VALENTINE POTLUCK! SILENT MOVIE! FREE DISHES!

It’s time once again for our annual Valentine Potluck Dinner, with a slight change from previous years.  This year, after the tables are cleared from what is  always an excellent meal, we are going to settle back for an old-time silent movie night complete with popcorn!  On the silver screen for the evening?  One of the top-100 movies of all time, full of side-splitting comedy, action, heroism, and true American pluck and grit—silent genius Buster Keaton’s immortal 1929 “The General.”

When: Tuesday, February 5 at 6:00 P. M.
Where: the Depot

 Remember when double features at the Palace Theater used to be 14 cents?  In keeping with the tradition of previous years, instead of a ticket price, we ask everyone to bring a Valentine, either signed or from  “A Secret Admirer” as their entrance fee.  We will have a decorated box at the door to collect them.  They will later be distributed to shut-ins and the elderly who may not receive one.   You don’t have to stop at just one—bring several cards if you wish. 

As a further incentive to bundle up the family and come, we will be passing out free dishes just like theaters used to do!  (We can’t promise Fiesta Ware.)  And there may be a door prize!

So please join us for a delicious meal.  Bring a dish to pass, a serving utensil, and your own plates and tableware.  We will supply coffee,  tea, cups and napkins, and microwaves if needed.

Then cheer the stalwart hero!  Gasp at his narrow escapes!  Boo the villains!

See you there. (And we can show off our new flooring.)

---

MUSEUM WINTER HOURS 

The Harsha House will be closed February. The side office door facing the First State Bank will remain open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 A. M. to 4 P. M. for anyone who needs to conduct Society business or make a store purchase.  The museum will reopen Thursday-Saturday 1-4 P. M. in March and April. Office door hours will remain the same. 

---

ITEM NEEDED FOR  DEPOT TICKETMASTER’S OFFICE

 In the last newsletter we asked for items for the upcoming renovation of the Depot ticketmaster’s office.  Society member Paul Stephan has donated two canvas mail bags, a  leather delivery bag, and your editor’s uncle Walker Miles’ postman’s summer mesh uniform hat.  We still need a telegraph key, so if anyone knows of one that can be donated or long-term loaned, please call the Harsha House.

---

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 

The Society’s website received 20,260 hits in December, 1065 home page views and 11,177 total page views . . . . Past Harsha House Director Betsy Reynolds has been sorting down and categorizing an enormous donation of documents found in a box in a garage on East Hurlbut last year.  She discovered patent land grants signed by Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Millard Fillmore, and William McKinley.  These are now added to Ernest Hemingway in the collection of original signatures now possessed by the Harsha House . . . . The first of an intended series of Charlevoix historical booklets, on the history of the development of the channel, piers and lighthouses, will be printed shortly.  The second one will be on the coming of the railroad and the history of the Depot . . . . DVDs of two 2007 Society programs, your editor’s on the Life and Works of Earl Young, Charlevoix’s Master Builder in Stone, and Dr. Jack MacKenzie’s on the History of Charlevoix’s Street Names, are in the development stage . . . . Annual members are reminded to send in their dues for 2008.  Call the Harsha House if you are unsure of your membership level . . . . Over 9650 photos from the Society’s archives have been scanned onto hard drives and DVDs.  Of these, 7200 now have search capability.

---

The Society welcomes new members: James & JoEllen Rudolph

Depot restoration donations received from: Anonymous; Currier Lawn Service; Paul & Sally Hoelderle

Donation (unrestricted) from: Ted & Marilyn Dumbauld

The Society welcomes new patron: Bartlett’s Home Interiors

---