drop from the steel grey sky, and thunder rumbled the area. Had just pulled into a G&L restaurant when the rain started to really come down in sheets. We bolted for the interior of the restuarant. Could have showered with a bar of soap between exiting the car and entering the eatery. Watched while it poured, a waterfall cascading down the window so heavy you could not see the activity outside. But we were inside, viewing the torrential rainfall from within, sipping some beverages, eating some dogs and fries. All was good.

When it rains, admire the downpour.

Hard life?

2008-07-05T10:38:00.000-04:00

Friends and co-workers battling cancer. Close family members with Dementia. Kids with asthma and spinal cord issues. Fairly severe aches and pains with back and legs (sciatic nerve? sp) bad enough to need chiropractic help. Constantly awash with news on shootings, murder, sex offenders, never-ending war in the Middle East, natural life-taking disasters, global warming, plane crashes, terrorists, tomatos that give you salmonella poisioning, high gas prices, stresses on the job, stresses with just trying to live life.

Life is hard.

Or is it?

We'll be discussing all these with a "positive rant" (slant) in blogs to come.

Stay tuned.

4th of July the way it should be

2008-07-05T10:30:00.000-04:00

Had a very nice 4th of July holiday. Weather cooperated all day, that is, sunny, mild warm temps. Did some swimming in the community pool in our neighborhood. Took family to a friend's place on Gun Lake and hung out some more in the sun and water. Had a nice holiday-type dinner: hotdogs on the grill, baked beans, watermelon...only was missing corn on the cob. Got home, did some fireworks with the family and our new neighbors. It was definitely a full day of family and holiday activities...simple yet fulfilling. Good time had by all.

What's the Point

2008-07-03T06:29:00.002-04:00

I recognize that RANT means to basically scream in your ear potentially about all things irritating in life and the universe, but this little ole blogspot here is going to be the reverse.

There is a lot of stuff going on in the world these days, both locally and "out there". There are more ways to be informed of all the BAD STUFF going on. We get saturated with ALL the stories of death and destruction, sadness and hostility experienced by everyone, involving everyone. You can YAHOO, or watch television, read ye olde woodpulp newsprint, and/or hear it right from the mouth of a friend or person you are standing next to on the street. You feel like the world has gone insane. You feel that life is a drag, there is no UP side. It's the end of the world as we know it...and you don't feel so fine.

So this is the point of this blogspot...we aren't going to go to all those dull, dismal places that we can drown in despair. No, I am hoping I can share some of my positive insight and experiences and days events with you...to shine a little light and hopefully brighten some spirits in a little way.

AND...as of 12/31/2008...the point of this BLOG is to mention things regarding my life in and around the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. Why? Because you gotta know where you come from to understand your person.