Everyone loves a parade, especially in Manchester

I was able to attend my first parade in Manchester yesterday, and was excited to see how the town honors its fallen veterans. I come from metro-Detroit, so I've not seen any of the "small-town America" celebrations, and knew I'd be in for a treat.

The parade in Manchester is more of a community walk than parade, a different element I've not seen before. With stops at both Wurster Park and Oak Grove Cemetery, Manchester makes the parade more veteran-centric than some others I've seen.

Not able to attend yesterday's celebration? Here's a link to the story, and here are some more photos from the day. Also below is a video highlighting the celebration.

An awesome Manchester tale from across the pond

Photo linked from road2manchester.blogspot.com

I can't lie: when I was offered this job back in December when I was still an intern with The Bay City Times, I had an idea of the geography of Manchester and knew it was close to Ann Arbor. But I didn't know exactly where it was.

Enter a man from Manchester, England, who not only knows where this village is, but every other one in the country. That's impressive.

Pete Johnson, a British citizen, is riding his motorcycle,or motor bike, as it's being called in other news stories, to every Manchester in the U.S. and Canada, exploring what makes the name "Manchester" so special.
I loved every minute of reading on his journey, namely, because I'd love to make a journey like this. I also loved it because I felt a bit more connected to my British heritage in doing so.

My great-grandfather grew up in a town called Fraserburgh, a predominant fishing town in northwest Scotland, before he came to the United States. My entire life, I've been surrounded with Scottish and British flags, prayers, and even kilts (and no, I do not own one, nor have I worn one, for those curious).

When I interviewed Pete via Skype a few nights ago, I found it enjoyable to hear his story and use common British terminology to describe it (when my internet or power wasn't going out; thanks to Pete for dealing with me during that time).

It's an exciting adventure he's on, and hopefully you get a chance to meet him whenever he stops in. He said he tries to stop by the municipal buildings in town to speak with officials, and tries to eat at local places.

If you want to read more about his trip, check out his blog at unitedstatesofamanchester.blogspot.com, and follow him on Twitter at @road2manchester.

Here comes the rain again

As everyone is aware, our area has been getting a lot of rain lately. In the months of April and May about 70 percent of our days had rain. What's the deal? Chief Meteorologist Dave Rexroth from WXYZ explained on 96.3 FM this morning that we are currently experiencing La Niña, which is causing cooler air to come off the Rocky Mountains and create wet weather.
So, that's why it's been soggy this Spring. Unfortunately, Rexroth said we can expect the wet weather to continue until the beginning of July.
The heavy rain has wreaked havoc on local roads and basements, flooding both. We'll have to see if the next month brings more of the same. If you have any flood pictures, please send them to editor@manchesterenterprise.com.

Klager Elementary food packaging

Manchester students and volunteers packaged 20,000 dry meals for Kids Against Hunger on May 19th at Klager Elementary.

Why there isn't any coverage of the True Value Hardware store fire in today's print edition

Fire engulfed the True Value Hardware store Wednesday morning in Sharon  Township. (Photo courtesy of Barry Allen)

Most people in the village probably (or at least I hope they did) ran to pick up a copy of the Enterprise this morning, expecting to see coverage from the fire at the True Value Hardware store Wednesday morning, which was rendered a total loss.

Unfortunately, you won't see anything in there regarding the fire, and I want to explain why.

The print product is produced on Tuesdays here at Heritage Media, and we try to have our content in for that by Monday night, although Tuesday mornings, in the case of Manchester Village Council meeting coverage. Since the fire took place after the paper had been produced and sent to the printer, we were rendered helpless to include it in the print product. There will be extensive coverage of the fire in next week's print edition.

However, that's the beauty of the internet. At manchesterenterprise.com, we've got a story, video and photos from the fire up before 2 p.m. the day of.

When news like this happens, we'll strive to have it online as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, our print product can't always catch up that quickly.

Preschoolers get groovy with tie-dye in class

It may be 2011, but preschoolers at the Manchester Head Start program got a blast from the past this week.
Cynthia Barton-Spencer, a local Farm Insurance Bureau employee, volunteered her afternoon and spent it tie-dying with the preschoolers.
The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, at least when they're attention was on the activity at hand. Here are some additional photos from the afternoon, as well as the video posted on Heritage.com:

Where's my paper?

Wednesday morning, while getting ready for the day, I headed the kitchen anticipating seeing the front page of the Detroit Free Press on the kitchen table with some headline like "Game 7!" I had watched the thrilling Detroit Red Wings game six Tuesday night and was looking forward to the celebration in the morning paper.

I know the Free Press went to home delivery only three days a week quite some time ago, but Wednesday morning it was disappointing when I realized there would be no home delivery that day. Being in the newspaper business, I understand the Freep's need to change to more of an Internet-based newspaper, but I felt like metro-Detroiters missed out one a part of the sports history experience. Sure, I could have gone and bought the paper that morning, but it's not the same. There's something magical about waking up in the morning, and having history delivered to you.

As I said, I could have gone out that morning and purchased a hard copy of the paper. But I didn't. At the same time, I didn't look it up on the Freep site either. I knew what happened, I had watched the game. I didn't need to read the recap and seeing an image of the front page wouldn't have been the same. All I wanted was to feel sports history at my fingertips.

More photos from the first farmer's market of the year in Manchester

Summer's almost here.
The Manchester Farmer's Market had its first Thursday yesterday, and had nine total vendors. Market manager Irene Stedman said while numbers were down this year, as summer goes on, more will show up, and with different goods.
Yesterday, vendors came with plenty of goods, including flowers, plants, freshly-ground coffee, refurbished wooden furniture and baked goods (the lemon bread at that stand is delicious, be sure to try it).
The market is open from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays until the second week in October. Here are some more photos from the day yesterday: