Schools attended by Nancy Joyce Stafford
Coats' School House 1st day of First Grade, Greenfield,Tennessee
the remainder of First Grade @ a school in Summerville, South Carolina
or Charleston, S.C. Or Savannah, Georgia. Probably is written in my baby book.
New Concord, Kentucky
2nd, 3rd, 4th grade
Douglas Houghton Elementary, Detroit, Michigan
5th grade
Greenfield Elementary School
6th grade
Douglas Houghton Elementary, Detroit, Michigan
7th grade
Edgewood Elementary, Taylor, Michigan
8th grade
Southwestern High School, Detroit, Michigan
9th grade
Greenfield High School, Greenfield, Tennessee
10th grade
Southwestern High School, Detroit, Michigan
11th, 12th grade
Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, Michigan
Creative Writing 1989-
Nancy Stafford Griesinger's memories of her 20 years in Traverse City, Michigan
The beautiful aqua bay of Lake Michigan. There are two such bays separated by an 18 mile peninsula called Old Mission. Our home is on that peninsula. The house is a Town House condominium snuggled into a woods.
The land is carved around the trees in order to place the house so that you have as much privacy as is possible. The privacy of these houses is what sold me on them. We started looking for a place on the water so that I could wake each morning to that beautiful blue water, but didn't find anything that we could afford since we were also going to be looking for a second place in Florida. So, this little tree house in the woods seemed perfect.
Traverse City was a small college town where I could take classes comfortably and the view of the bay was easily attained by simply walking to a nearby park or driving up the peninsula. We did not bring our checkbook with us. We were intending to shop around for a second home, but when I saw the color of that bay, I was in love...deeply in love. I couldn't imagine any other place being as beautiful and after 20 years I still cannot. So, it was the bay, the turquoise bay that sold me. All I had to do was find a small home facing that bay and I'd be happy as could be.
We moved one or two pieces of furniture up from downstate each car trip and I began to slowly purchase local antiques and some new chairs. I bought a computer and laser printer from Hudson's department store at Southland and began writing stories. I had started during my alone time in the condominium writing by hand ,assignments from my classes, but soon learned that a computer was the way to go. One reason was that I was using too much expensive typewriter ribbon for the long stories. And besides, Sears no longer handled ribbon or electric typewriters. So, computer land for me. I joined a writer's group of like minded people and found that every person with whom I came in contact was soft spoken and friendly. Very different from some of my neighbors downstate.
I felt for the first time in a long time that I could breathe deeply and rest easy. I saw women jogging alone at night: a sight you'd never see downstate. I remember on one of those first trips up by myself when I tried to pay before pumping my gas, the attendant said, “No Hon, you're up North now.” I knew from then on, this experience was going to be exceptional. Feeling safe was worth a great deal to me. I had to go into Detroit for Jury duty selection and I thought “No, this cannot be, I've got to change my address and soon.” So, when Traverse City showed up on my radar, I grabbed a hold of it and I've never regretted it....not once!
It's not only the scenery, which is way up there on my list, it's also the people. The young families. The kind teenagers. The well mannered shop owners. The spirit of the people. It's wholesome and cheerful and it filled a much needed part of my soul that felt like it was starving. I was and am very content with my little cabin in the woods, in this small town USA.
We have attended musical performances at Interlochen, an international music camp, wonderful performances at Old Towne Playhouse, a successful community theatre ,as well as good movies downtown at the State Theatre. We've frequented the 3 floors that make up Horizon Bookstore and witnessed the babies and toddlers dressed in Halloween costumes, Friday Nite Live events in the summer time, the Cherry Festival, Film Festival, The parades(where folks actually stand up when the American flag goes by) and the Christmas Tree lighting ceremonies where the announcer cannot be heard and the people sing words they have forgotten and sing them off key and when the switch is flipped the lights fail to go on to roars of laughter. We've stood silently at the Live Nativity and watched and listened to the story again. At these events and many more, I feel like I am living a charmed life. Sometimes I honestly cannot believe how blessed I am to live in such a place.
I've wondered myself why I love this place so much and I came to the conclusion that I must have been longing for small town life once again. That's all it is. A small town, and I really had never had one before.
When I was 15 and a sophomore at Greenfield, I was this happy, but that ended way too soon and now I have that giddy feeling once more. There is only one regret: That I didn't raise my kids here, or in a place like this.....okay, maybe two: That I hadn't found this spot in Michigan much much sooner than I did. There is not a day that goes by that I don't feel tremendously blessed by living here and this enthusiasm is not going to die, I can tell.
You asked me for memories, and I imagine you wanted a list of memories. There are too many to list, you can count up how many days there have been in the last 20 years of living here and that would be my list, because every single day is that special to me. But if I had to choose one it would be this:
We were at the State Theatre watching a live stage play of It's A Wonderful Life. It was Christmas, and when the actor playing George Bailey came to the part,(where he finally awakens to the fact that he is blessed and so happy to be living in Bedford Falls) when he ran off stage and down the aisle and they showed a film on stage of this George Bailey running around our own snow covered town and yelling”Hello Traverse City!!” and the “old bank and church & so forth and so on” It was that moment, that summed it up for me.
We've enjoyed many family moments here also. I've been thrilled to know that they have all enjoyed visiting us here. They have their traditions they have to keep, like going to a favorite beach or restaurant, or bookstore. That has done my heart good too, just knowing they have caught some of my enthusiasm for the place.
I don't ever want to leave here, and the weather is perfect in my book also. I love the changes. I like rain. I love snow. I like the birds and deer and turkeys. I like chipmunks. I like the imperfections of the woods we live in. The dying trees, the untidy look. I like the fact that I can sit with my morning coffee and watch the sunrise thru the unleafed trees in the morning and sit in the living room and watch the sunset.
I like the fact that I have the opportunity (though not often taken) to partake in a wide variety of activities such as Wine festivals & macaroni & cheese cook-offs.
Silly things like that. And all that great dancing we used to do. Why wouldn't I think I was in heaven already?
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