This story begins a three-day Record-Eagle series examines the lives of those caught in the grip of the failing state and national economies, and offers snapshot examples of how your friends, family, neighbors, and communities cope during bad times.
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This story begins a three-day Record-Eagle series examines the lives of those caught in the grip of the failing state and national economies, and offers snapshot examples of how your friends, family, neighbors, and communities cope during bad times.
One northern Michigan man acknowledges he’s guilty of the crime of poaching. But he said he illegally killed a deer only because of his lousy financial situation. “It’s feeding your family,” he said.
A neighbor’s worn-out swing set was headed for the dump before Becky Link salvaged it for her 4-year-old daughter, Riley. Link, of Honor, couldn’t afford such a luxury. She makes $7.50 an hour at JC Penny in Traverse City, but after spending $10 in gas to get there and $20 for daycare, she leaves with only $30 after each eight-hour shift.
Jan Nickerson doesn’t mind walking to the Kingsley post office each day to make her public transit bus connection. The money she saves by riding instead of driving steered her to the bus nearly two years ago.
Logan Drake’s sweaty hair clung to his forehead as his mother Kristine lifted the toddler from their car parked near Ace Buyers pawn shop. Logan’s father, Shawn, popped the trunk and retrieved a rifle case. Then the family shuffled into Ace Buyers, and minutes later the Buckley clan had what they came for: money for food and gas for another week.
Doris Morgan may have a lot on her plate, but she’s buoyed by the “angels on my shoulders.” Morgan, 53, drives a bus for the Bay Area Transportation Authority and, like many other northern Michigan residents, feels the acute pinch of the state’s economic woes. She works full time, but at $12 per hour struggles to make a decent living. She’s not complaining, though.
Madge Smith and her friend Barb Allen wheeled into the parking lot at Purchases Sales Company in Gaylord for just one thing: a gallon of milk. The friends from Waters stop by the wholesale milk and ice cream distributing company each week for bargains on dairy products.
We’re a little more than a mile into our first geocaching adventure in northern Michigan, and we already have fallen off course.
A half-dozen red and white dive flags bobbed in West Grand Traverse Bay as Mark Leugers counted out loud while he and wife Lori collected cigarette butts and other trash on the beach. Leugers’ Saturday morning was going pretty well. He had already found 312 cigarette butts — on pace to hit his goal of 1,000 by day’s end.
One local vintner is at the mercy of Mother Nature not only for his grape crop, but also for getting it from the vine into the bottle. John Wyman’s Victoria Creek Vineyards in Leelanau County is the lone winery in the state that’s “off the grid,” meaning he doesn’t use utility-generated power.