When my photographer’s alarm rang at 7:30am on Saturday February 3, 2024, I watched Tom roll out of bed in our hotel room in De Pere, Wisconsin; that’s the moment he realized it wasn’t Groundhog Day again. Another fact was exactly 65 years ago, the bodies of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were still lying in a snow-covered cornfield outside of Clear Lake, Iowa after being thrown from Roger Peterson’s Beechcraft Bonanza when the airplane struck the ground around one o’clock in the morning. The wreckage wasn’t discovered until 9:35am when the plane’s owner, Jerry Dwyer, flew another plane on the flight path and saw crash site from the air.
Following breakfast, which was a lackluster ensemble where the Kress Inn didn’t offer flap jacks, the three of us boarded the Jeep and headed for Oshkosh, b’gosh. The ninth largest city in Wisconsin was named for Menominee Chief Oshkosh, whose name meant ‘Craw’. No, that’s “Claw”. That’s what I said, ‘Craw.’
Oshkosh, Wisconsin was once known as the “Sawdust Capital of the World” due to the large number of sawmills in the city, but cutting lumber wasn’t the reason for our visit. Instead, Tom wanted to treat his wife to a Saturday morning shopping extravaganza at the Originals Mall of Antiques, which was located southwest of downtown Oshkosh. After an hour or so of a fruitless treasure hunt, my photographer once again left emptyhanded. Vicki on the other hand, returned to the Jeep with a small wooden stool for her home decor.
Tom’s original plan was for us to travel from Oshkosh to Madison where he planned on touring the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, as well as a site down the street from the Capitol where Barack Obama delivered a speech on November 5, 2012, which was his last day of campaigning. But as he punched in the coordinates into his GPS, my photographer suddenly changed his mind. He noticed on a satellite view of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, in the area on the roadway where he wanted me to pose, the entire street was painted with the words ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ in large bright yellow lettering. Even though Tom has never been a huge fan of authority, and he becomes disgusted when any police officer abuses his or her power, he is completely fed up with the out-of-control antics of certain culture groups who have decimated most of our larger cities for far too long. Instead of defunding the police, perhaps our society should defund the criminals and make America safe again. Sounds like a campaign slogan, doesn’t it?
At a few minutes past 12 noon, we were headed back to Michigan. Not to our home, but somewhere on the southwestern part of the state. My photographer said he wanted to get through Chicago and then through the sh!thole area of Gary, Indiana before dark. Tom suggested to his wife that we stay in the same Holiday Inn Express in St. Joseph as we did on the first day of our trip last September.
After crossing the border into Michigan at 5:01pm, we made it into the St. Joseph area roughly forty-five minutes before sunset. In Tom’s mind, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Instead of having Vicki drive us directly to the hotel, my photographer led us to the St. Joseph North Pier Lighthouse instead. While my two companions had their sights set on watching the sun set over Lake Michigan, I kept my painted eyes peeled for the cute cop we crossed paths with last September in the parking lot of Tiscornia Park. Unfortunately, Tom and Vic didn’t break any rules during this visit, and I was whisked away onto the pier for what turned out to be a spectacular view – even though the view wasn’t blonde.
Once the sun had disappeared from view, Tom, Vicki, and I made the long hike back to the Jeep. At one point during the four-mile drive to the hotel, my two companions decided to stop for take-out dinner at a place known as ‘Zoup!’ where they purchased some chicken pot pie soup to eat in their room.
For the final time on our short four-day adventure, my photographer unloaded the vehicle while his wife registered in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express. It wasn’t long after they had finished dinner when the lights were doused in the room. I stood alongside the television set, alone in the darkness, while I listened to Tom snore the night away.
When my photographer’s alarm went off at 6:00am, one of the first things I heard come out of his mouth was “Happy Birthday Alice Cooper.” It turned out the ‘Godfather of Shock Rock’ was celebrating his 76th birthday on February 4, 2024, which was uncanny because Tom had just purchased a classic Alice Cooper album a few days earlier. Ironically, that wouldn’t be the only Alice connection of the morning.
We left the hotel after breakfast and began the 80-mile journey eastward towards Battle Creek, Michigan. Even though the surrounding countryside along I-94 was fog-bound, the visibility on the highway wasn’t too bad. But the closer we got to our morning’s first destination, however, the more Tom became worried about the fog affecting his photographs.
At roughly 9:50am, Vicki pulled into a public parking lot across the street from an enormous building; a huge structure that appeared to absorb an entire city block. The Battle Creek Sanitarium appeared to be ancient; and I had to admit, the building looked very eerie with the morning haze clinging to the upper floors. As I looked in astonishment at the behemoth before me, I wondered what this creepy place had to do with any of our Presidents – or with any other historical person for that matter. I nearly pooped my breaches when I heard my photographer say to his wife, “Let’s go check out the Battle Creek Sanitarium. I said check out, not check in to the sanitarium!”
The Battle Creek Sanitarium opened in 1866, and within ten years, the place was managed by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg. It was within the walls of this facility where the Kellogg brothers invented corn flakes. Once the Kellogg brothers took over in 1876, the place grew from 106 patients to over 7,000 people by the turn of the century. Unfortunately, a fire decimated the entire complex in 1902; and the current sanitarium was rebuilt on the same site a couple of years later. The 14-story ‘Towers’ skyscraper was added to the south side of the building in 1928, and today serves as the entrance to the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center.
At first, I wondered why Tom had brought me to the sanitarium. I knew my resin head was hallow, but I didn’t think I had mental issues – even though the place was used as health and wellness facility, and not just for mental patients. Dr. Kellogg was obsessed with bodily cleanliness, both inside and out. As my photographer carried me across Washington Avenue and onto the property once managed by the Kellogg brothers, I wondered if the spirits of any “cereal killers” were wandering the grounds; and whether or not this was the place where the brand names Fruit Loops, Crunchy Nut, Frosted Flakes, and Special K had originated. But it turned out, there was more to the sanitarium’s history than I could’ve ever imagined – especially when it came to the famous people who walked through the front doors or stayed within the padded walls.
In 1889, Warren G. Harding was admitted to the Battle Creek Sanitarium at the age of 24 after he suffered what was believed to be a nervous breakdown. Harding spent several weeks at the facility, then returned four years later for additional help. The President’s visits continued sporadically for the rest of his life.
Other well-known folks who spent time at the Kellogg’s sanitarium were Mary Todd Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, J.C. Penney, Irving Fisher, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, Johnny Weissmuller, and Amelia Earhart. As a matter of fact, during Earhart’s visit, the famed pilot treated Dr. Kellogg to his first airplane ride. When the pair swooped low over the sanitarium, the doctor removed his goggles and caught a birds-eye view of the entire facility. Not long after, Earhart was lost when her plane disappeared as she tried to cross the South Pacific Ocean on the final leg of her around the world flight.
Even though Kellogg’s purpose for the Battle Creek Sanitarium was to offer a place for people of all incomes to relax, focus on their wellness, and recover from certain types of conditions and ailments, the huge complex had the ambiance of an insane asylum to me. Throughout my entire visit, and since it was also his birthday, I couldn’t get the thoughts of Alice Cooper out of my mind. After all, in October 1977, Cooper was admitted into a sanitarium near White Plains, New York for alcohol abuse. Upon his release a month later, Alice and famed lyricist Benie Taupin wrote the lyrics to ten songs featured in Cooper’s album called ‘From the Inside’ which chronicled the singer’s time in the asylum.
With Alice in mind, I wanted Tom to carry me through the front door where we’d search for ‘The Quiet Room.’ I’m sure the Battle Creek Sanitarium had such a room – a place where Alice once cried out for help. “This quiet place, it ain’t so new to me. Its haunted atmosphere has heard so many scream – my home from home, my twilight zone; my strangest dream. My confidant, I have confessed my life. The Quiet Room, knows more about me than my wife.”
When we finished our time around the exterior of the sanitarium where President Warren G. Harding once stayed, I couldn’t get Alice’s words out of my mind. I heard him talking, and he wasn’t saying ‘Happy Birthday to Me.” The melodic cries for help, resonating from the huge stone and brick structure behind me, was a haunting end to one of the most unusual Presidential sites I’ve ever visited.
“We watch every day for the bus. And the driver would say, ‘That’s where lunatics stay’, I wonder if he’s talking about us? It’s not like we’re vicious or gone, we just dug up the graves where your relatives lay, in old Forest Lawn. And it’s not like we don’t know the score. We’re the fragile elite, they dragged off the street, I guess they just couldn’t take us no more.”
I, for one, couldn’t wait to leave Battle Creek. “Cereal City” looked old, worn, and quite frankly, it didn’t feel overly safe – even during the daylight hours. We were there for less than a half hour, and I heard sirens blaring in the vicinity more than once. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when the book appears to be stolen from the local chapter of the VFW, then it’s time to get out of dodge.
It seems as though my photographer cannot go on a trip without making at least one stop at a Presidential gravesite – and that’s what I love about him. And since there was only one Presidential gravesite in the state of Michigan, guess where we were headed next. That’s right – Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit the final resting place of Gerald R. Ford.
Before we stopped at Ford’s Presidential Museum where he’s buried, Tom decided to pay a visit to a record shop located in Grandville, which was a tad over eight miles southwest of the museum. After a short wait for the Corner Record Shop to open at 12 noon, Tom left me in the Jeep as he headed into the store with one artist on his mind and in his sights – Jay-Z. Did that get your attention? Yeah, I thought so! Fact of the matter is my photographer would rather have his body lathered in honey and covered in fire ants before he would buy anything recorded by Jay-Z, or any other rap or hip-hop performer for that matter.
Tom walked into the store at precisely 12 noon; and he walked back out five minutes later. I heard him tell Vicki, “That store usually has a great selection of every artist, but they didn’t have any albums by Alice Cooper. My hunch is all the Alice LPs were sold out yesterday in preparation of his birthday today.” My photographer’s wife shook her head and said, “I’m sure that’s it.”
For the next fifteen minutes, I was on pins and needles as we headed for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, which was located along the western shore of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’m not sure if my anxiety was because I was about to make my third visit to Gerald Ford’s grave for the third time, or if it was because I knew Scott and Lori Salamasick were going to meet me for the first time. Scott and Lori live just west of Grand Rapids and said they were coming to the Presidential Museum for a quick visit with Tom and Vic before their bicycle ride.
Vicki pulled into the parking lot of the Ford Museum at roughly 12:20pm. The first thing I heard upon our arrival was Tom complaining about the bright blue sky and no clouds. His dismay was justified – each of our first two visits together at Ford’s grave, which occurred on September 22, 2014, and again on August 7, 2022, the bright sunshine over Grand Rapids caused a shadow issue at the gravesite. Those shadows made photography difficult for my personal camera guy. As the three of us walked past the museum and towards the burial site, Vicki said to her husband, “It’s fifty degrees and sunny on February 4th and you’re complaining about that? You should be happy isn’t not twenty below and freezing your butt off.” Tom shot back with, “I’d be extremely happy if it was overcast and seventy degrees right now. Every time I come here, there’s never any clouds. I would’ve settled for the fog we saw earlier this morning.”
Sure enough, when we made it to the site where Gerald and Betty Ford were laid to rest, I immediately saw shadows on the grave. The shadows didn’t seem quite as horrible as they were during our previous visits, and that was likely due to the lack of leaves on the nearby trees.
Following the President’s death on December 26, 2006, he was interred on January 3, 2007 during a solemn ceremony on the grounds of the Ford Presidential Museum. When Betty Ford passed away on July 8, 2011, she was laid to rest alongside her husband.
Following our visit at the Ford’s gravesite, Tom carried me into the Presidential Museum where he went on a search for a replacement bobble head. Thankfully, he had no intentions of finding a substitute for me. Instead, he purchased another Theodore Roosevelt bobble head as my photographer accidentally broke the sword from his original TR figurine. During his time in the gift shop, Tom also sought information about Gerald Ford’s high school, his law office, and the site of his stepfather’s paint and varnish store. When the youngster in the gift shop had finished his frantic search for directions, my photographer left with the addresses for two of the three places. And according to the late, great Meat Loaf, two out of three ain’t bad.
Just as Tom and I had wrapped things up inside the gift shop, the Salamasick’s met us in the lobby of the museum. It turned out Scott knew Kevin Livingston, the security guard on duty; and soon my photographer and the other two guys began a discussion about some of the Presidential sites we’ve visited in the past.
Back outside, the five of us hung out in front of the museum for about a half hour. There was one thing I discovered during our time with the Salamasick’s – I quickly found out my photographer wasn’t the only one with a goofy sense of humor. That’s right, Scott’s mind was nearly as warped as Tom’s, and at times, maybe more so.
When we left the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum behind in the rearview mirror, we headed across the river and into the business section of Grand Rapids where Vicki found a parking spot not too far from the Michigan Trust Company Building. My photographer’s wife stayed with the Jeep while Tom carried me to the front of the ten-story red brick structure, which was built in 1891. But this wasn’t just an old building; it was a Presidential site.
After Gerald Ford had graduated from Yale Law School and was admitted to the Michigan bar in early 1941, Ford partnered with his friend, Philip Buchen, and together they opened a law firm housed in Suite 621 in the Trust Building. Ford’s time in the partnership was short-lived, however, as he enlisted in the United States Navy in April 1942 – a few months after the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.
Our final Ford site of the day, and the last site of our entire trip, was located two miles south of the Trust Building. When we arrived at the parking lot of a large, three-story brick building, I saw a sign that read ‘Gerald R. Ford Jobs Corps Center’. I wondered to myself if this was where young Gerald Ford once worked, but it turned out it was where the future President was educated from seventh grade until he graduated from high school in 1931.
Grand Rapids South High School opened in 1917, and just eight years later, a student by the name of Gerald Ford was enrolled in the school for his seventh-grade classes. Since the home Gerald lived in with his parents was located on the dividing line for three schools, the Ford’s had their choice of which school to send their son. They chose South because of its diversity and working-class environment; they figured he would learn more about life there.
Gerald Ford excelled in history and government at South High and was outstanding in math and the sciences as well. At the end of his junior year, Ford made the National Honor Society and ranked in the top five percent of his class. Jerry was also a star center for the South High Trojans football team and was named to the all-city squad. His athleticism on the grid-iron continued after he graduated high school in 1931 when he entered the University of Michigan and played football for the Wolverines.
Unfortunately, politics turned the once thriving high school into just a memory thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Due to integration issues, South High School closed its doors in 1968 – although it remained open as a junior high until it closed for good in 1981.
Just two years before the demise of South High School, a famous singer/songwriter graduated from the building in front of me. No, it wasn’t Alice Cooper – ‘The Coop’ graduated in 1966 from Cortez High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Instead, it was famed soul singer Al Green, whose signature hit was ‘Let’s Stay Together’, who had graduated from South High in the Class of 1966. Today, both Alice and Al are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Green was inducted in 1995, and Cooper made it into the Hall in 2011. I’m not quite sure why Green, who abused women throughout his adult life, made it into the hallowed halls before Cooper. One thing’s for sure, Alice didn’t beat or abuse women, he only sang about them in his song ‘Only Women Bleed.’
Our time in Grand Rapids came to an end at three o’clock in the afternoon, and we had just enough time to make the 185-mile journey home before dark. The weather was ideal, the traffic was even better, and the only thing Vicki had to keep an eye on were wayward woodland creatures wandering onto the expressway.
Luckily, we didn’t add any more carnage to the “killing field”, also known as I-69. It was roughly 5:50pm when my photographer’s wife pulled into our driveway – we had travelled 1,340 miles on the short four-day adventure. You might be wondering how far I’ve travelled in my nearly eleven-year career – that would be 70,864 miles. That’s the equivalent of going around the Earth, at the equator, 2.8 times.
When Tom placed me back on his display case with the other 35 Presidential bobble heads, it seemed good to be back home. As I stood on the top shelf with my friends, the voice of birthday boy Alice Cooper still ran through my resin mind.
“I wonder if anyone missed me, or have I been gone so long they thought that I died? How many said, ‘I wonder what happened to Thomas?’ How many shrugged or laughed? How many cried? But I don’t give a damn. ‘Cuz I’m going home. I’m going home, to my own room, to all the mess, to all the dirty laundry. It looks so good I don’t care. I’m just so glad to be back, home sweet home.”
