Introducing ‘Ramblin’ Road,’ writer Phyllis McCrossin

EDITOR’S NOTE: Townbroadcast is introducing a column from Allegan County native Phyllis McCrossin, a retired newspaper reporter who spends her warmer months living in Hamilton.

McCrossin and this editor briefly worked together at the Allegan County News & Gazette in 1988.

The following is her biographical sketch:

by Phyllis McCrossin

It all started as a column I wrote for the small weekly paper in mid-Michigan where I was editor. I honestly think my columns were kind of a hoisting of the middle finger at the publisher who wanted hard-hitting, take-a-stance editorials that would garner him fame with the Michigan Press Association. My writing was and is, more of the Erma Bombeck style.

But since leaving that small weekly, I found I missed the entertainment aspect of writing. So I started a blog. I have been blogging about every day things since 2013. The blogs started with recording our daily life with our mother as she was struggling with dementia. After she passed away I continued writing — though probably with a little less frequency — about the little things in life I found interesting.

My husband (who I affectionately refer to as King) and I retired a few years ago. In fact, he retired five years before I did, though we are close in age. He was a school administrator and when the state of Michigan offered old farts the opportunity to retire early, he jumped at the chance. I think 10 years as an assistant principal dealing with discipline kind of took its toll. So he retired at the tender age of (ahem) pre-60.

I was not quite so lucky. I chose journalism as my profession. Retirement does not come quite so easily to those who worked for (almost) nothing and have little in the way of pension (like nothing). So King retired and I continued working for several more years.

But life has a way of presenting opportunities that for some of us just can’t be ignored. I quit working a few years before I could collect Social Security and King and I bought an old travel trailer to refurbish and then hit the road… as in permanently.

When I say old… our second oldest child is the same age as the trailer – they are both 1978 models. We bought the trailer in Spring Lake and pulled it home to South Haven. I’m pretty sure the only thing that kept the trailer on the road was our imagination.

We tested the waters for one winter and really enjoyed it. The next winter found us parenting a grandchild so she could finish high school and we stayed put for one more year. The following fall we sold or gave away everything that could not fit in a 19-foot trailer and hit the road for good. (OK, I have nine boxes stored at a son’s home. They are filled with small appliances like blenders and food processors just in case we have to set up house in a brick and mortar building someday). We park our home in Michigan during the summer to be close to our three sons and travel to southern California in the winter to be close to our daughter.

King and I met while students at Central Michigan University. He is from the Detroit area and I’m Allegan County born and raised. I grew up in Hamilton (yes, I’m a Hawkeye) where my Dad managed Dog Life Corporation and my Mom volunteered as a 4-H Community Leader, was on a lot of church committees, the Allegan County Board of Social Services and often campaigned for her favorite person running on that rather conservative political party ticket.

I worked at the Hamilton Drug store and was involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities, like band, school plays, a variety of school clubs, student council and 4-H. It was at 4-H Exploration Days in East Lansing where I met my first summer crush — a young man from Hopkins. In the days before Internet we kept the postmaster busy and our parents angry over large long-distance phone bills.

In the early ‘70s I was an exchange student to Finland and must have grown over the summer while I was there because that fall the school’s girl’s basketball coach discovered me. She assumed tall meant automatic prowess on the basketball court. For the record, it doesn’t. I spent a very painful season sitting on the end of the bench praying, “Please don’t put me in. Please don’t put me in.” That was the year the Hawkeye girls were district champs. I had little to do with it.

King was a teacher, principal and assistant principal in that order. I worked for a variety of newspapers in Michigan and Ohio. David Young and I first met when I was a reporter at the Holland Sentinel and he was editor at the Allegan County News and Gazette. I later joined him on the staff in Allegan. Seems like a million years ago. I think maybe it was since at the time our baby was in Kindergarten and he now has his own construction business.

David and I reconnected on Facebook a few weeks ago. While we were catching up via messenger I mentioned I was writing a blog and sent him a link. He asked if I would like to write a column for his online paper… and here we are.

It’s funny how things can come full circle.