Below: (l-r) Marcus Carr, Aiden Alick, Auston Abbe, Christian Vinyard and Timothy Henry pose with a horse pulling the wagon at Winterfest.
Right: Melissa Michalski is pictured st Sledfest in Johannesburg. Behind her is the main stage of Farmfest, which is scheduled for Aug. 8-11.
Granny rides a Triumph - 3B l
Rube Babbit, Michigan's first game warden - 1C
Winterfest - 15 l
l
Sledfest - 4C l
What's in this issue:
March 2019
Strengthening the communities of Northeast Michigan Vol. 9, Issue 9
Voice
Free Up North
See pg. 5 for details
Michigan Maple Weekend • Sat., March 30th
A great force leads to a winning float By Theresa Ekdom HOUGHTON LAKE - In 1977 George Lucas produced a film that would spark the imagination of kids everywhere. “I was 11 when the Star Wars came out. I was in love with Princess Leah. I dreamed of living the world of Star Wars,” said Brian Mester. Decades later, Mester, of Houghton Lake, would bring a little of Star Wars into his life by creating a sculpture replica of the X-wing flier. And this year’s Tip Up Town U.S.A. theme of “Out of this World” was the perfect opportunity for him to show his creation to the public. Mester had the 8’ long, 38” wingspan X-wing which he built in 2016 hanging from his shop ceiling. A friend came to him after hearing of the TUT theme and encouraged him to enter it in the parade. He scrambled to find a way to mount the X-wing on his trailer. Mester only had three weeks to complete the details on the X-wing and get it mounted. And, he had to convert the trailer, a futuristic ice fishing trailer meant to be pulled behind an UTV, from skis to wheels. Building the X-wing took him three weeks in 2016. But the process – that took him much longer. “The process, it took me about 35 years to learn the ways of the force,” Mester laughed.
Mester has been the graphic artist at Arnies in Houghton Lake for the last eight years. But he started out his career as a builder. After 13 or 14 years there was a change in jobs and a chance to learn about plastics. Along the way he also taught himself how to work with metal. It took all of these skills to bring his TUT float to creation. “I had to manipulate wood, steel, plastics,” he said. “One reason I did it was to challenge myself.” One of his biggest challenges was learning how to bend veneer without it cracking. And learning patience. When the movie producers designed the X-wing they gave it four wings, four engines, four of everything. Once Mester figured out how to build one, he needed patience to build three more. Mester used a lot of reclaimed material to build the X-wing. Cardboard tubes from a remodel job, some pallet wood, and some reclaimed lumber from an old building. There’s even a little piece of century old hemlock from his grandfather’s barn in it. Prior to TUT, Mester brought the X-wing off the ceiling and added some finishing touches, including wiring it for sound and lights. He purchased a 31” diameter beach ball that looks like the Death Star to add to the float, and designed the flags
Brian Mester of Houghton Lake built a Star Wars X Wing fighter out of pallet wood for the annual Tip Up Town Parade. Star Wars was produced in 1977 by director George Lucas.
~ Photos by Mark Constance and Theresa Ekdom for the back. A stuffed wookie was the finishing touch. “It was a fun experience,” Mester said. “The best thing was it got a lot of the family together. The grandkids were pilots, they wanted to get involved.” Other family members were dressed as storm troopers, another was Chewbacca. Mester’s parade entry for Arnies won “Best Overall”. If you didn’t get a chance to see it the day of the parade, you will only find it in the pictures, since it is back hanging in Mester’s shop.