missing home.

it's funny how a little sufjan stevens, some ice cream, and endless memories can bring you back to a place you hated so much when you were young, but love so dearly when you're old enough to know better.

i was born at dickenson county memorial hospital on april 2, 1980. that's located in iron mountain, michigan, which directly connects with or through: quinnesec, norway, and kingsford, MI., as well as aurora, and niagara, WI.

i lived in kingsford for the better part of my youth before moving to florida.

i also lived in crystal falls, MI., which is on the outskirts of where i was born, in the middle of the forest more or less. regardless of where it all was, it was all a part of the U.P... the upper peninsula.

the people that live in the upper peninsula have become more commonly known as, "yoopers," thanks to a local traveling comedy/music group properly titled, "da yoopers."

a yooper to me is a combination of a canadian, a little hillbilly, and a good chunk of frozen brain matter. because anyone who lives up in that weather will tell you, to live in that cold, you'd have to be brain dead. but oddly enough, the love i have for the cold is one thing florida cannot take from me.

even though my definition of a yooper is my own, there are others who have dedicated their lives to digging into the historical values of a yooper which you can read more about at the link i put at the bottom of this post.

yoopers have a distinct accent. it's sorta canadian fused with a north dakota/minnesota accent... like, "heya, oh yah, donchaknow..." my mom has the queen of yooper accents, and both of my uncle gary's tower with thick yooper men accents. my cousins as well. i have one that only comes out when i'm visiting up there... my voice deepens and pronounces everything at a yooper decibel.

the upper peninsula truly is a world of it's own that if you haven't experienced in it's essence on your own with your own eyes, ears, and nose, then you will never understand what i mean.

for me, growing up their as a kid, the closest, and i mean, the closest, not gospel mind you, but closest thing i can compare it to in terms to being a kid, is the movie, "a christmas story."

the schools, the snow, the kids, the awful snow suits we were forced to wear to school on winter days... that shits all true.

i haven't seen it, but my mom tells me jeff daniels movie, "escanaba in da moon light," is a good interpretation of life in the U.P.

i began writing this with the nostalgic notion of my life there, and how even though i'm grateful i'm somewhere outside of the U.P., that deep inside, there's a part of me that misses it dearly. part of me wants to move back and live there among old friends that never left, and family that's just as nutty as i've grown to be...

i miss things like this so very much...



if you really want to find out more about who i was born to and where i really come from, go here... and no, this is no joke... this is how people from the upper peninsula are... trust me, i'm related to them...

da yoopers dat com