by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
Lloyd Wallace on the left and Jim Halladay on the right, entertain the several thousand people who attended the Taste of Vicksburg in July.
By Sue Moore
A crowd of faithful admirers surrounded Jim Halladay and the band HairMania as they headlined the Taste of Vicksburg in July. He announced that he was a “Vicksburg kid and there’s my mother in the front row. I wouldn’t be here without her.” He grew up here near Indian Lake, graduating in 1988 from Vicksburg High School and Western Michigan University a decade later.
The band is well-known for its 80s “hair metal” sound throughout southwest Michigan. It plays big gigs at the Leelanau Sands Casino, Rib Fest in Kalamazoo and the South Haven Blueberry Festival, to name just a few. The four-piece band has been together since 2012, gaining lots of street cred with its flamboyant style, easy listening music and showmanship.
It wasn’t always that way. Halladay, who sings lead in the band, has a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry from WMU. He didn’t take music courses in high school but did receive a set of drums from his dad, Lee, when he was about 13. His older brother, Doug, played the guitar, so they jammed from time to time in his parents’ basement. For the last 11 years, Halladay has been working for AT&T as a telecom specialist. He drives to Lansing each weekday to work in the company’s central office across from the State Capitol.
On weekends, he dons leather apparel and joins with his fellow band members, often with his wife, Chris, and his mother, Susan, in the admiring audience. To characterize the band’s followers as groupies might be a bit much, but they do evidence the “mania” in the name with promo T-shirts, their own photographer/publicist and plenty of good songs.
Halladay has been playing in bands since early 2000. He met up with Paxton Olney, a bass guitarist at a Detroit concert and soon found out he lived at Long Lake in Portage and works at the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek by day. The band needed a lead guitar player. It found Lloyd Wallace, a welder by trade. Their drummer, Terry Lewis, is new to the group as of 2018 and from Grand Rapids where he drives a delivery truck.
The hair is the thing. Halladay’s hair has always been shoulder length or even longer. When he worked at Felpausch in Vicksburg while going to WMU, his hair was long even then. His dad stopped in one day and informed him, “You need to get a haircut.” “I just got one!” Jim exclaimed. “I just don’t like getting a haircut. Maybe once every six months is all I can tolerate.”
“Our music from the 80s has seen a big resurgence.” Halladay said. “Young folks like it too and start singing right along with us. It’s just fun music and somewhat timeless. The 90s music turned to grunge and was depressing. Paxton started the band in 2010 and I joined in 2012 as he needed a front man. We have an authentic look; our costuming is largely from thrift shops. I found a leather vest that is real durable but can be hot in summer weather. Fortunately, we only play our set for an hour and a half.”
The band’s future includes playing at bigger shows and festivals where the crowds are more fun than playing in bars on a Saturday night, Halladay said. They open for Lita Ford at the Rib Fest in Kalamazoo on August 3 with relatives from all over coming to watch – including his mom, Susan Halladay, his greatest admirer.
by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
Steve Holton on the left brought Mike Lude to Vicksburg to meet old friends and tell tales about their years as athletic directors in major universities across the United States.
By Sue Moore
Milo (Mike) Lude left Vicksburg after graduation from high school in 1940 for Hillsdale College to play football and maybe amount to something, he said. The person who urged him to try for college was his high school coach and mentor, Clayton (Whitey) Linton. He leveled with Lude: You are not big enough, not fast enough and you are not good enough.
Lude had spent his growing up years on a farm near Fulton with no running water, no central heat, no plumbing and kerosene lanterns for light until 1935 when rural electrification came along. Now at age 96, he has lived all over the nation as an assistant football coach, a head coach, an athletic director and consultant.
He didn’t start out with those kinds of goals. He attended a one-room school near Fulton until high school. He moved into Vicksburg to live with his grandparents five days of the week and then home on weekends to help milk cows and plow 260 acres of hills and stones, all with horses, on the weekends. He thought every boy wore bib overalls, he recalled. His dad wanted him to play football and it turns out, he was pretty good at it as a 179 lb. lineman. Whitey had just graduated from Hillsdale College and advised Lude to go there. “I owe my career and my life to Linton,” Lude said.
The Marine Corps came calling before Lude could finish college. Upon his return after the war, Lude went back to Hillsdale. He was getting marginal grades in his early years at Hillsdale when his history prof interceded: “you are in trouble academically,” he told Lude. “I’m going to help by tutoring you.”
He majored in biology because it was an easy class for him his freshman year. “At Vicksburg, I just got by with a good attitude and my smile. I was in Mabel Hawkins’ drama classes for four years because she liked me,” Lude said with a chuckle as he acknowledged that “other people can do a lot more for you than you can for yourself all along the way.”
Lude’s greatest accomplishment, he believes, was hiring Don James to coach football at Kent State and then at the University of Washington (UW) – he served as athletic director at each school. With James at UW as head coach, they went to the Rose Bowl in 1978 and beat the University of Michigan 27-20. Lude was named National Athletic Director of the Year in 1988. “My strong suit was probably selling my ideas with enthusiasm. After that first big win it was like the launching pad that rocketed UW into outer space. We were able to put an upper deck on the north side of the football stadium. Without that, the stands looked like a one-winged seagull,” Lude said.
Three more Rose Bowl appearances and 13 total bowl appearances ensued under the James and Lude era from 1977 to 1990. Lude was forced to retire by University’s president. James lasted one more year and quit when one of his athletes was accused of getting paid for summer work.
Lude soon was hired as the athletic director at Auburn University for two years where he hired Terry Bowden as the head coach. He retired from there to take private consulting jobs and settle in Tucson, Arizona where he played a lot of golf and found time for his wife Rena and daughters Cynthia, Janann and Jill.
Lude had a five-year run as athletic director at Kent State just after the National Guard shooting on campus from 1970 to 1775 before the 18 years at UW. This is where he first recruited Don James to head the football program. It was James who then recommended his old boss for the AD position at Washington. Their friendship lasted for their 20 years together and after that until James passed away in 2013. During that time, James would tell his staff “not to mess around with the guy in the corner office because he and I will take care of things.” When Lude went to UW, the athletic program was $400,000 in debt. When he left the program, it had an $18 million surplus. “The secret is I tried to get everything I could for my coaches to be successful. The job of an AD today is asset acquisitions,” Lude said. “The salaries coaches and ADs are getting today are immoral.”
Not everything Lude touched turned out perfectly. His stint at Colorado State University as the head football coach from 1962-1969 only saw one winning season. Previous to that he had been the assistant football coach at the University of Delaware and before that at the University of Maine.
During Lude’s many years of moving around the country, he met Steve Holton, now living in Vicksburg, who was with the University of Houston. Steve along with Perk Weisenburger marketed the moniker “Phi Slama Jama” for the school’s basketball team. Houston went to the NCAA Final Four tournament in 1982/83/84. Holton’s wife is the former Judi Pacukewicz of Vicksburg. They too moved about, from Houston, to Cal State Long Beach to the University of Northern Arizona where Holton was the athletic director and brought in Lude as a consultant. Upon Holton’s retirement from the University of California at Berkeley he and Judi moved to Barton Lake where her parents lived. Keeping in touch with Lude throughout the years, Steve engineered a reunion for Lude. Several of Lude’s athletic director friends, including Perk Weisenburger, who is now AD at Ferris State, gathered over the 4th of July week in Vicksburg.
Lude co-authored a book, “Walking the Line” about his life in sports. It has 85 testimonials in it from guys and gals who helped him or whom he helped along the way. The introduction was written by sports broadcaster Keith Jackson 10 years ago.
by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
Standing from left to right: Aubrey Richardson, Mindy Reno (behind); Kalin Goodwin; Leeanna Wagner, Ady Reno (behind); Windee Wagner; Kristin Woosley (behind); Katelyn Woosley (behind); Kimberly Richardson.
By Sue Moore
Vicksburg’s Girl Scout Troop just returned from a nine-day trip to Ireland. The scouts saved and planned for five years and worked hard to make this trip happen, said Windee Wagner, the troop’s co-leader with Penny Gettle, who was unable to go along. Five scouts and four moms went. The girls will be seniors this fall at Vicksburg High School.
They were amazed at how young our country is when they visited pre-historic sites, Wagner commented. They did the typical tourist things but saw how much history there is in the bigger world they traveled in. Their research included the money exchange and conversion fees. It was the first airplane flight for most of them and going through customs was a new experience as well.
They are all working to achieve their Gold Award, the equivalent of an Eagle Scout award for boys. The girls have until they turn 18 to finish a special project that is tied to the award. Their fundraising experience is a big part of the learning curve for the troop members. “We tried whatever we thought could earn money. Some were successful and some were not,” Wagner said.
Most of the girls earned enough money to pay for half of the trip costs through the fundraising experience. The rest they had to contribute from their own finances. They are all heavily involved in extra-curricular activities in school as well, Wagner pointed out. One girl plays soccer, three are in choir and three are in band. Two of the troop members were unable to go on the trip.
They researched the country they wanted to visit, narrowing down the choices to France or Ireland with the parents getting one vote apiece. Ireland won on a split vote. As it turned out, Ireland was having a heat wave and it was very dry in the cities and countryside. “It turned out that the girls didn’t use their phones as much as when they are home, using them mostly to take pictures,” Wagner said.
by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
Charlie and Janet Glaes.
By Sue Moore
Charlie Glaes was recognized by the Vicksburg Rotary Club for his long dedication and work with the Rotary Showboat. He started years ago, singing in the chorus, being part of great skits and a very popular featured soloist. Also, he was touted for his activities working with the club in many roles dealing with kids.
He was also recognized for his longtime commitment to the community as an education leader, dedicating his career to Vicksburg Schools from suspension room supervisor, elementary principal, middle school principal, assistant superintendent for curriculum to the last 14 years as superintendent. “It wasn’t a matter of performing his job, he gave it 120% and never lost sight of what was good for kids,” said Skip Knowles as he presented the award to Glaes. “He was involved in many venues supporting our schools and the education of our kids.”
The Paul Harris award is highest a Rotarian can receive. It is given annually to a member who best exemplifies the ideas of Rotary, “Service Above Self,” who has given outstanding service to Rotary and the community at large. Harris was the founder of Rotary in Chicago in 1905. The service organization has a membership of 1.2 million in 33,000 clubs in 200 countries worldwide.
by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
By Sue Moore
The Gazelle Sports Historic Walk is coming back to Vicksburg at 8 a.m. Friday morning Aug. 3 in front of the Vicksburg District Library. The public is invited to Join Gazelle Sports and Lynn Houghton for another exciting time of a historical walking tour around the Vicksburg downtown and residential area.
Houghton is the Regional History Curator for the Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collections and co-author of “Kalamazoo Lost & Found.” She conducted a similar tour in the summer of 2016 when it rained throughout and still the 20 or more assembled visitors stuck with the tour. The walks take place rain or shine unless severe weather is forecast, she said.
The route will be the same one she conducted in 2016. Houghton uses a microphone so everyone can hear her describe the architectural highlights of each building and its history. This tour will go from 8 to 9:30 a.m. “I’m hoping some who attend will take advantage and maybe go to the coffee shop afterwards or stick around to visit the library,” Houghton said, noting that many of the visitors are from out of town.
by Justin Gibson | Aug 9, 2018 | Local History, Vicksburg
By Mike Hill
What was it really like to attend a one-room school? Find out in Vicksburg Aug. 21.
A few years ago, the Michigan One Room Schoolhouse Association asked one of its board members, Warren Lawrence, to develop a light-hearted program dealing with education in a one-room school. The board felt that such a program could be given at the organization`s annual state conference. Lawrence accepted the challenge. He entitled the program, “What We Really Learned When We Attended a One Room School!”
He will present it at the Vicksburg Community Center at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 as part of the Vicksburg Historical Society’s series.
Lawrence said education in a one-room school has been romanticized over the years. Many folks believe that all that students did was spend most of their academic day concentrating on the three R’s, reading, writing and ‘rithmetic, and little else. Based on Lawrence`s experiences as a student and his research as an adult, he found that former rural students were involved with much more during the day then mundane, academic recitation.
In the Aug. 21 program, Lawrence will enlighten the audience with his tongue-in-check findings about our nation’s noble, one-room schools. Lawrence said based on past experience there usually will be one or two in the audience that with an unusual tale to tell about an interesting, educational experience in one of the nation`s rural schools. Lawrence designed the program to be both fun and educational at the same time. The public is encouraged to attend.
