We went on New Year's Day to the Festival of Trees at Lansing's historic Turner-Dodge House, the very building where Turner Dodge invented the automobile or something. We got there closer to the 5 pm closing hour than we expected, in part because we'd gotten the bad information online that they were open to 7:00, but we had time to visit every room in the house anyway. We also would have had an extra quarter-hour or more; while were there the docent promised a woman on the phone that if she and her gaggle of kids could get there by 5:15 they'd have the place open for them, but not later. I don't know why so many people are missing on the proper closing hours. My supposition is that some LLM somewhere decided the Turner-Dodge House could stay open until 7:00 and if that were false, that was a burden they were content to make the Turner-Dodge House staff bear.
Every room in the century-and-a-half-old house had at least one tree in it, many of them several trees. There were a couple that were straightforward, keeping their whimsical elements to a topper or a couple special elements. There were a number that were a little odd but in normal ways, if that makes sense, like a fairy tree where all the ornaments were fairy-winged dolls; that's not far outside the range of things someone might use as their ordinary tree. And then there were some high-concept ones, such as the humane society's ``tree'' made out of cat trees and canned goods and animal toys, things that had been donated and that I assume after the event go back into the donation bin. One that I ultimately voted for as best was in the ballroom on the top floor, a snowman tree framed by a giant cardboard book to look like you were stepping into a fairy-tale. Another that I almost voted for, and that ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger did, was an actual game of chutes and ladders, with several dozen colored and numbered squares, and half-pipes and ladders, with a couple of movable ornaments for your game token and inflatable six-sided dice to play.
Also a couple of rooms that we hadn't seen previously were open, including a billiards room just off the ballroom. It had a model train set up, but the track was in all many pieces so there was no hope of it running. Also in the corners they still had the plastic skeletons from some Halloween event we assumed. On the first floor they had open the servants kitchen, which we weren't fully sure we were allowed in, but they had explanatory signs in there so we can't have been doing anything too bad by nosing around. Also past that, open, was the real kitchen, with the staff refrigerator and all. We probably weren't supposed to be in there so we didn't stick around, past observing what rooms still had those push-button on and off switches along with your modern rocker-style light switch.
As we drove home we went past the pet store we normally get stuff from, and saw cars in the lot and figured this a good chance to get some pet food. Nope: the store was closed. Why so many cars there, then? We don't know; maybe the staff holiday party? No telling.
Meanwhile seven months ago we were in the middle of a parade. We'll start with a couple stills from the movie I took and then go back to normal pictures when I accidentally stopped the movie recording.
Bumba! I guess! Some kind of clown show, at least, as we saw at that playground area and also one of the indoor areas that I can't remember if I shared pictures of yet, or if they're coming. You'll see.
And some bees, which bunnyhugger tells me are coincidental to the park's former existence as Meli Park, built around an apiary.
And there's the close of the parade with beloved Plopsaland character (???) waving to everyone.
Back to ordinary park activities like not being eaten by a pterodactyl statue; how's that sound to you?
Back to photographing those ducks in a circle. It does look fun, doesn't it ?
And here's the entrance to The Ride To Happiness, seen from the side where there's gardening and all.
Trivia: In 1920 Marjorie Merriweather Post, inheritor of C W Post's cereal company, married the second of her four husbands, investor E F Hutton. Hutton left Wall Street to work for what would become General Foods. Source: A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe.
Currently Reading: A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Maury Klein.
PS: What’s Going On In Alley Oop? What happened to the dinosaurs and raccoons? October 2025 – January 2026 in time travel nonsense, but there's some good art too.
