Blue and White

I noticed something; many people in Michigan like to paint their houses blue. It is not unusual at all. Our house in Niles was blue (it still is, my uncle lives there now). It was no surprise when we moved to Indiana that my parents wanted to paint that house blue (it was a brick red). Unfortunately the blue they picked was a lot less gray, and a lot more Smurf. Almost twenty years later, they were able to reside it (and put in new windows which have saved them a lot of energy, too bad it was too early for tax credits) and now it's a nice pale, celery green. It's very nice.

I mention this because in high school a friend was amused by the blue house. I became pretty sensitive to it and never knew why it hadn't bothered me before that moment.

It recently occurred to me while Bill and I have taken our walks around our neighborhood, and while driving around in the 'Vette, I have noticed the multitude of blue houses. I believe it is the state color of Michigan. We love our lakes and we love the color blue. Our state flag has a blue background. The lakes are blue. Some days we see blue sky. Blue it is.


Our other favorite color is white.

While most teenage girls are concerned about being tan for prom, Michigan girls are still white. We don't see that blue sky until mid summer so neither does our skin. We are proud of our white, white skin (although most times embarrassed) and don't mind waiting until after the 4th of July until we can work on our tan. You see just as many umbrellas at the beach as you don't (it makes sense, just think about it a minute).

Nancy and I did see a couple of girls in bikini's sunning themselves on a porch roof on Friday and it seems like everyone is in Florida or Alabama right now for spring break. But the rest of us like to be white. Or we don't have a choice and we will be white because we're still far enough north that the suns rays can't penetrate our thick winter clothes...