Face-to-face with this big boy, I found myself borrowing a line from Chipley: “I’m not afraid!”

While we were in the quaint lakeside city of Vermilion, we stop at Main Street Soda to grab something to eat. The moment we walked through the doorway, we were sure we had stepped back in time at least fifty years! The hamburgers were great and the prices were right!

I had a vanilla coke from the soda fountain! Others had cherry coke—just as good. I also learned to like Vernon’s ginger ale on this trip

I actually have a plate like the one in this photo but I bought it at the old Lakewood antique show.

Almost everywhere I turned in this little town, Christmas was still in full swing even a week after we had opened the last gift.

What’s in a photo? Plenty! I can’t begin to tell you what I went through to get this one . . . and I don’t even like it! It is posed. I had to use a flash and absolutely no one—not one dog would sit still or listen. They were fighting like two-year old children. I tried everything and then I finally said, “Sit down or I’m telling Sandy!” Both dogs immediately dropped to the floor—one in a perfect sit and the other in “down.” Just like magic (C.S. Lewis) the training that was gained from Dog School 101 kicked in.

Merry Christmas! And thank you Sandy, Xalina, and Zandy!

Grabbed a cup of coffee, a camera, and the dogs and drove up to the Old Sautee Store this afternoon where I took these photos and recalled what it was like to visit this place when I was a child. It was a good memory for a gray but very cozy afternoon.

Little ducks lined the windows and a huge Coca-Cola sign hung outside.

“Here’s looking at you kid!”

Oh, she looks just like her father: Sachel.