“STORIES IN SONG” SERIES 2019 – “CARROLL COUNTY, IN SAGINAW MICHIGAN” – By Des Kelly

Talk of “Stories in Song”, here are two beauties.

Walter Browning’s son, Porter discovers the old man’s wedding ring in a little matchbox (circled by a rubber band), in the glove-box of Mary-Ellen’s car which was smashed up in an accident, which killed Walter & almost killed Mary-Ellen as well. Both were highly respected in Carroll County & both were married (but not to each other), so what they were doing together was anybody’s guess. Mary-Ellen testified that he’d flagged him down, saying he was sick & could she drive him into town, and she verified this. Porter, however did a bit of thinking and realizing what might have been going on, threw the little matchbox containing his dad’s wedding ring into a deep well, and the finale’ of this story is that the County ordered an imposing monument of marble for Porter’s dad. What a story in song for all my eLanka readers. Please, no disrespect for Walter Browning.

You shouldn’t throw stones, while living in a glass house.

The next “story” is about a son of a—-oops, Saginaw fisherman. His tale is much simpler, still, very interesting.

This guy, Lefty, did not have very much to offer his girl-friend whose dad was not only influential, but was not short of a buck or three. He didn’t want a bar of Lefty and refused to give his daughter’s hand to this son of a Saginaw fisherman

who, then migrated over to Alaska to do a bit of gold-digging. After some time, Lefty wrote to his girlfriend saying that he had made a “big strike” in Klondike and that he was coming back home to marry her, was met back in Saginaw by his father-in-law, who now gave Lefty a big party and, at the same time, persuaded his son-in-law to-be to sell him a parcel of land where gold was abundant. Lefty did, and this greedy man left the happily married couple to migrate to Alaska to dig (in vain), for the gold that Lefty, son-in- law of a Saginaw fisherman never actually found.

Served the son-of-a ¿~`>•▪! right, I’d say. Two great Stories-in-Song for all our eLanka readers. Please enjoy.