WHPH: I'm really glad that our silly quibble about "Thumbs" and "Rabbits" brought us to this point.
The way I got the term "The Thumb " was from my Grandfather. Born in Calumet in 1923. His Father was a copper miner and a stone smith. The fountain at Lakeview Cemetery outside of Calumet was made by him, along with another one in Calumet.
He joined the CCC at 17 by hopping trains to get to Marquette. He originally was posted at Isle Royale, but when he showed an interest in Morse code was transferred to Sault Ste. Marie for training. Joined the army and was put in X-mountain division and was in World War II as part of the Italian Campaign.
After WWII he stayed in X-mountain being posted in places like Sault Ste. Marie, Munising, and Colorado. After hitting 20 years he took a job as an air traffic controller in La Crosse until he retired. He passed in 2014 at 91.
Every year he went back up to Calumet to see his mother, and after she passed to visit cousins. He always would say "see you when I get back from the thumb." So I'm sorry if my copper country, yopper [sic] native Grandfather wasn't completely correct by your terms. He was always reserved and didn't talk much around us kids. I drew the unlucky straw on the first trip we took up to Calumet with him. Thought I'd spend the whole trip in a car with nothing to talk about. So I asked him what his childhood was like. He didn't stop talking for 2 hours. I rode the whole way up and back with him. The history of the area was fascinating to me and that trip forged a relationship with my grandfather that I never thought I would have. He instilled in me his love for the entire upper peninsula, and I got him hooked on Jeff Foxworthy.
And as to rabbits, my kids are currently raising two orphaned cottontails. So yes I get to see those to.
'Cuz I have now had a chance to meet (by proxy) your Grandfather. I certainly would have enjoyed meeting him in person — a member of the Greatest Generation¹ with many talents and an adventurous spirit. I wish I could have tagged along on that car trip with him talking for 2 hours about what his childhood was like!
I see that your Grandfather, and mine, Frans (Frank) E. Nara and my great uncle …
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J. W. Nara were "Copper Country contemporaries".
Furthermore, as noted in the above article, my grandfather (Frank E. Nara) worked in his brother J.W. (Bill) Nara's photo studio.
While not exactly "hopping trains to get to Marquette at 17 years of age", my Grandpa was born in Alatornio, Finland, and
sailed on the Majestic out of Liverpool, England, arriving in the U.S. in December 1904 at 19 years of age, to work in "Old Bill's" photo studio.
When it turned out that he was allergic to the photographic chemicals, he left the photo business to homestead on
a dairy farm in Bruce Crossing in the late 1920's (that farm is still in the family today). As a kid, I had the good fortune to spend nearly every summer vacation on that farm, so you and I have dairy farming in common as well!
¹ Greatest Generation: As our involvement in seemingly endless war in the middle east goes on and on for decades, I appreciate ever more what that Greatest Generation accomplished in one short but bloody year from D-Day (June 6, 1944) to the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.
There are days when I would contemplate finally giving up with those middle eastern ungovernables, and just turn most of the middle east into an uninhabitable glowing place in the desert that will be seen from space for several hundred years!
P.S. Sorry, I can not resist the urge to make just one nit pick re: "yopper":
It's "Yoop-er" (rhymes with "Trooper", not "Yopp-er" (rhymes with Copper?)!
<ahem!>
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