Great Lake Erie Island Weekend

Another Middle Bass Barbershop Weekend has come and gone and it was great. We got to our "cottage" around noon on Friday and in no time we were settled in. We drove over to the "cook shack" and made lunch. The possible menu included: hamburgers/cheeseburgers with many accessories, hotdogs, cold cuts, and of course eggs, ham, toast and hashbrowns for guys who can eat breakfast at any time of day. They have two gas stove grills and they are very busy around meal time. They also had a couple of big boxes of fresh peaches. I made sure that I had a few of those during the weekend.

My plan was to buy a disposable camera for this trip, but I decided that I took a lot of pictures last year and even a small camera is difficult to take around to all the events that are going on. We travel light on the islands. Anyway, what happens on Middle Bass stays on Middle Bass.

There were 16 quartets for the Friday and Saturday night shows. At the end of each show, all barbershoppers were invited up on stage and we sang another 5 or 6 songs. There were about 130 men each night and what a sound you can get with that many.

After the Friday night show, we went to Tony's, a small bar that is off the tourist path and mostly frequented by island residents. There was a take-out food place close by so we got sandwiches, fries and wings to take to Tony's (they don't serve food). We ended up having six quartets in the bar, so we just took turns singing. This place doesn't have the blaring music playing in the background like the places on the main street, so it was perfect.

We spent a portion of Saturday afternoon around the new family-oriented pool that had been installed at J. F. Walleyes, one of Middle Bass' hotspots. If you go there, you must stop at Walleyes.

After the Saturday performance, we had an "afterglow" hosted by a couple who lives on the island. They had pulled pork sandwiches, spaghetti, beans, potato salad etc., and a keg of Bud. Their house attracted barbershoppers like a bug zapper pulls in "skeeters".

It is great to spend a couple of days with guys who share my hobby and people who like to listen to us sing. Last year we had a guy from California in attendance and this year a former Ohio resident who recently moved to Florida flew in for the weekend.