Story of the Week: Armand Pellerin's Stories and Memories

Photo of Armand at Rice Lake Blue Berry picking, 1919. Dad was 7

This week the Keweenaw Time Traveler was honored to help one of our users Dennis Pellerin. Dennis had some wonderful stories that he wanted to contribute to the new Explore App that came to him from his father. Here is a great quote from Dennis on how these stories came to him:

"One day back in 1987, Dad handed me a sealed manila envelope and asked me not to mention it to the rest of the family, and not to open it until after he died.  Well, Dad led a pretty long life and and lived some 22 years after he gave me the envelope.  It was about a month after Dad died that I remembered the envelope. It was a little difficult to find since we moved twice since he gave it to me.  When I open the envelope, I found a cassette tape.  That was it, no note, no description on it, just the tape.  Well, technology had advanced, and cassettes were no longer sold.  They went to the wayside along with 8 track tapes and cd’s.  It took me about a week to find a cassette player which I hooked up to my PC.  What a surprise when I first listened to it.  What a great present to leave the family!  I edited it into individual stories, burnt them to disc, and shared them with all of the family members.  To this day, a number of us will occasionally listen to a few of his stories. "

"I belong to a group on Facebook called ‘You know you’re from the Copper Country when…’.  About a year ago, I posted one of the stories and received many ‘likes’ and comments.  Over the course of a couple weeks, I posted one story a day.  During those two weeks, I was surprised the number of people who had made comments that were family members of those named in the different stories.  I met a number of people whose names I remembered Dad talking about when I was a kid.  What a great experience it was.  "

Dennis wanted to share the memories and stories his father left him on the Keweenaw Time Traveler for others to enjoy, but he noticed our Stories can't play audio files (yet!) and he wondered if there was anything we could do to help. 

Over the last few days, the Keweenaw Time Traveler team has been hard at work to make these great memories and stories available to everyone. Below are links to the Memories and Stories of Armand Pellerin, we hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we did!

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About My Dad

by: Dennis Pellerin

Let me give you a little background on my dad.  He was born in Lake Linden in August, 1912.  He quit school in the 8th grade to help support the family.  Somewhere along the line, the family built a camp out at Rice Lake, a log cabin, where he would spend as much time as possible.  He loved the outdoors and, like many men, joined the CCC.  Unfortunately, I have not researched when he was in, nor do I have any info on which location he was at.  Sometime between 1930 and 1935 he moved to Detroit for work.  I do know by 1940, he and his cousin Raoul Pellerin, had opened the Roxy Riding Academy in Warren, outside of Detroit. It was there that he met my mother.  Mom was a transplant from New York City, who did not like horses.  Soon after meeting mom, dad sold his stake in the stables, and got a job in one of the factories in Detroit.  With the horses out of the picture, they married in July 1941 at St. Joseph Church in Lake Linden.  They resided in Detroit, until he went into the Army in March 1942.  He was in the 101st Airborne where he was awarded the bronze star among other citations.  After getting out of the military, mom and him raised us 4 kids in the suburbs of Detroit.  Mom passed away in 1982, and dad passed away in 2009 at 97 years old.  Anyways, hope this helps paint a picture of him for you.

Armand Pellerin's Stories:

1. Introduction
2. My First Puppy
3. My Toy Sailboat
4. Sledding on Tunnel Street
5. Skiing and Skating
6. Jack the Sled Dog
7. Summers
8. Working as a Farmhand and my First Watch
9. First Driver's License & Cutting Wood
10. School and My First Regular Jobs
11. The Pink Milk Story
12. Making Maple Syrup
13. Blueberry Picking
14. Mail Order Cookies
15. First Wagon
16. Maternal Ancestry

Armand with his first puppy

**Please note that currently links are not click-able in our Stories, please copy the link provided into a new browser tab to listen to these remarkable stories**

As a team we deeply appreciate all of these amazing stories Dennis has shared with us. We love learning from the memories and stories our fellow Time Travelers share with us. If you have memories and stories, you would like to share, just click the ‘Share a Story’ button in the lower right-hand corner of the Explore app! If you have stories that best told in a way that doesn't quite work well in our current App (like the great oral histories above), contact us! We are always happy to help make your stories a part of the Time Traveler.

This photo is my Dad, Armand, on the left, with his older sister, Irene. Taken 1916. He was 4 yrs old