THE HILLS OF HOME I
Coffee Pot Hill
The road from Interlochen to Traverse City used to be an ordinary 2-lane "highway." Just before one gets to Airport road, up a slight incline, is a long straight hill. From the top one used to get a beautiful view of the Bay beyond Traverse City. It is much grown (and built) up now, and the view only lasts for a moment of two before it is cut off by some of the most incredibly ugly commercial buildings and advertising signs one could find! What a loss!
It was always a pleasure to be going the other direction—toward home. One day Robin was standing between Lucy Chase and me and, for some reason, was holding a silver percolator (coffee pot) as she stood there. As we started up the long hill, she was twisting the glass cone on top into which the coffee rises and falls back through the grounds. It came off in her hands. She threw it out the righthand open front window past Lucy Chase who saw what she had done and was not quick enough to stop her. She called for me to stop at once and back up. I did. We went back to where it had gone out and for about half an hour, searched the roadside in the hopes that the glass cone had survived.
Of course we never found it—nor will you find "Coffee Pot Hill" on any map, but it is there and always so identified as we go up or down it. The top to the coffee pot may be there too, buried somehow under the berm.
Composed 26-27 December, 2008, Transcribed by Robin
© Jim Bob Stephenson 2008
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