No. 172 – Heaven & Hell

Performer: The Who

Songwriter: John Entwistle

Original Release: Summertime Blues single

Year: 1970

Definitive Version: Live at Woodstock, 1969.

Not every song from the Woodstock bootleg that I gave to Jin and then taped relates to something that happened in Hawaii in the summer of 1984. Sure, hearing this song, which, of course, opened The Who’s legendary set at Woodstock, conjures memories of that vacation, like any other song from that tape, but there’s more to it than that.

We spent two weeks in Hawaii. Knowing full well that he would have to take time off in the not-too-distant future after Laura had her baby, Dad was out of vacation time. That meant no Torch Lake that summer.

Well, Jin, Scott and I weren’t encumbered by such restraints. I worked at Food World, and I’m pretty sure Jin had a job somewhere, but we were part-timers. We could schedule time off at will as long as we made up the hours elsewhere. Just because Dad and Laura can’t go to Torch Lake, why couldn’t we?

Back in those days, four families—Dad and his three sisters—fought over time scheduled at Torch Lake. And I do mean fight. Torch Lake for various reasons led to all sorts of bad blood that exists to this day (and has been exacerbated over time for reasons that aren’t worth getting into).

However, for reasons I can’t recall, 1984 was the odd year where NO ONE had the time to make it to Torch Lake for most of the summer. My grandparents went up for the entire summer as usual (except when I lived with them, alas), but for huge swaths of time, they were alone, which was unusual.

Not long after we got home from Hawaii was one of those times. I called my grandfather and asked whether he’d mind if Jin, Scott—and Beth—and I came up for a long weekend. We would be on our own, I said. Scott and I would stay in the Big House, with Jin and Beth at the Little House at bedtime only. They wouldn’t have to take care of us; we’d take care of our own meals and entertainment. He said we were more than welcome.

Before we left, Dad must have asked a million times if I needed directions, even though he knew I had driven that route before with him. I think he was just envious and wanted to share in some way the trip to his favorite place in the world. We packed up my new Magic Mazda—still a year away from its first breakdown—and headed out for the first vacation where Jin, Scott and I—and Beth—essentially had no parental supervision.

We had a blast. Aside from having the place almost entirely to ourselves and certainly without any extended family members, we were free to do things we typically couldn’t due to a schedule that revolved around sailing or the yacht club.

One day we went to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes to hike around. Another we made the long drive to Mackinac Island and spent the day riding bikes around the island. (Yes, Beth and I were on a bicycle built for two. Why would you think differently?)

We took care of our own meals, as promised. One night we made dinner in the Big House—I think Beth made steak supreme—and I loved that we were the only ones at the table. We all felt so grown up.

Other times we went out to dinner, including a place we almost never went to when more family members were involved—The Barnyard. The Barnyard was part of the Brownwood Acres shopping complex, although calling Brownwood Acres a shopping complex is a little like calling Bellaire a city.

Brownwood Acres consists of small pioneer-style stores and buildings nestled in the woods on Torch Lake. The Barnyard is long closed but the rest of Brownwood Acres remains open … for now. Every year is said to be the last summer, and every year after it has reopened … so far.

Anyway, we were enjoying a great dinner in what had been another fun day on our own when workers began to assemble a huge table next to us. And I mean HUGE. It had to have been for at least 16 people, maybe more. It didn’t bode well to this contemptuous 20-year-old.

“Oh no,” I said to everyone at the table. “Look.” Everyone turned to see what was going on. “You know they’re going to be loud, and they’re going to be wearing loud clothes.”

To a group of sarcastic teenagers (OK, so Scott was months from turning 13), this line was pure gold. The payoff, however, really came a few minutes later when I was proven right on both counts. We couldn’t stop giggling like the children we really were, and “they’re going to be loud, and they’re going to be wearing loud clothes” became the line of the trip. In fact, Scott—and Jin, for that matter—still use that line when the need arises.

We stayed, as I always liked to, till Monday. Meem and Pop invited us to dinner the night before we left, and we gratefully accepted. I mean, you can’t go to Torch Lake and NOT have Meem’s famous Sunday night pizza, amirite? We happily did the dishes after.

Everyone later agreed that it might have been the best trip any of us took to Torch Lake, and I think that sentiment largely holds to this day. In many ways, it was the first taste of freedom from our parents ,for which Jin, Scott and I couldn’t yearn enough, and we took full advantage of it.