First of all, some might wonder what a flatlander is. Even my spell-check wonders what a flatlander is. Therefore I must assume that it isn’t in Webster. I learned the definition of a flatlander after being called one before moving here from Illinois. Seems that a flatlander is anyone from down state or anywhere else that comes to northern Michigan where the terrain is a little hilly.

Well, there was this flatlander that came up to northern Michigan for a weekend visit. It was during the month of October and he was hoping to enjoy the fall colors. The trees were beautiful and the flatlander and his bride were having a grand time. They picked out a little motel right on a lake and spent their weekend touring the countryside and visiting good friends.

While here they did a lot of driving and burned up a bunch of gas in the process. Back then it was under $2.00 a gallon, by the way. Each time the flatlander pulled into a station he noticed bags and bags of carrots, apples, corn and beets piled up beside each of the pumps. He thought it was a rather strange way of selling produce. After a long day of color watching, he pulled into another station to fill up the old buggy. At the pump next to him, there were two locals dressed in their well-worn Carhartts filling up the back of a rusted-out pick up with bags of carrots and apples. The flatlander, wanting to be friendly, says to the locals, “You boys must really like carrots. What do your wives do with them in those big bags? Do they can them for winter?” The two locals just stared at the flatlander, got in their truck and drove off. He thought to himself that they weren’t very friendly. It must be the Illinois tag on his SUV.

It wasn’t until later that the flatlander learned about feeding deer. As he and the Mrs. left town, and started heading back to Illinois, he thought he could hear the sound of laughter coming from somewhere. I’ll bet that those two guys in the pick-up truck tell the same story every year about this time at deer camp. By the way, the flatlander was none other than yours truly.