In this post we learn how a woman's experiences on Boblo (Bois Blanc) Island in the Straits of Mackinac shaped and continues to shape her life from a young age. Illustrations by Nate Richardson/The Littoralist quotations by Lee Maynard.
“Bois Blanc Island, known to locals as Boblo, is 6 miles wide and 12 miles long. Its flat, buggy, rocky, and snaky- land and water - snaky. There are 2,000 people in the summer and 50 who live there year round. Lots of no people- its why we like it.”
“Its way bigger than Mackinaw Island, ten times the size, is what people say.”
“If you get picked up by the island police you go to jail in St Ignace, so it’s a part of the U. P.”
“My grandmother grew up in Grosse Point and went to Boblo as a child and all and met my grandfather on Boblo.”
“My grandfather was older than my grandmother and my grandmother was like the pest, the younger girl, following him and his friends around and eventually, obviously, you get old enough... and that’s what happened.”
“They (grandparents) moved to Ohio and had my mom and her 5 brothers and sisters who all went up for their whole life. Three out of my Mom’s siblings have cabins up there. Two don’t.”
“We would literally go a full day and never see our parents and it was ok, they knew it and it was ok. If anything happened to anyone word would get back. That’s the best part about the island, the very, very very best part. That’s what Jack (son) will have. …You have freedom and you have families that are right there (too).”
“I was born in Atlanta (Georgia). I was born on July 5th and at two and a half weeks old I was on Boblo.”
“As soon as I could drive, between the summer of 9th & 10th grade I drove myself (from Georgia) to live on Boblo for the summer and worked at the store. My parents came for the two weeks they always came but I was there all summer. …I waitressed at the general store and lived at the cabin- The Love Shack…”
“That’s my first memory of choosing. I have all my friends in my life in Georgia, I could be there all summer, or I could be at the island, and I chose the island. That’s my first memory of, ‘i choose the island’ ”.
“My grandmother came in one morning and had to step over bodies asleep on the floor at 1pm - classic teenage whatever. She left and talked to my Mom later and said ‘yeah, I just came from that love shack…’ and the name has stuck. We were brothers and sisters because we grew up on this place our whole life and we just crashed there. It wasn’t sexual or anything, we were young, you know?- but the name stuck."
“I remember turning that corner… its not a party place anymore.”
“Right now its like a shell to me because I haven’t been there in a long time… because for some reason I agreed to selling my share of it… so it was no longer my cabin or anything… I haven’t been there in years.”
“… its mine again but I haven’t stayed there yet. It doesn’t really feel like mine because I don’t feel like I deserve it back. I didn’t really fight for it and I don’t feel worthy of it being handed back to me.”
“I’m excited to have friends up there this summer… it would be a good new chapter started.”
