By Scott Sullivan
Editor
“Who is ‘Young George’ in this picture?” (shown lower right) asked our Aug. 15 paper. A phone call Saturday from the subject himself — George Worthington, not so young now at age 84 — apprised us the answer was and is hiding in plain sight.
“I was maybe nine when my grandpa, Rollie McCormick, took it of me with a Brownie box camera,” said Worthington. “I was steering our 15-foot wooden Wage Maker Wolverine motorboat in front of the then-standing Big Pavilion.”
The iconic dance hall, which burned down in 1960, is still shown on this newspaper’s masthead illustration. Look for it on the far shore, right of center.
“The Saugatuck-Douglas History Center has almost all of that in its records,” said Worthington. “You just have to know where to look.”
We have known George for years, indirectly. A former forester, he asked questions and wrote letters to the editor during Mt. Baldhead’s 2012 tree die-off due an herbicide spraying that went awry.
Like many, he and generations of his family came from St. Louis, Mo. to Douglas to enjoy summers on the lakeshore.
“Must have been nippy that day, seeing I was wearing long pants and a long-sleeve shirt,” he said. “I was too young for Grandpa to let me take the boat out myself.”
Worthington is uncertain what became of the boat and camera but is about one thing.
“You know how it is about here,” he said. “You keep coming back.”
