On mental mistakes, bandshell trivia and county vets

Time to open up the mailbag - or, more properly the telephone voice mail - and reply to some messages from recent weeks.

It appears I violated a cardinal rule of journalism in a story I wrote a few weeks ago. "When you're working on an article that involves numbers and statistics, always do the math," a renowned writer once told me.

That did not happen in the June 29 story that detailed the increases in parking fines which were implemented July 1 by the city of St. Johns. In many instances, the fines were doubled, rising from $5 to $10. I noted that was a 50 percent increase - I did not do the math.

Thankfully, Jason Gnegy - an illustrious St. Johns High School teacher of mathematics and similar subjects which are foreign to 'numbers-challenged' folks like yours truly - pointed out my miscue.

"That's a 100 percent increase," he said, speaking rather kindly - like a first-grade teacher would to a little student just learning basic arithmetic.

Your corrective comment is much appreciated, Jason. I will make a better effort to 'do the math' from now on.

***

Another kind person - an unknown caller - provided equally sound journalism advice on the story I wrote about the change in ownership of European Traditions from the Haggarty to the Cook/VanRooyen families.

"What happened to the Five Ws' of journalism?" she asked. "You missed the 'where' - there is no mention in the story about the location of the business. How can I go there if I don’t know where it is?"

Good point. Saying European Traditions is located in "downtown St. Johns," which is how I referenced its location in the article, is simply not sound journalism. I should have cited its exact street address, 314 N. Clinton Avenue, and probably even have given it an additional point of reference - like, "located next door to the Photo Center, just down the street from the Clinton County News building."

Now that everyone knows the correct address, they can come and enjoy all the yummy soups and sandwiches - and tasty bakery items - that Rose and Carolyn serve up on a daily basis.

Makes me hungry just writing about it.

***

Two gentlemen stopped by the office - at different times - to provide additional information on the history of the bandshell following the publication of my column three weeks ago. That 'Random Notes' piece included a photo of workers building the original bandshell back in August 1939, along with other information on the first performances that were held there in conjunction with the Third Annual Clinton County 4-H Fair.

Sonny Cornwell and Joe Mesh wanted me to know that there was more history to report on the bandshell - "the rest of the story," so to speak.

The long-time fire chief for the city of St. Johns told me that while the original construction date is correct, the cement platform that the bandshell sat on until its recent removal was actually put in place a number of years later - sometime in the early 1950s.

"The firemen raised the bandshell up and took it off the old wooden platform so that the new cement one could be installed," Sonny said, recalling the work that he and others like Clare Maier and Bill Ondrusek helped complete.

Joe added another dimension to the on-going bandshell saga. He's quite certain that the bandshell initially was located just north of the present site - probably in the area where the 'old' city tennis courts are situated on Park Street.

"I don’t know the exact year, but I'm pretty sure that when they put the cement slab in, they moved the bandshell from its original site," Joe said during a visit to the office.

A quick perusal of Clinton County Republican-News bound volumes from 1955 yielded no results - and that's as far as I've gotten in updating the bandshell story.

Information from any other sources would be greatly appreciated.

***

Finally, Gordon Shipley stopped in to report on the progress he's making in compiling a list of all veterans from Clinton County who died in all the wars of the nation. The lengthy list was printed in the Memorial Day edition of the paper, along with a story detailing the Vietnam veteran's massive project.

Following the story's publication, Gordon received numerous telephone calls from people who provided additional information on specific veterans whose names appeared in the list.

"I never dreamed I'd get such a response," he told me during our visit. "I'm amazed at the number of calls, and, particularly with the information I've gotten on Civil War veterans."

A primary source of Civil War information came from Penny and Norma (Myers) Claeys of Middleton who contacted Gordon - and gave him a copy of a book that contains detailed information on soldiers from the 23 Michigan Infantry, 1861-65. Gordon has been able to mine tons of information from that resource.

We will continue to track Gordon's project, and plan to publish an updated list of veteran's names he's researching in next week's edition. Anyone who has information for Gordon should call him at (989) 224-4792