All it took were some thunderstorms that kept us off the water. A few extra hands pitched in. Soon the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle was completed. In record time. No pieces missing, though there were a few desperate moments at the end until I found some of Holland’s tulips hiding out under the coffee table.

Michigan and Michiganders (yes, that’s the unfortunate name we call ourselves) are hurting a lot. We’re in a heck of a mess these days. We need to put our fine state’s pieces back together for real.

Check out this vintage northern Michigan travel video from 1949. We don’t ride around on our sand dunes wrecking up the fragile native plants anymore. And we don’t entertain visitors by chaining up our bear population. We know who picks our fruit trees clean and what a hard life they lead and we don’t pretend that it’s the local high school cheerleader squad. I watch this video, fascinated that this might really have been Michigan just three years before I was born.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMR7veI78f8