Donna

In the 1980s Donna Michels recorded a series of conversations with her father, Fred Michels. Donna provides details of these conversations in her preface. Preface by Donna Michels:     MP3       WAV Conversations Fred Michels 001:     MP3       WAV Fred Michels 002:     MP3       WAV Fred Michels 003:     MP3       WAV Fred Michels 004:     MP3       WAV Bea Michels Fred Michels 005:     MP3       WAV Bea Michels Fred Michels 006:     MP3       WAV Theresa's (Theresa Andreini Stone) Fred Michels 007:     MP3       WAV Mafalda's Family (Mafalda  Andreini Michels)

I first saw Donna when she entered a building in the middle of a Chicago winter. Her coat was unzipped, flapping in the breeze. She wasn't wearing a hat or gloves. This sight is etched in my memory. I grew up in Chicago and knew the ferocity of its winter weather. Yet Donna came in from the cold as if the cold was not there. Who was this person?  As time went by I learned more about her. She was from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Ishpeming specifically, where they had real winter weather; real biting winds, real drifts of snow, ice that lasts till June. Compared to that, winter in Chicago is not winter. Pictured here, Donna Michels standing on an Upper Peninsula cliff overlooking the Lake Superior shoreline -- appropriately attired.