When I was eleven (about 30 years ago I received my very first LED watch for Christmas. During that break from school, I was out playing in the swamp on the south side of our house–we had 400 feet on South Lake Leelanau, and sufficient snowfall combined with a little bit of thawing and re-freezing made those swamp woods a Tonka truck heaven.

 I'd been out there most of the morning and was getting a little hungry, so I started to head back home. I realized I had no idea what direction home was–couldn't see the house, the lake, the road. I tried following my tracks back, but I'd made so many it was of no help. No big deal, I thought. I'll just wait until a car comes along and then I'll know which direction home is. My watch said 11:30, and I went back to playing.

A while later, a car went by–the watch read 12:35. The day is long gone when an hour and five minutes will pass between vehicles passing on any stretch of 643 during the day. At the end of the following winter, I left the Tonka trucks in the swamp, feeling like I was about to be too old for Tonka trucks….

I obviously understand why so many people have moved to this region in the last 25 years or so. I'm just still a bit sad that they have created all the congestion here that they were moving away from downstate, and that this region will never be the same. Thankfully, at night, this county does still sound the same as it always has, and the chances are very good (especially with the work you folks are doing) that it always will.

– Frank Harden, Cedar