{"id":8624,"date":"2019-04-30T01:24:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T01:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=8624"},"modified":"2019-04-30T01:28:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T01:28:49","slug":"april-newsletter-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=8624","title":{"rendered":"April Newsletter 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Our \u201cPeople of the Park\u201d Series Returns:<\/h2>\n

A Visit with the Dressels<\/h1>\n
By Dale Dauten, Syndicated Columnist<\/div>\n
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When people talk about a place in Michigan, they have that thing they do \u2013 they hold up the hand, the \u201cMichigan-mitten,\u201d and point. But in the case of Chuck and Nita Dressel, they\u2019re not only from many points on the mitten, but Chuck even had to employ the other hand to represent the Upper Peninsula.<\/p>\n

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Rather than try to keep all those points straight, let\u2019s just say both Chuck and Nita are from Michigan and met when they were both 16 year-old counselors at a 4-H camp called Camp Vining, north of Grand Rapids.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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If you\u2019re like me, you assume that 4-H camp meant a farm background, but Chuck explained that they were suburban kids and Nita\u2019s 4-H experience was centered on sewing and crafts and Chuck\u2019s on electrical projects. After that first summer camp, the two also began seeing each other during the school year \u2013 they each went to Catholic schools, and the boys from Chuck\u2019s school got invitations to the dances at Nita\u2019s girls\u2019 school, as well as school plays and other activities.<\/p>\n

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After they completed high school, Nita went to Baker College in Muskegon, while Chuck headed off to seek an engineering degree at Michigan Tech. That sounds like the two wouldn\u2019t far from one another, but Tech is located on a spot way up on second hand atop the Michigan mitten, an 11-hour drive.<\/p>\n

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Still, the romance survived the separation, and the two married. Nita supported the couple while Chuck finished his last year of college and then she worked as an Executive Assistant while Chuck put in 20 years at General Motors, followed by a career at a company that would become part of General Dynamics. In that latter job, he led Field Support, taking care of customers around the globe who used GD\u2019s military vehicles (like the M60 tank, pictured below).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Early in their marriage, they had two sons. (Both those sons have taken up interesting careers. The older son owns a media company in Chicago, one that creates interactive exhibits for the Field Museum, the NFL and many others, while the younger son splits his time behind being a groundskeeper at a golf course and collecting artemia, better known as brine shrimp, from the Great Salt Lake, where they become food for fish farms.)<\/p>\n

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This past year, Chuck and Nita celebrated their 50th<\/sup>\u00a0wedding anniversary, and took a river cruise through Europe to mark the occasion, joined by friends from Silveridge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Nita (nee Juanita Valerie) and Chuck, Then and Now<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Coming to Silveridge\u2026<\/h3>\n

After they retired in 2004, they sold their home in Michigan and took up living fulltime in a motorhome. One of their trips brought them to visit friends in Apache Junction, and they spotted a special three-night bargain offer at Silveridge. They figured those three days would give them time to shop for somewhere to spend the winter. It turned out that there was a dinner\/dance at the clubhouse their first night at Silveridge. Chuck tried to beg off but Nita talked him into attending. They made their first friends at Silveridge that night, and they never did look elsewhere. This coming winter will be 15years at the park — first, in the motorhome, then winters in a park model, and now year-round.<\/p>\n

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The Decision to Stay Year Round, and Summer Care<\/h4>\n

Nita says that residents who only come for the winters often ask incredulously, \u201cWhat do you do in the summer?\u201d\u00a0She responds, \u201cI lead water aerobics three times a week. I play tennis three mornings a week. And golf, usually two mornings, and then there\u2019s pickleball. All that\u2019s in the mornings. By afternoon, I\u2019m ready for a nap, and that\u2019s when I do my quilting.\u201d Then there\u2019s happy hour by the pool, and the potluck dinners.\u201d Chuck added, \u201cIn the summer, it\u2019s a different park, but even then, people can be as busy as they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s one other way the Dressels stay busy in the summer \u2013 they keep up neighbors\u2019 homes by being part of a summer-care business. That was especially important last summer, as the big storms rolled through. They not only helped with the cleanup, and with tasks like helping move all the food in the park\u2019s freezers to those at The Resort, but got adjusters and contractors to do the repairs on the homes they maintained<\/p>\n

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That Special Event at the End of Summer<\/h4>\n

But then, when the days start to turn shorter and winter residents are just starting to find their way back to the park, there is one special time each year for the Dressels: Halloween. That is Nita\u2019s birthday, and the couple go out of their way for the annual party at the clubhouse, and count on friends to join in for their costume themes \u2013 they\u2019ve been zombies and Minions and characters from \u201cGilligan\u2019s Island.\u201d Nita passed along a photo from their year as prisoners of Sheriff Joe, pink boxers and all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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(Left to right: Chuck Poulton, Jerry Colling, Alex MacLellan, Verta Martell, Chuck Dressel, Nita Dressel, John Allensworth, Jaci Allensworth, Joyce Poulton, Barb Colling)<\/p>\n

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Chuck summed up the Silveridge experience this way, \u201cWe have such a good time with the people here. That\u2019s why we\u2019re still here, 15 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

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STATUS UPDATE ON HDTV\/INTERNET & THE CLUBHOUSE<\/h2>\n
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HDTV\/INTERNET<\/h3>\n
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The work may not be done, but everything is working.<\/p>\n

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That sums up Rhonda\u2019s report on the HDTV\/Internet project. There are still improvements to the \u201chead-ins\u201d (where the Cox cable meets the park\u2019s system) going on, and while there are green pedestals to be replaced and cables to be buried, the main construction is done and the remaining finishing-up construction should be completed over the summer months.<\/p>\n

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RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CLUBHOUSE<\/h3>\n
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Ask George Igualt, head of the park\u2019s management company, about the reconstruction work at Silveridge, and you could hear the frustration in his voice as he recalled the completion dates he has been given: \u201cIt was mid-January. It was mid-February. It was mid-March. Why is it always \u2018mid\u2019? Because they don\u2019t want to be tied down to a specific date.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Why so many delays? \u201cThere was a bigger issue with the gas lines then they originally thought. They kept finding new problems. They even wanted to re-close the ballroom to do part of the work and I said, \u2018No way. We are\u00a0not closing the ballroom. We are\u00a0not\u00a0doing that to our residents.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The construction crew figured out how to keep the ballroom open while getting the work done and now the last piece is getting the lobby, library and offices reopened. George brightened at the thought of what\u2019s to come: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be great.\u00a0Not only are we making upgrades to the offices, we\u2019re going to have a new look to the lobby. People use the lobby for the wifi and to meet friends, so it\u2019s going to be more caf\u00e9-style, more like an upscale Starbucks \u2013 very user-friendly.\u201d We\u2019ll have photos as soon as the work is finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our \u201cPeople of the Park\u201d Series Returns: A Visit with the Dressels By Dale Dauten, Syndicated Columnist When people talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8625,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8624\/revisions\/8625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}