Collingswood, Here We Come - Again! August 2021

When Jessie, Sonya and I bid farewell to Collingswood, New Jersey last October, we never in our wildest dreams thought we would be there again in August!  

Between the first of September and the 21st of August, the Michael Landon Collingswood Lake Bench Project was conceived, funded, and became a physical reality.  Phew!  Thanks again to all of our donors for making this happen.  As we have often said, we could not have done it without you and your support!

The purpose of our August journey was, No.1, to deliver the bronze memorial plaque to the people of the Camden County Parks System and, No. 2. to select the spot where the Michael Landon Memorial lake bench would be placed.  Due to several of the Mike-a-teers work commitments, the journey had to accomplished in four days, which meant an app. 12 hour drive on Saturday, two days in Collingswood, and a 'supposedly' 12 hour drive back from NJ on Tuesday (more about that later!).  We felt it necessary to go to Collingswood in person in order to impress upon the Parks people the importance of the memorial bench being placed across from - and facing - Mr. Landon's childhood home.  

So, bright and early on Saturday morning, August 21st, (well, Jessie and Sonya were bright and at least yours truly made it on time!) we set out for New Jersey.  This photo was taken in Troy, Ohio outside of the store my husband and I own on the public square.  

Shortly after the photo was taken, we piled in the car and headed for Budget Rent-a-car to pick up our rental.  Sonya's husband, David Lehman, kindly delivered us and made sure we were all set to roll before he bid us goodbye.  Mini-Mike (as I like to call him) agreed to be our guardian angel for the trip. (Maybe I should have named him Junior Jonathan!).  

And we were off!  (Then again, everyone knows that about us already! LOL)  First stop?  Starbucks, of course!  (Mini-Mike insisted on a cup of joe every few hours. I think he missed his counterpart!) 

 

On our journey to Collingswood, we chose to take the Pennsylvania Turnpike, so crossing into the state was a big deal.  They have a lovely Welcome Center where we stopped to stretch our legs and took a moment for a photo shoot.  Mini-Mike stayed in the car this time and took a nap in my purse.  

I can tell you, it's a LONG way across Pennsylvania.  By the time we rolled into the Philadelphia area night had fallen.  We set the GPS to avoid the city, so you know what it did - took us right downtown!  While the driving was a little hectic, it was fun to see the city lights at night. 

We rolled into our hotel in Cherry Hill around midnight.  Sonya found a good one that was less than 10 minutes away from Collingswood.  Weary after a long day in the saddle...er...car...we (along with Mini-Mike) went to bed with visions of the next day in the borough dancing in our heads.  

Our meeting with the people from the Parks System was set for 11:00 a.m. on Monday, so we decided to use Sunday to explore Mr. Landon's boyhood haunts and take some photos with the memorial plaque to share.  Of course, we figured the downtown would be practically deserted on a Sunday afternoon. 

Boy, were we ever surprised!

To be continued....

Sensational Cen-Tec Cast Metal Products

The Michael Landon Collingswood Lake Bench Project would not have been possible without the great people at Cen-Tec Cast Metal Products in Fremont OH. It's been an amazing journey from the moment we knew we needed a plaque, to the moment we picked up the finished product.  

First of all came the decision to do this – to raise the money and place a memorial bench on Newton Lake, the place where a young Michael Landon found refuge in fishing and dreaming.  We contacted the mayor of Collingswood, who pointed us to the people of the Camden County Parks District.  We were thrilled to find out that Camden County already had a memorial bench project in place.  This simplified matters as well as speeded them up. 

Perhaps a little too much!

The Camden County bench project was established to honor loved ones.  Each memorial bench is accompanied by a 9" x 15" plaque.  The parks district provides the bench and has specifics for the plaque.  It has to be of cast bronze, 1" thick, and so on.  Normally they allow up to six words on the plaque, such as 'In loving memory of John T. Smith'.  For Michael Landon’s many accomplishments we needed more!  After some discussion, the people of the parks district graciously agreed to ten! 

'In Loving Memory of Michael Landon, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer' (chosen in that order to reflect the order of his accomplishments.) 

Once we had chosen the wording, we searched for a company to make the actual plaque.  Several were contacted and submitted possible designs.  At this point we were looking at a words only plaque, with no image.  The company that stood out was Cen-tec Cast Metal Products, a small independent firm in Fremont OH.  Their contact person, Lisa Mitten, was quick to respond, kind, and helpful, and after a couple of email exchanges admitted she was a HUGE Michael Landon fan. 

It was fated to be and our choice was made!

Next came the plaque design itself.  Lisa submitted several to us with words only, and then asked that we wait a few days to make our final decision as she had ‘a few others’ she would like us to look at.  When they came through we were blown away.  The words were accompanied by an image and were wonderful. 

So it was really Lisa who got the ball rolling on the plaque design we eventually chose.

Next came permission to use one of the images and this took us to Andrew J. Klyde, archivist and licensor for BONANZA Ventures who graciously granted us the right to use an image of Little Joe Cartwright, along with the Ponderosa ranch house.

Lisa then got to work on the plaque design, and again, it was wonderful! 

About halfway through this process our date to meet with the people of Camden County was established.  It turned out that we needed the plaque finished by the third week of August.  This was a pretty quick turnaround, especially with shortages due to Covid19, etc.  Lisa asked her boss, Allan Rellinger, and he said they would be sure to make it happen, even though it meant moving our project up ahead of others.  I was able to speak with Lisa’s boss when we picked up the plaque and, yep!, you guessed it.  His mother was a Bonanza fan and he grew up on Little House on the Prairie.  When I thanked him for his kindness and all his help, he grinned and shrugged. 

You could tell, he was happy to do it in Michael’s memory.

It is hard to express how much we owe the folks at Cen-tec.  They were with us 110% of the way from beginning to end once they knew who this plaque was for and why it was being made.  It’s hard to see just how beautiful and how marvelously crafted it is in the photos. We sincerely hope each and every one of you who contributed money to the project will be able to see this wonderful memorial plaque in person one day.

And if you ever need anything cast in bronze, be sure to go to Cen-tec! 

Your plaque.  Isn't it beautiful!  It shines just like the soul it was made to honor! 

It's Just a Simple Two Hour Trip....

                                      

It's just a simple trip, we said - just a little over two hours to Fremont, OH to pick up the Michael Landon Lake Bench Project bronze plaque at Cen-tec Cast Metal Products. We can do that - easy-peasey!

Those of you who are familiar with my Bonanza Movable Men page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/movablemen will know that Little Joe often goes with me (and the other Mike-a-teers, Jessie and Sonya) wherever we wander. For this trip, I thought it should be mini-Mike instead of mini-Joe who had the honor, so he put on a suit and tie and we headed out the door at 9:00 in the morning for Jessie's house where we picked both her and her daughter Melissa up. Sonya had to remain behind to hold the fort (work, in other words!), so Melissa filled in as our third-Mike-a-teer as well as chief photographer, grip and gaffe for this trip.

Everything went well as we tooled out of town (with a stop at Starbucks, of course) and headed east and north and east and north, and east and even further north, headed for Fremont, OH, a small town of around 16,000 up near the lakes.

That was until we hit out first 'road closed' sign. No problem, right? Just have the GPS reroute - which it did and took us right back to the same sign/place.

Oi vey! Really?!

So we tried again - with the same result. The GPS was determined to take us right back where we had been as if there were NO other possible routes to be taken. Undaunted, we pulled up a map of the county and - in true Charles Ingalls' spirit - forged our own path until Siri or Alexa or whatever AI intelligence was out to get us finally yielded to we mere humans and gave us a different route.

Which led directly to another closed road.

Oi vey! REALLY?!!

So, another argument with the Ai, and another victory and then....

A stopped train.

Oi vey! REALLY X3???!!!

The train was moving....VERY slowly..... By this time our two hour trip had turned into a nearly four hour one and the time was ticking away. Soon Cen-tec would close its doors.

That's when we pulled out the stops. Mini-Mike and Sonya got to praying!

The train moved on, finally, and so did we. We were on our way! There was still time to make it....

The next sign read 'bridge closed'.

By this time Mike was getting tired of saying 'Oi vey!' (and so we were we!)

Fortunately, that bridge was NOT one we had to cross and we finally made it to Cent-tec with about an hour to spare!!

Hallelujah!

Next time - the folks at Cen-tec and the PLAQUE!!