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Archive
Issue: Winter - 2006/07
Door
County Living - a magazine that celebrates the area's unique culture and
lifestyle is available at select locations throughout the Peninsula. Through
its coverage of home & garden, boating, leisure & recreation,
dining, fashion, culture, and the arts, Door County Living entertains
its readers by highlighting the many wonderful things the Peninsula has
to offer.
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Donny’s Glidden Lodge
Restaurant
By Megan O’Meara
The highest praise you can give a restaurant in
the county is to say that locals frequent it. That is definitely
the case at Donny’s Glidden Lodge Restaurant. You aren’t
just going to find locals, though; visitors and summer residents
are also very much in the know when it comes to where to find a
fantastic meal at a reasonable price.
To fully appreciate this tradition,
you must go back to the ‘80s when Donny and Rita Zellner owned
the Alaskan Supper Club (in Alaska, Wisconsin). At the Alaskan,
portions were generous, no detail was ever overlooked, and the prices
were below what people expected to pay for the quality of food that
was on the menu. When Donny and Rita bought the Glidden Lodge Restaurant
in 1998, their large fan club followed them 36 miles north.
(more)
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Sense: Riding In Winter
By Melissa Jankowski
Admittedly, I’m not a “horse person.”
That’s not to say I have anything against horses, as in, “I’m
not really a dog person…”
The truth of the matter is, I just haven’t
spent any significant time in the company of horses. Sure, I’ve
scratched a few horses on the neck, and I’ve offered up an
apple or two, but for the most part, I simply haven’t had
much close, personal contact. I can count on one hand (precisely,
one finger) the number of times I’ve actually mounted a horse
– and honestly, I can’t say I have a reasonable explanation
for my inexperience. For the record: My general avoidance of all
things equine has been strictly unintentional.
(more)
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Inspired by the Challenge
Training for the Birkie
By Karen Nordahl
It is Monday, January 23rd, and I am breaking a
sweat in the 30-degree air. I am trying to cross-country ski over
hilly terrain, but the result might be more accurately described
as chasing my cousin Helen through the woods with boards attached
to my feet. My mission: to prepare for the American Birkebeiner.
That afternoon in the woods represented
just a small part of our months-long training program for the legendary
Birkebeiner, an internationally recognized cross-country ski race
from Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin. As a first-time racer in February
of 2006, my goal was the 23-kilometer Kortelopet, also known as
the half-Birkie. My more athletic and agile cousin Helen, a veteran
of the event, would tackle the full 51-kilometer Birkebeiner course.
(more)
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"Boot" Hockey:
An Unlikely Northern Door Pastime
By Myles Dannhausen, Jr.
It started with the hope of
getting enough people together to form two teams for pickup
games, maybe 30 guys, to play a little "boot" hockey,
a game they weren't even sure how to play. They just wanted
to play something, anything, for exercise and activity to get
through the Wisconsin winter.
They had this modest ice rink,
just a year old, but Sister Bay wasn't home to all that many
hockey players so it was tough to get much of a regular game
going. That would change, as would winter life in the community,
when Eric Scheller suggested a game he called "boot"
hockey that he had played for the first time over vacation in
Minnesota. (more)
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Revealing
Hidden Treasures
The art of locating antique furniture and restoring
it to its original splendor
By Sam Perlman
Anyone who has ever watched
the public television series Antiques Roadshow knows the thrill
and excitement of finding the treasure of a valuable, previously
unknown antiquity. As the appraiser evaluates the item, the
owner nervously replies to questions about the provenance and
history of the piece. By the time the expert finally gives their
professional opinion of value, the owner (and the viewer) can
barely breathe with anticipation. The moment of truth arrives
and the owner learns whether they have an average piece of furniture
on their hands or a valuable antique worthy of a place of honor
in their home (and perhaps the key element of a potential early
retirement nest egg).
Whether from their own garage
or found on sale, the thrill of both the hunt and the discovery
is what drives many antiques shoppers to keep searching for
the one fabulous piece that doesn’t get away. Finding,
collecting and restoring antiques is a hobby – for some
an obsession – that many Door County residents and visitors
enjoy. Need evidence that the peninsula is a popular spot for
antiques? One current Door County phone book lists almost 35
antiques retailers in Door and Kewaunee counties.
(more)
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Actor, Prankster, Restrauteur & “Mayor”
Fish Creek’s Digger DeGroot
By Allison Vroman
In Door County, the definition of what makes someone
a “local” seems to fluctuate depending upon who you
ask. For some, it’s a title given to all babies born north
of the county line; for others, it’s a designation reserved
for those whose family trees have roots on the peninsula through
multiple generations; and then there are people who feel it’s
a status earned after a certain number of winters spent in the
county.
Despite the definition’s inconsistency,
it’s not an easily achieved moniker. Few people, however,
would argue with the contention that James “Digger”
DeGroot is a man who fully illustrates what it means to be a Door
County local. (more)
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Split, Stack, Stoke
Weathering Winter with a Woodstove
By Peter D. Sloma
When we first purchased our house, I imagined
that I would spend some of the days of the long Door County winter
sitting beside the fireplace in the main room. Perhaps I could
pass the time with a book and a mug of coffee – what better
way is there to spend a January day? As it worked out, the fireplace
in our house was not very efficient.
A fire commonly had the effect of making the room
cooler, as it pulled the warm air from the room, sending it up
the chimney, along with all the heat from the wood we burned.
A fire in the fireplace, while pretty to look at, turned out to
be a real disappointment in terms of comfort and practicality.
(more)
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Laying Up the Winter Fleet
Bringing Great Lakes Freighters to Port
By Peder Nelson
“ The iron boats go as the mariners all know, with the gales
of November remembered.” – Gordon Lightfoot, Wreck of
the Edmund Fitzgerald
The predawn morning is met with a blanket of fog
that hangs heavy over the thickening ice of Sturgeon Bay’s
outer harbor. Harsh, cold winds pile snow into ripples and drifts
across this hardened white sea. In the partial clearing lies a 1,000-foot
freighter at anchor off Sturgeon Bay’s Sherwood Point Lighthouse.
Half visible in the dim morning light the freighter slowly comes
into a ghostly view. Sherwood Point light station, the last manned
station on Lake Michigan, drones its warning cry and sends out its
regimented beacon of caution.
Three tugs from Selvick Marine Towing of Sturgeon
Bay are northbound, channeling between buoys and the Potawatomi
State Park’s rugged shoreline, where icy conifers strut out
from their limestone bases..
(more)
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Off Beat, Off Season: Isadoora Theatre Company
By Christine Callsen
Some say that theatre had its origins
thousands of years ago, with a group of friends seated around a
campfire eating a meal and sharing stories about their day. Then,
one person decided that the story would be better if two people
told the story together, each acting out a different part. Over
time, the stories became more elaborate, and more and more people
became involved in the telling. Thus, theatre was born.
 Thousands
of years later this form of storytelling called theatre is firmly
established, especially in culturally rich areas like Door County.
And Isadoora Theatre Company, a relatively new addition to the scene
now celebrating its fifth season, began creating theatre in much
the same way. (more)
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Ice Harvesting
By Mariah Goode
For nearly a century, private homes and businesses
in Door County relied on ice harvested from Green Bay or Lake Michigan
for refrigeration purposes. Harvested ice was stored in numerous
places around the county to be used locally throughout the non-winter
months.
In the late 19th century, ice harvesting for export
was also big business in Door County. To serve both local and regional
demand, many companies large and small operated up and down the
peninsula, particularly on the bay side.
(more) |
Fireside Coffeehouse Concerts
Coffee Culture Arrives at Door Community Auditorium
By Patricia Podgers
Whoever would have thought that a little black bean could
be powerful enough to create a culture all its own? But small as it is,
the coffee bean has resulted in a phenomenon that crosses cultures around
the world.
In the years since the simple bean was first discovered
by an Ethiopian goat herder, drinking coffee has created social and cultural
centers where people congregate to talk, write, read, and most recently,
partake in entertainment. And so the “coffeehouse” was born.
(more)
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