South Haven

September 26, 2023

South Haven

We are fortunate to have a bounty of really good friends. The older that I get the more I appreciate the people in our lives who have had and continue to play an important role. I am especially grateful to the many friendships that I have maintained for the majority of my life. Many of my friends I have known for 50 years or even more and to think that these people are still a part of my life after all this time is really special.

There is a family that I have been friends with for close to fifty years, since I was a child in Indianapolis who remain to this day among my closest friends. Back in the old neighborhood in Indianapolis there was a family that had two sets of boy twins and a younger sister, who were all among the friend group that I grew up with.

The oldest twins, Henk & Gerard are the same age and were in the same grade as I was, the next set, Pat & Thor were a couple of years younger with Evelyn a year younger than them. We are all pretty close throughout our grade school years and even into high school and college, though we attended different high schools, the neighborhood bond was stronger than any school allegiance and we have remained close over the course of time even though we have spread out across the country.

As time passed, we were each married and they all began to have kids and while communications haven’t always stayed perfect, we remained in touch and I would see various members of their clan over the years, often at carb day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway each May. Anyway for more than twenty-five years, their extended clan has had a big family reunion gathering along the shore of Lake Michigan in South Haven, Michigan.

For years, they have been inviting me to join in, and while I have always wanted to, something always seemed to come up and I had never made it. With Kathy and Clove gone to Colorado, I thought that this might just be the year to sneak away and attend. I had only visited South Haven briefly when our friends from Key West were married in nearby Grand Haven, but I knew it was beautiful and thought it would be a great way to spend time with friends and to get to know better the many now adult children of my friends.

I had a nightmare of a flying day trying to get there, it took eighteen hours of travel time to get from Key West to Grand Rapids, but I eventually made it and had my own room in one of the cozy lakeside cabins that the family had rented out. There were I believe thirty-six people on hand for the long weekend, which I hear is close to a record number as almost all of the dozen cousins, many with their significant others and even five young grandkids on hand.

It was a little intimidating trying to keep all the names straight, especially among those I was meeting for the first time or who I had only had limited interactions with over the years, but everyone was so nice and understanding and I immediately felt right at home, almost as if I were a member of the family.

The cottages were beautiful and were right on the amazing lakefront, known as the Golden Mile just six blocks from downtown South Haven, which is a quaint old school lakeside town. The dates were just past the high season of the popular tourist destination, but you would only know that by the availability of parking, short lines at stores and restaurants and lack of huge crowds on the beach or in town. It was about perfect.

The weather was spectacular as well as it was a picture perfect fall weekend with the leaves just beginning to show color changes and just a touch of crispness in the evening air. It was as realizing and wonderful as I could have asked for and so great to get to spend such quality time with such good friends.