Manistee, Mansion Mania

This is NOT a Boat’s Notes.  It’s a true story.  Which is not to say that Boat’s Notes is not a true story, but those of you that are primarily interested in the itinerary of our travels, an annotated captain’s log, need not read this.  This is a step into a side room of our trip down the hall.  We will resume our regularly scheduled broadcast within a few days.   

We’re walking down the streets of Manistee.  Debi sees a beautiful rooftop garden on the top of a Victorian commercial building.  She sees a guy on top of the building. 

She: “Hi!  Nice garden!”

He:   “Thanks.  Want to come up? “

Debi loves to go into the homes (mostly boats) of strangers, or invite them to ours, so she was pretty darn happy.  And I had some optimism about this one. 

But I was not remotely prepared for the journey to Jerry’s second story and rooftop palace.  The building was originally a Pabst bar, meaning one of many bars that Pabst owned and leased to tavern owners under the condition that Pabst was the only beer sold.  That worked until Prohibition – and in 1988 Jerry moved in.  He and his partner, Jim, bought the building nine years ago and began transforming the space into their personal paradise.

This VICTORIAN building has been turned into a Dali painting.  Christmas lights, glittering streamers for door screens, a 2,300 square foot rooftop garden, hundreds of pieces of Pabst memorabilia, and a bar stocked with a bottle of scotch, a bottle of bloody Mary mix, and a can of whipped cream.  I’ve paid 20 bucks to enter museums with less going for it than Jerry and Jim’s (Jim was away, picking blueberries for their weekly Farmer's Market) masterpiece of design, collection, and brilliance.  See https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Historic-Pabst-Building/161413620581088 for more photos. 

We offered a bottle of wine we had with us.

 

Jerry:  Would you like some homemade blueberry wine instead? 

Jim:  Uh……yeah, sure. 

Jerry:  I hate blueberries and I think it sucks.  Would you like that on ice?

So I took my blueberry wine, Debi took her beer, and Jerry took his gin to the rooftop, where we saw hundreds of plants and listened to dozens of stories. 

Downstairs to his bar.  I complimented his bar selections, and he offered Debi a shot of the whipped cream – which turned out to be chocolate alcoholic whipped cream.  And that led to one of my favorite photographs of Debi ever.  

He pulled out the vinyl – Van Morrison.  There was something intoxicating about hearing the Man on warm vinyl in this wild place.  Or maybe it was the second glass of blueberry wine, which was neither sweet (as I expected), nor tart – but right there on the edge where it might not have been wrong to call it either.

Jerry:   Are you into the Wizard of Oz?

Me:      Yes! (I didn’t even bother to tell him that at age 19 I had attended a Halloween showing of the film at the U. of Illinois Auditorium dressed as the Tin Woodsman, while my roommates rounded out the cast in their costumes). 

Jerry:  I wrote a book about it – want to see? 

And there it was.  The book had been funded by Morton Salt - the umbrella girl logo was on the title page.  We had just learned earlier in the day of the importance of salt mining to this area, but that’s a whole other Boat’s Notes. 

Anyway, the book was about Walter Burridge - the guy who designed the sets for the theatrical Wizard of Oz – and how he brought those sets to Manistee, and some other Manistee connection, and then how Jerry is connected to that connection, but I was really enjoying the Van Morrison and missed some of that.  But who cares – I had entered Oz 2013.  

Jerry (and hopefully Jim) will be joining us on the boat tomorrow evening.  Sometime before that Marci and her mom will be arriving.  This just sounds like trouble.  Can’t wait. 

8/10

p.s. – Marci and her mom got the full Jim and Jerry experience.  The guys took our invitation to join us on the boat.  We followed them home, back to their spectacular home for a rooftop garden sunset, Jerry serenading the street with "Everything's Coming Up Roses", music and whipped cream, etc……..  Saw Jim this morning, selling those blueberries at the local Farmer's Market but did not have our camera.

Thank you, Jim and Jerry - for the good times in Manistee!!
Jim, Debi, Marci and Kate