Matt Family

WHAT A PLEASANT POINT


I usually post my Domestic Specialist articles on Fridays, but since I took this week off I thought I’d post something special.  My parents recently took a little road trip to a place that has a peculiar history.  I invited them to tell their story.  Do you believe in big foot, chupacabra, or UFOs?  It doesn’t matter if you do, because this story isn’t about either of those things.  It’s about a small town that… well, I’ll let my dad tell the story. Here he is.

So, one evening, I came up with this idea to take a little car trip to the area that my wife’s parents were from.  A huge town…. well, not so huge, in fact, the “lady in the box,” (my Garmin, we call her Jill), didn’t even know where this place was.  Piney Fork, Ohio.  I had to feed Jill geo coordinates to find the place.  Anyway, we were thinking… well, alright.  I suppose I was thinking that while we were down that far, we should make a stop in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.  My wife’s eyes rolled.  I know she was thinking, what kind of a fine mess are you getting me into now?  Why Point Pleasant?  What’s there and what’s so pleasant about this place?  The town is like…. well, have you ever watched that TV show from long ago, Andy of Mayberry?  When you are walking down Main Street you can hear the theme song being whistled and you can picture Opy and Aunt Bee doing some shopping.  But still, why Point Pleasant?  Point Pleasant was named by George Washington as he was surveying the area.  The story goes that he made the comment, “This is a pleasant point”.  And the name stuck.  I know I know, you’re still wanting to know what ‘s the big deal about Point Pleasant right?  For you followers of the strange, here it is.  MOTHMAN! Continue reading “WHAT A PLEASANT POINT” →

Matt Dad Stuff, Family, Friends, Inner Monologue

MUSIC TO MY EARS

One thing I love to do is just sit around a listen to music. New music, old music, rock music, or classical, it just depends on my mood. I’d call them listening nights. Usually I’d pick a night when Aya was out late, and I’d park it on the couch with a stack of CDs and listen. Pretty loud too. But with Ellie around, I don’t really get to do it as much as I used to. I have music on a lot, but it’s different. I love taking drives by myself now just so I can crank the music. Even if it’s a short trip to the gas station, I bring my iPod and put on a song and jam. I might not even get to finish the song but I don’t care, it’s still that short moment when I can remember who I am. Anyway, I’m really lucky to have Joe, a next door neighbor who loves listening nights just as much as I do. And on a recent visit to his house, the subject was the Beatles, and the volume had no limits.

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Matt Family, Friends, Summer

ROSEBUD, CELERY, AND THE SHEWEE

It’s kind of funny that you can go your whole life knowing somebody but not really know them.  For example, Andy’s birthday is the day before mine.  I don’t know how long it took me to realize that.  Or maybe I knew at one point but then I forgot.  But either way, I didn’t like that even though I had tons of fun with these people, (yeah, these people) that I didn’t know some details about them.  So I made sure I learned a few extra things about them while they were here.

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Matt Family, Food, Friends, Summer

LATE NIGHT STEAK N’ SHAKE

When we go to visit our friends in Kentucky, there is always a group that heads out to the Waffle House.  It’s my thing.  I love the Waffle House and make it my mission to go there at least once while we are down there.  But we don’t have those here in Michigan so going to the IHOP was suggested.  I offered to take anybody who wanted to go.  Most everybody was tired except for the kids.  “Really!?  You’re serious?”  I said , let’s go.  So at midnight on a Saturday night I took Max, Abby, Matthew, and Sara.  Sara wasn’t part of the original group to go, but when she heard we were going, I’ve never seen someone so excited to go to the IHOP.  “I wanna go, I wanna go!”

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Matt Family, Friends, Summer

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

What do you do with 18 people?  Besides eat.  Well, on Saturday we broke into two groups.  The group going to the baseball game, and the group not going to the baseball game.  The Detroit Tigers would be playing the Los Angeles Angels downtown at Comerica Park.  Eleven of us decided to go for the 4:00pm game, and the others were going to go to Green Field Village.  I wasn’t bonkers on watching a baseball game in 90 degree heat, but I really wanted a Ballpark hot dog.  Plus, I go to Green Field Village all the time, so a change of scenery would do me good.  Especially with this group of people.

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