We close up Carlton Gardens at 4 pm which gives us time to explore spots within a range of 50 miles or so. Last evening we drove SE to Lake Odessa, where we purchased some nice slabs of wood which John will turn into simple outdoor pieces. The evening before we went NE to Belding and had a picnic along the Flat River. While we were visiting the town's most noted spot (a young women's boarding house for early 20th-century silk workers), we heard an amusing story that was told recently by a man who is now more than 100. In his younger years, he and his buddies would hitch up a team every Friday night in good weather and head out from Grand Rapids to have a fine evening out with certain of the young ladies who lived at the Belding Boarding house. It's a mighty long drive with horses on rough dirt roads, but those girls must have been worth all the effort.
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| Silk-factory boarding house |
