STL DPB ON THE ROAD - COPS & DOUGHNUTS

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in Clare, Michigan, with our daughter-in-law’s family. Clare is right in the middle of Michigan’s lower peninsula, a town of about 3,300 named for County Clare, Ireland, where my father’s family is from. Its best-known business is Cops & Doughnuts. All of the small town police department took over the failing town bakery some years ago and created a business famous in the region. It is a meme in American culture that the police love doughnuts and coffee, especially if not at their own expense.              

PYRAMID POWER

 

No new local material so I’m going with my best available. Who doesn’t want more pictures of their grandkids? Audrey, Josie and Ellie pile on and I couldn’t have gotten a better arrangement if I knew how to direct posing (which I don’t). Josie, on top, is the instigator. Irrepressible, and perhaps a prodigy. Not through the first semester of kindergarten, she sat by me watching Weird Al videos on TV and read me the captions.                 

AUDREY CHRISTMAS CROWE

Yep, that's her name. The other Michigan grandchild, just shy of five years old. She is remarkably sweet and smart, just a little reserved (in contrast to our Ellie, who will walk up to anyone and try to start a conversation). The two little girls are great friends, taking turns playing mommy and child in the play house where Audrey is sitting at our rental cottage. Her shirt, appropriately, says Oh Happy Day.