The News of August 29, 1951

  I was looking at old copies of The Fowlerville Review, searching for information on a planned column, when an article on the front page of the August 29, 1951 edition caught my eye. There near the bottom of the page was an obituary of Elizabeth Duncan Horton, my great great grandmother.

    I learned from reading this piece that she was born on October 2, 1862 in Ontario, Canada, and at a very early age came with her parents, John and Mary (Brown) Duncan to Michigan. The obituary adds that “she has spent her entire life in this vicinity.”

Two Events Highlight September: Fowlerville Dawn Patrol & Leroy Township Fireman's Field Days

A couple of special events occur each September in this neck of the woods. This past Sunday nearly two thousand people came out to Maple Grove Airfield, located north of town, to attend Dawn Patrol, while this coming weekend several hundred people will enjoy the various activities scheduled over a three-day period at the Leroy Fireman’s Field Days & Ox Roast in Webberville.

    According to the organizers, this marks the 66^th straight year that Dawn Patrol has been held. The fly-in initially took place in mid-August at Newton Field, an airstrip on Sargent Road south of Fowlerville, with the Sunday morning breakfast served by the Fowlerville Commercial Club.

At the Straits of Mackinac--The Island, the Bridge & Soapy Williams

   This past Labor Day weekend we celebrated Pure Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac. In our itinerary included a visit to Mackinac Island on Sunday and then a walk across the Mackinac Bridge on Monday. If you don’t like crowds, this was not the place to be.

  

 It had been five years since our last visit. We noticed a few changes, mainly in the presence of new buildings and businesses at Mackinaw City (where we stayed), but otherwise the sights and our activities had a familiar ring. We’ve come here several times over the past quarter of a century, and so have become acquainted with the various amenities and assorted activities that are offered.

The Day 9-11 Occurred

   This Sunday will be the 15^th anniversary of the 9-11 attack.The term 9-ll is, of course, shorthand for Sept. 11, 2001 when an organized band of terrorists simultaneously hijacked four airliners and proceeded to crash two of them into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and another one into the Pentagon in Northern Virginia. The target of the fourth air plane was believed to be either the White House or the Capitol, but several passengers—learning of what was happening from family and friends via their cell phones—took matters into their own hands, resulting in the plane crashing into a Pennsylvania field, well short of its planned destination.

Tuesday’s Terrorist Attack

   This column was originally written on Sept. 12, 2001—the day after the 9-11 Attacks.

   You’re watching TV when suddenly the tall building, struck earlier in its upper floors by a plane, billowing with fire and smoke, collapses, comes tumbling down.  And you realize that in those moments hundreds of people who had been working in or were visiting that World Trade Center tower, perished.  As did many of the fireman and police officers who were attempting to evacuate the building. 

   You watch other fireman, equipped in their Darth Vader like helmets, heading towards that building the smoke and debris, and then awhile later you realize some of them may have died at that very instant in their rescue effort.