Rich Man, Poor Man

How does that old poem go?  "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief."  I think there's more to it, but that's all I remember.  Anyway, we've got all of them and more in Cheboygan.  About 5,000 people live within the city limits, and about 21,000 are spread out over the rest of the county.  That's only counting the year round residents, I don't know how many people keep second homes here that they only use on weekends and vacations.  Many of those people end up selling their homes down below and living here full time after they retire from their jobs.  Then there are the "snowbirds" who spend their summers here and their winters in Florida.  Most of them are probably retired as well.  These part timers are commonly called "tourists", but it would be more accurate to call them "resorters". A true tourist is somebody who's just passing through and doesn't own real estate in the area, and we get our share of them as well.

Many of those low paying seasonal jobs that I talked about are in what they call "hospitality", which is hotels, motels, restaurants, and stuff like that.  The more I think about it, Cheboygan doesn't have as many of those as places like Mackinaw City, Petoskey, and Charlevoix, which is where they are crying about a shortage of cheap help.  We do have a lot of people employed in retail, though, which doesn't pay too well either.  Somebody did a study once that concluded we will never have full employment in our area because too many people want to live here.  I remember talking to a guy decades ago who had just returned from Oklahoma, where he had been working on an oil well.  When the well shut down, he came home because, as he said, "I'd rather be poor in Cheboygan than in Oklahoma."

Uncle Ken, when you took that tour around Lake Michigan with your family, you probably followed U.S 31 to the Straits, and then U.S. 2 through the U.P.  Then you picked up U.S. 41 in Wisconsin and took it all the way back to Chicago.  You would have missed Cheboygan by about 15 miles.  If you would have turned right at Mackinaw City and picked up U.S. 23, you could have followed it through Cheboygan and along the Lake Huron shore to Detroit.  Then you could have taken U.S. 12 back to Chicago. Those "scenic routes" are still in operation, but most travelers prefer the interstates, which are faster but not as interesting.