Last weekend I did my yearly trek to two of my favorite ventures – the Michigan Avenue World’s Longest Yard Sale and the Michigan Fiddlers Association Fiddlers’ Convention. Before this year, the Fiddlers’ Convention was held in Hillsdale, so I could take Michigan Avenue all the way from Saline to Hillsdale to see the fiddling as well as do some yard sale shopping. This year, the convention was moved to Hastings (west of Lansing), so I ended up taking Friday off of work and doing each activity on separate days. Rain was predicted both Friday and Saturday, so here’s how it went.
Friday: The morning started off sunny, but I was frustrated with being stuck in traffic for an hour due to construction on Michigan Ave. and US-23. Once moving, I was able to stop in a few places that set up tables in quaint towns such as Clinton, Allen, and Quincy. My first stop led me to an old garage full of antique/junk toys, games, and nick-nacks. While I passed on almost all of it, I did get something that brought back memories of a when I was a kid – salt and pepper shakers that look like vintage Squirt soda pop bottles. Totally going up on a shelf in the kitchen.
About the time that I reached Quincy (a few miles east of Coldwater), the skies were starting to turn dark, so I figured to head back toward home. I was primarily looking for music-related items, but almost everything that was in that category was priced way too high, even if I was able to barter down some. However, I was able to secure a used Applause AE-32 acoustic/electric guitar for a decent price.. For the unfamiliar, Applause guitars were put out by Kaman in the late 1970s to be a lower-end version of the popular Ovation acoustic guitar series. The main difference was a laminated top instead of a solid top. Other than that, most everything was the same. I was never a big fan of these guitars due to the rounded molded-plastic back/sides that made them difficult to play while balanced on the lap sitting, requiring a strap and standing up to hold. Bringing it home, I tested it out and it still had a good sound unplugged, also being clean and loud when plugged into an amp. While it seems like a good guitar, I plan on just cleaning it up and selling it off, hopefully making a few bucks in the process. Fortunately, I did beat the rain making it home.
And I did make a pit stop at Randy’s BBQ near the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. It is a trailer where they make some of the best pulled pork barbeque you have ever tasted. Every year I stop by and order a Godzilla sandwich, which consists of pulled pork, pulled chicken, brisket, mac & cheese, cole slaw, and pickles on a bun! I literally starved myself all day because I knew that I would be devouring one of these in the afternoon.
Saturday: This day went a lot worse in so many ways. First off, getting to Hastings is not an easy task. I used to go to a park near Hastings every June for a Civil War reenactment. I had forgotten how many two-lane roads with police cars shooting radar there were along the way. No, I didn’t get busted, but I kept my eye on the speedometer almost all of the way there and back.
As soon as I pulled up to the campground where the convention was, Mother Nature let out a storm that made you want to start building an ark! It kept going on and off for over an hour. I was able to catch most of the fiddle workshop and jam session under the pavilion. I had attempted to video some of the activities, but the video camera that I was using was brand new and my first time using it, so I was unfamiliar with the set-up. The result was absolute garbage! Live and learn. I have to say that the workshop leader, a left-handed fiddler named Dave Langdon, has a great demeanor with the students, being very patient and hands-on with learning each part of a song.
After some time at the convention, I decided to head to Lansing for a stop at Elderly Instruments. This place used to be a Mecca for me prior to the pandemic. I would either schedule time off from work or make a clean slate on Saturdays to make the trip and spend a few hours testing out guitars and thumbing through the room full of CDs, videos, and music books. When I walked into the store, I was extremely disappointed. A lot has changed at the place in three years. What was once a room full of books and CDs was now limited to two or three bins each. The videos were completely gone, most likely due to the lack of interest in hard-copy videos and the move to online instruction. It was all replaced with walls of ukeleles – not my favorite stringed instrument to be sure. They still had the Martin guitar room, but the violin room was converted to a left-handed instrument room. It just didn’t have the same appeal to me as a whole than it did a few years back. I should have sensed that it would be a disappointment when I checked out the website earlier this year and noticed that there was a lot less being offered. I guess that my trips to the store will be extremely rare, only if I should happen to be in the area and the store is open at that time. No going-out-of-the-way trips for me any more.
Because of that, I will be scouting around for other music stores to make the trips to in the future.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 