The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 4 In Telescope this month, we honor the memory of Dick Walker. The following reminiscence was excerpted from an old draft of his and offered as a chance to still enjoy his stories. ~ The Way It Was ~ Algonac, Michigan By Capt. Richard O. Walker I was introduced to the North Channel at the tender age of 4 months, June 1928. While Algonac was a quiet town, the serenity was occasionally shattered by the roar of big Packard engines, What was that blur? Who else but Gar Wood testing one of the Miss America boats, back and forth, up and down the river. Then there was the deep throated blast of the steam whistle from the day excursion boat "Tashmoo" stopping at the amusement park on Harsen's Island, just south of Sans Souci and onto Algonac and eventually upstream to Port Huron. She then retraced her route south, ending up in Detroit that evening. There were other excursion boats but the "Tashmoo" was the most popular. Algonac was a true river town. Docks were behind all of the stores, in the downtown area. The food on so many tables was the result of shopping trips by sons and daughters and sometimes wives. They went to market in a power boat. It was the perfect solution for cottagers from Russell Island and Dickenson Island where there were no roads. Ferry service to Harsen's Island was iffy, so many islanders shopped by boat. That part of Algonac history went on for many years. The docks were always busy, but especially on weekends. An endless stream of boats of all kinds descended on Algonac, tied up, and shopped till they dropped. Poole's Grocery store was especially popular, as he carried a wide array of extra good beef. The ice cream shop down the street was another popular stop, serving icecream sodas, milk shakes and malts. They survived through the 30's, 40's, 50's and into the 60's. The dock were showing their age by this point. One would think it would be a real plus to maintain, even improve, this unique piece of Americana. It was the only place along the river that had a wide variety of stores within a few steps of your boat. But it didn't happen that way. About the mid 60's, Washington waved some urban renewal bucks under the noses of the town fathers, and in their infinite wisdom, someone decided they wanted Algonac to look like St Clair. Many thought Algonac should look like Algonac, but that didn't deter those in power. The massive demolition began. Soon there was a narrow strip of land between main street and the water with an unobstructed view of the water. A steel seawall was installed with no provisions to tie up even a canoe. Since most of these storekeepers were up in years, they had no desire to start again. So with the bulldozers and the wrecking ball went more Weekend trip to Beaver Island on 31' Commander with Bud and Penny Fish - September, 1974