We love listening to the local radio station, WELY.
On Saturday mornings there’s the Polka Hour with gems like:
- “That’s Where My Money Goes”
- “Tra La Hoy Le LiLi Oh”
- “When I Saw You Standing There”
- “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”
- “Pennsylvania Polka”
And one of my favorites,
“In heaven there is no beer
That’s why we drink it here
And when we’re gone from here
All our friends will be drinking our beer.”
Now in German:
“Im Himmel gibt’s kein Bier…”, etc.
There’s stuff for sale:
- A 110 cubic foot military refrigerator unit, insulated box only, $275.
- A central heating boiler, with pumps, holding tank & everything, $1500.
- An Ashley wood stove, $100
- A Kennedy 32 foot 1982 house boat, make an offer.
- A Harley Davidson golf cart, good shape, $400. (Does that come with a Queen seat??)
There are emergency announcements like:
- Lost on Burntside Road, fishing gear stolen from the first house to Echo Trail, please call.
- iPhone found on the beach at Lake #2 in Bear Head Lake State Park, come pick it up at the radio station
Charles Kuralt loved this area – in his book, “Charles Kuralt’s America”, he called Ely “the best place to spend July”. And some years ago he rescued WELY from bankruptcy and gave it its moniker, “End of the Road Radio”.
The Ojibway/Chippewa name for our lake, depending on whom you read, is given as “Onamuni” or “Sah-Ga-Fe-Gum-Wah-Ma-Mah-Nee”, which means “Red and gold reflection from the sky to the smooth lake surface near sunset”, or else, more tersely, “Lake of the Sunset Glow”. The French trappers who first came to the region transformed it into “Lac Vermilion”. There are signs in the area boasting that National Geographic named Lake Vermilion “One of the ten most beautiful lakes in the world”. However, as true as the statement may be, it turns out that National Geographic never actually said it, a lamentable lapse on their part.
Here’s Jan about to enjoy another sunset.
She’s standing at:
47 53’ 16.53″ N
92 17’ 22.13″ W
If you go to these coordinates in Google Earth you’ll see our dock pointing to the north, and a couple of light smudges for the boathouse and cabin. I don’t think you’ll be able to see Jan.