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Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
1
Katelyn Bosch: This is Katelyn Bosch and I'm here today with Jane Underwood at the Saugatuck Douglas
History Center in Douglas Michigan on the 8th of October 2018. This oral history is being collected as part
of the Stories of Summer Project which is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities Common Heritage Program. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I am
interested to learn more about your family experiences in the summer at Saugatuck Douglas area. Can
you please tell me your full name and spell it.
Jane Underwood: Okay. Jane Underwood J A N E U N D E R W O O D
KB: Alright, so Jane, when and how did your family first come to Saugatuck Douglas?
JU: Well, my father’s family would spend the summer. There were two hotels up in Macatawa on either
side of the channel and my grandparents and my father and his sister and older brother would spend
the summer up there. My grandmother loved the idea of the hotel, she could play bridge with her
friends in the afternoon. They had all their meals there and one afternoon according to family lore my
grandfather announced that he had bought property in Saugatuck and they were going to build a tent
there. Well my grandmother, Mae [inaudible] Underwood was not very happy about that. Saugatuck
was considered very bohemian with all those artists.
[KB laughs]
JU: I think my grandmother was a bit of a snob.
[KB laughs]
JU: But, as it turned out. My grandfather pushed ahead and they started out in what was called a tent.
It had a wooden floor and about three feet was wood and then they had canvas and but they had a real
roof. Eventually, it became my large playhouse. As the years went on they built a cottage and seemingly
every years, they added a room onto it, and as my father told me my grandfather wanted some peace
and quiet, so he’d add another bedroom or two, for guests, and that was the family cottage until 1960
when unfortunately it burned out after the building was burned down. But, in the meantime the family
summered in there, and enjoyed it. My grandfather used to row my grandmother down the river to the
big pavilion where they would dance. It was quite a place. That’s the building that burned down that
caused my cottage, family cottage to burn down.
KB: So, your cottage burned during the same fire as the pavilion?
JU: Yes.
KB: Oh, okay.
JU: The embers went across the river. There was a window switch and uh, my family cottage was the
other building to burn but there were numerous fires in the woods.
KB: Oh, okay.
JU: But, the family enjoyed the cottage. My grandparents died and my father bought his sister out of her
share so it became my family’s college and we always came up the end of, well the last week of April to
open up the cottage. And we were there until, uh I would go back to school, and I was starting school
and we’d close the cottage up, usually Columbus Day weekend which would be today.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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KB: Oh, yeah!
JU: Yes, so, because the cottage really wasn't winterized.
KB: Oh, yeah. At this time of year, you don't want to go much past this time of the year, in a cottage
that’s not winterized.
JU: We had a furnace, but it wasn’t insulated or anything. But um, growing up, spending the summers in
Saugatuck, it was just a magical time, basically. There were all kinds of things for children to do. Um, as I
got older I would start taking dance lessons from the Gallis’, ballet and tap. Art classes from Cora Bliss
Taylor usually uh, Saturday and Wednesday for art classes and I’ve often said that Cora Bliss Taylor, all
teachers and professors I had through way past post graduate work, she was probably the best teacher I
ever had. She could take a group of oh, kind of let’s say rambunctious children, we weren’t unruly, well
there might have been one or two. But she could settle us down, and we would produce art work. I, I
will never be exhibiting at the Art Institute but it certainly made me appreciative of artwork and in my
travels I never miss an art museum.
[00:05:02]
KB: Absolutely, yeah.
JU: All over the world. But, um, there's [pause] ceramics lessons from Jean Goldsmith, um, I think I really
did know how to swim but I did take swimming lessons over at Oval Beach.
KB: Oh, wow.
JU: And uh, there was all a old man as a lifeguard and there was an old wooden row boat and he took
us, he dropped us in the water. You know what? Everyone started swimming, of course they wouldn't
do that today.
KB: Yeah! No!
JU: I mean thinking about it, it’s just kind of like, oh my gosh.
[KB laughs]
JU: You know the liability and that.
KB: Right.
JU: But, those were different days and usually the, all the classes were in the morning and in the
afternoon we’d go over to the beach and I'm paying the price now with skin cancers. Uh, 73 over at Oval
Beach, but I still go over there and then I started sailing. We had an outboard boat which I learned how
to run even though I wasn't supposed to take it out. But, I’d get my friends and we didn’t always have
life preservers but we had fun on the water, and then my parents bought me the sailboat and I started
sailing at the Saugatuck Yacht Club, and I’m still sailing there.
KB: So you got some good use out of all the resources in Saugatuck.
JU: Oh! It’s a, Saugatuck, its, for children in my day and I think it's still true today. It was just so many
things to do.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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KB: Mhm.
JU: And one thing that is different now, families came up and stayed for the entire summer.
KB: Right.
JU: The fathers might stay in the city and come up on weekends, but the mothers and children were
here for two, two and a half months.
KB: Mhm. Yeah.
JU: And that's not the case anymore. People only come up for a short period of time because so many
of the children are in soccer or, whatever else there in.
KB: Yeah. It's, too many obligations back.
JU: Yeah, exactly.
KB: Yeah.
JU: But we still have a lot of children at the yacht club taking sailing lessons. It’s fun.
KB: Well what was your in initial impression? Do you remember what you, when you first saw
Saugatuck?
JU: I was an infant. [Laughs]
KB: Oh, okay so you don’t have any memories then?
JU: No, but always coming when I’d get off, well now especially getting off the expressway and going
down Ferry Street and Park Street, it's always felt like home.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: Even though I had a home in Chicago.
KB: Yeah.
JU: It’s just this was the place, a friend of mine said Saugatuck’s always been her happy place. It just,
there’s a feeling of, I don't know optimism, and fun, and friends and just a lot going on, its fun.
KB: yeah.
JU: My friends in Chicago when I said I was going to live most of the time in Saugatuck after I retired
said well what are you going to do? I mean, I said well, there’s plenty to do, in the winter it’s just there's
[pause] right now. This week I’m going to be out, oh let’s see, I've been see in the last six nights and I got
three more nights to go.
KB: [Laughs] busy social schedule.
JU: Yes, exactly.
KB: Yeah, uh, can you share any particular memories about living here? Things or moments that are
especially memorable for you either good or bad?
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: Well, I can remember when a building across the road from my cottage was fire and we thought our
cottage was going to go.
KB: Oh.
JU: Yeah, my father moved the car down to Mount Baldhead and we went and sat in our boat, which
was right on the river there. Uh, they seem to have a lot of fires.
KB: Yeah it sounds like it.
JU: Exactly, exactly.
KB: And it was ultimately taken by a fire.
JU: Mhm, well wooden buildings, it’s, it’s always been a problem.
KB: Yeah. Um, were there any other places or institutions that were important to you in Saugatuck
Douglas? Or places, key places that you hold dear memories?
JU: So many places, Oval beach. The yacht club, sailing and the Pump House Museum. Um, just, there's
just so many nice things in this community.
KB: Mhm.
JU: and so many people.
KB: Yeah.
JU: And uh, and people work together.
KB: Right.
JU: We're trying to save as much of the environment as we can. Um, we lost the Presbyterian Camp, to
development. So many of the huge big trees have been cut down and taken out, it’s just, it’s kind of
worrisome.
KB: Yeah.
JU: Although someone said, well your family is here and they probably cut down some trees to build the
cottages.
[00:10:06]
KB: Yeah.
JU: But [pause] I guess that's life.
KB: It feels worse when it’s a larger development then?
JU: Yeah.
KB: One cottage, or? I, I, understand.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: And then they’re just tearing up the, the dunes, the dunes have always just been so beautiful and
the wildlife, I mean just now coming over here I saw some deer, I saw some wild turkeys the other day.
KB: Mhm.
JU: It's just kind of a, a special place.
KB: Yeah, definitely. [Pause] How do you think, things other, well you’ve kind of talked about how
somethings have changed in your whole experience with Saugatuck. Are there anything else that stick
out as things that have changed or stayed the same in this area?
JU: Well, people used to come as I said, and stay for longer periods of time, especially the cottage
people. Now, so many of the cottages are seasonal rentals. Just around my house, my cottage, um, I live
by a summer hotel which has been there even before my family college was built over a hundred years
ago. But the cottages are all, for the most part seasonal rentals, and you don't know people who own it
anymore.
KB: Right.
JU: You have to kind of go find out who it is.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: And it's kind of worrisome because I think a community can kind of lose its cohesiveness, when you
have so many summer, or rentals, short term rentals.
KB: Right.
JU: I know people want to make money, and uh they buy property and they figure then can, you know
rent them out, pay the mortgage or whatever.
KB: Mhm.
JU: I think that's something that maybe the city fathers really need to look at.
KB: Yeah, definitely. Did you have any summer jobs while you were here?
JU: No, not when I was here, I started working uh, when I was in college at the Museum of Science and
Industry.
KB: Okay.
JU: And uh, if you quit during the summer they were, not going to hire you back. Well I quit my first year
in the middle of August and um, I wanted some time before I went back to college, and my mother
called me and said she’d gotten a call from the museum, would I work Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, I
did that for, for the four years.
KB: Oh, okay, yeah.
JU: It was a great job, I mean my highest salary was 99 cents an hour.
KB: [Laughs] When was that?
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: This was in 1963.
KB: Okay.
JU: and it wasn’t much, but it was just so interesting. I got you to do back up VIP tours. Which means I
walk with the, um, Secret Service.
KB: Oh.
JU: Visiting dignitaries coming to Chicago that was one of the favorite places to take them because
Museum of Science and Industry is world famous.
KB: Yeah.
JU: It's patterned after the Deutsches Museum in Munich and um, that was really kind of interesting.
KB: Yeah.
JU: One of the best parts was I’d get to have lunch in the executive dining room.
KB: Really?
JU: The director of the museum would be would be with the VIP and then I will be tagging along with the
secret service. That was fun, I enjoyed that.
KB: [Laughs] That sounds fun. So you were a teacher by training?
JU: Yes.
KB: So you taught in Chicago?
JU: I taught in Chicago, at my Alma Mater!
KB: Oh!
JU: South Shore High School and there's quite a few of us here in the Saugatuck area who graduated
from South Shore High School on the South side of Chicago and um.
KB: You all ended up in Saugatuck?
JU: Well, for various, and yeah, if you, Chicago, if you lived on the South side, you’d go away in the
summer to Michigan. If you lived on the North side, the chances were very good you’d go up to
Wisconsin.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: And if you lived on the West side or the west suburbs, [pause] you had a choice.
KB: Yeah.
JU: But many of them can to Saugatuck. Shorewood, which is a development over on the lake is mostly
people from the Oak Park area originally. I don’t know if you've interviewed anyone from there or not.
KB: I'm not sure. I haven’t, but we might have somebody else who has.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: Okay, I have a friend who probably should have interviewed because um, their family cottage I think
was started in 1926.
KB: Oh wow.
JU: In Shorewood.
KB: Okay.
JU: And they still have the, the original cottage. I was just talking to her this morning.
KB: That’s amazing, what’s her name?
JU: Uh, Lucy Reinege Hoight.
[00:15:00]
KB: Okay we’ll see if we can get her interviewed.
JU: Yeah, she’d have to come up here and uh, she was supposed to come up this last weekend to help
out with the benefit that we had but she had a cold and so better stay in Barrington.
KB: [Laughs] Yeah, um if you stayed in Saugatuck, did you ever go to Douglas? Or if you stayed in
Douglas did you ever go to Saugatuck?
JU: Well, Saugatuck and Douglas have a rather unusual relationship. Um, childhood friend of mine, she
was born in Chicago but she came here when she was quite young with her parents and she fell in love
with a gentleman from Douglas. Before they got married she said, Jane I can’t live in Douglas! I mean,
I’m from Saugatuck! Well, they eventually did live in Douglas, but it's kind of, it’s kind of hard to explain.
I mean if you're from Saugatuck, you're from Saugatuck.
KB: Mhm.
JU: If you’re from Douglas, [pause] what can I say? I mean I have go through Douglas to go to downtown
Saugatuck.
KB: Yeah [Laughs]
JU: Because I live across the river.
KB: Oh yeah.
JU: And Campbell road is the dividing line.
KB: Yeah.
JU: I, I met some friends at church recently and I said where do you live and she said Douglas, I said oh
that’s too bad, and then we all started to laugh. I shouldn’t have said that. Douglas is a neat town, and I
have many friends in Douglas too.
KB: [Laughs]
JU: But there’s that rivalry.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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KB: Hm, yeah.
JU: I don't know if you heard it from other people or not, but uh.
KB: I have.
JU: Oh, okay.
KB: It’s interesting because they’re so close, but yet very distinct.
JU: Well, Saugatuck’s always been the tourist town.
KB: Yeah.
JU: And Douglas was more of, you know, people who lived here, and for a long time downtown Douglas
looked like kind of, well, then a group got together. Really it’s just the, you know, the main street is
here, its lovely.
KB: Yeah.
JU: Interesting stores, and they, you know, they decorate and you might have heard about big parade
over holiday, the 27th.
KB: I have.
JU: Yes.
KB: Yes.
JU: We call it the adult parade.
KB: [Laughs]
JU: There was a children's parade in Saugatuck in the afternoon, and we have fun over here every
evening.
KB: Yeah, interesting.
JU: I can remember when I’d practically know everyone in the Douglas parade. But now it’s gotten so big
that it’s just, humongous. Just to find a place to park to go and stand on the sidewalk is, a major
undertaking.
KB: Is it because of out of town people? Or because the town has grown?
JU: It’s a lot of people from up for the weekend.
KB: Okay.
JU: It’s, it's the last big weekend really of the season.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: And a lot of people come from the surrounding communities.
KB: Okay.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
9
JU: Saugatuck Douglas we have kind of a, [pause] risqué kind of, many people feel we’re [pause] Sodom
and Gomorrah?
KB: [Laughs] That’s an interesting comparison.
JU: Yeah, I, there’s some people, there are people that are very very religious and strict. I can remember
when Holland was dry. I can remember when Holland, nobody would even answer their telephones on
Sunday. All the stores were closed.
KB: Mhm.
JU: And people in Holland would come down to Saugatuck to make merry.
KB: [Laughs]
JU: And then Holland started relaxing. Meijer’s opened on Sunday.
KB: Oh.
JU: Woo! That was, and then just maybe the last 15 or 18 years Family Fare opened up on Sunday.
KB: Mhm.
JU: And you would think the world was coming to an end. I mean some people were just, so, they were
just terribly, terribly upset.
KB: Hm, I can imagine.
JU: Holland’s changing. I mean you, I think you can even get liquor in Holland on Sunday now.
KB: During certain hours, I think there are still some hours like in the morning where you can’t.
JU: Well there’s, there’s laws, I think.
KB: That might be Zeeland.
JU: Okay, DeMond’s cannot sell liquor until noon on Sunday.
KB: Yes, yep.
JU: So you don't want go there around noon to get, you know, a, a loaf of bread, because the line
sometimes can be…
KB: Oh really?
JU: Way too long, yes. From the people who are going to buy.
KB: Interesting.
JU: Liquor. But I mean, the whole country is, I don’t know, we have these laws, new laws and things like
that, that just [pause] Saugatuck always did well with the Holland people coming down to drink.
[00:20:05]
KB: Huh, they didn't have any animosity towards them or anything?
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
10
JU: The Holland people? No, they just take the money to the bank.
KB: Yeah.
JU: Money is money.
KB: Money is money. I want to go back to what you said about taking lessons from Cora Bliss Taylor. Did
you get any other interactions with our community?
JU: Well we used to go down to Oxbow, um, at the end of the season they always had what they called
the burial of the year. They would have a cement plaque that they would bury and walk about what
went on through the year, and uh, that was always kind of fun ceremony.
KB: Oh, interesting.
JU: Recently they’ve had um, what they call the open studio nights, on Friday nights?
KB: Right.
JU: Where it’s Oxbow but you can go down there. I mean I've wondered around there, probably legally
and illegally all my life. Uh, I met a woman at a meeting or something and I said, you know, when you
met someone around here, where you live and she said on Oxbow Lagoon, and I said oh! With the pier?
And she said yes, I said, oh, I’ve, I’ve sat on that pier. Well the fact of the matter is that there's several
no trespassing signs there…
[KB laughs]
…and she looked at me, and I said well, you know, I, I’ve gone down there and she said, you and
everybody else in this town!...
[KB laughs]
…well we’ve become very good friends. Even though I was trespassing on her property…
KB: [Laughs] She could see past that.
JU: Yes, eventually. Yeah, you wander around as kids you, you just, you know, you kind of go where
you’re going to go.
KB: Mhm. Um, did you spend time, near the water? And did you participate in any activities around the
waterfront?
JU: Oh, yes. Always. My parents had a little wooden outboard motor boat and as soon as I was strong
enough to pull that cord on that 5 ½ horsepower Johnson, I was off.
[KB laughs]
JU: My parents never caught me at it, I was, I was careful and then course I’ve been sailing.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: Since I was twelve years old.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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KB: Yeah.
JU: I love to go out sailing.
KB: It’s a good place for sailing.
JU: Yes it is.
KBL Yeah.
JU: I’ve tipped the sailboats over a few times and uh, maybe I’ll do it again, who knows?
KB: [Laughs] Maybe. How, how would you describe Saugatuck Douglas to somebody never been here
before?
JU: Well, it's kind of a world away. Some people call it the New England or the Cape Cod of the Midwest.
Its community where people, we have artists, we have sailors, we have environmentalists, uh we have
tree huggers, which I'm one of. Um, and we can come together on a project. Sometimes we can fight
each other on the things, um, but it’s a community that cares.
KB: Mhm.
JU: And that's I think, the most important thing.
KB: Mhm.
JU: Sometimes in big cities you kind of lose out that, you know caring for people, you know, what can
you do to help people.
KB: Yeah.
JU: In a small town you know people. When you hear a siren, you kind of wonder, you know, uh oh,
could it be somebody you know. When they're racing up to Oval Beach past my cottage, I’m, I’m kind of
worried that someone in trouble in the water.
KB: Yeah.
JU: You know, you just, things like that bother you.
KB: Absolutely. [Pause] Um. Can you tell us some of your, well, we’ve talked about memories of being
here in the summer. Do you have any favorite memories that stand out?
JU: Well see let's my mother had a rule that she did not, since the kitchen in the cottage was not like
kitchen in Chicago. Oh, I can remember when we had an ice box when I was very very young and the ice
man didn't come and was it hot.
KB: Oh.
JU: And my mother said, we’re getting an electric refrigerator and we did that afternoon. But, my
mother had a rule, we ate out, Thursday night, Sunday night, and Tuesday night, for dinner. So we would
frequent the various restaurants in town because my mother said it was no vacation for her.
KB: Right.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: If she had to cook every night. Exactly, and um…
KB: So she spread it out.
JU: Oh yes, we would eat out three nights a week.
KB: Did you have a restaurant?
[00:25:00]
JU: Well, Louise Easton had a great restaurant on water the front. It's, walked a plank to get there, it’s
where the Mermaid is now, and we used to go to Tera and let’s see, where else was a favorite place?
Mount Baldhead Hotel a Thursday night, they called French Buffet, it was good.
KB: That sounds good.
JU: It was really good, ah, and you could sit on the swings on the porch. The Mount Baldhead Hotel
burned in 59 as I remember it, 58 or 59, sounds about right. But, um, and we’d often go out for
breakfast. The old rail grill had really good French toast. It was just yummy, we’d take the ferry across
and the old rail was right there at the other side by the ferry. And um, we used to eat out a lot. As I said,
my mother just, it was no vacation for her.
KB: Yeah, that makes sense.
JU: Yes, she enjoyed eating out. We did a lot of eating out in Chicago too as I remember.
KB: In everyday not vacation life.
JU: Yeah, it, hey, makes life easier.
KB: It does.
JU: We’ve always had good restaurants here in Saugatuck.
KB: Yeah. There’s still some good ones.
JU: Mhm.
KB: Did you get into any types of shenanigans? And were you a participant, instigator, or bystander?
JU: Hm, let’s skip that question.
KB: [Laughs]
JU: I’ve, I’ve gotten into things over the years, uh, probably still getting into things. But uh, no I had a
group and we had fun, let’s put it that way.
KB: You enjoy it.
JU: Yeah, we’d be out by the boat, and we’d see the police patrol, and uh more than once I had to
beach the boat because we were probably lacking in life preservers.
KB: Oh.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: Yeah, that's, that's one of the things.
KB: What was your impression of law enforcement? Did you feel comfortable around them?
JU: Yeah? I mean, I didn't have much interaction with them.
KB: Okay.
JU: The Justice of the Peace was a family friend, um, he used to hold court. Um, just, we did have an
intruder one time. Uh, on our porch in the middle of the night and we called the police, they came and
he ran off. He did two or three times and then finally our neighbor Bill Bors who owned the Beachway
Hotel at the time, came with his old civil war rifle.
[KB laughs]
And held him until the police came. And they got him down, I think he, the guy was high on drugs.
KB: Oh.
JU: Took him over to Allegan, and the police said, well you don’t have to go over, I mean, it’s like 3
o’clock in the morning. But he got bailed out the next day.
[KB laughs]
Turns out he was some kind of a big wig from some company over in Detroit, I think he had some acid or
something that made him just nuts. But he, was just coming up on our porch and there were no steps,
you had to kind of swing up on it.
KB: That must have been kind of scary.
JU: It was, I went down and got a rake, a metal rake, and I was going to go swinging at him.
[KB laughs]
Now people, Saugatuck’s gotten kind of wild but you know the riots that they talk about, they passed
over my head. The, you know, the Jazz festival things and stuff like that. Living over on the other side it
was always, we didn’t really hear about it. We’d read about it in the newspaper. The next day or
something like that but it was, it was kind of world of its own. It was the summer people.
KB: Mhm.
JU: And your friends, and that was about it.
KB: Yeah.
JU: We’d go to town every day to get the mail. I still have to get my mail at the post office. As a friend of
mine, who’s since died said, you can spend half a morning going to the post office and meeting your
friends and talking, finding out what's going on. It’s true.
KB: [Laughs] That actually leads well into my next question, which is, what do you remember about the
social life, uh, being here in the summer and who did you socialize with?
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
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JU: Well let's see, um, people that I would take classes with. There were parties, parties, church parties,
uh, yacht club parties. Bonfire parties on the beach. Um, it was always just kind of, a, a gang of kids.
KB: Okay.
JU: And you just had a great time.
KB: Yeah.
JU: Some of them are of still around.
[00:30:00]
KB: [Laughs] That’s awesome. So now um, I have a few questions about looking into the future.
JU: Okay.
KB: For Saugatuck and what your hopes are. So, um, well my, my first question is what are some of your
hopes for the future for yourself and for your community?
JU: Well, I would like to see [pause] more people living here and not just renting out their homes
because I think you lose the sense of community.
KB: Right.
JU: Um, some neighborhoods up on the hill are mostly rentals and people are getting concerned about
that. Now my area has been rentals for a long time. But, I think they're going to have to some rules and
regulations on the rentals.
KB: Hm, yeah.
JU: It’s not going to be popular with the people that are doing it, but uh, the community could lose its
soul.
KB: Right.
JU: If we have too many people moving in an out all the time.
KB: Yeah.
[Phone rings]
JU: Julie let me you call.
KB: And what you do think you have the greatest needs currently are facing, the community, which is
kind of a similar question.
JU: Well I do know the school needs more children if they’re going to continue in running really excellent
educational program. I’m saying this as a teacher too.
KB: Right.
JU: And that they need families.
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
15
KB: Mhm.
JU: And that's a problem because property in Saugatuck and Douglas is expensive.
KB: Right. Right.
JU: The tourist trade and the second home people. Um, very few children come from Saugatuck and
Douglas, most of the children's in the school, I think are coming from the township.
KB: Oh yeah.
JU: But they need, need more families, with children in the schools. The schools, I mean they’re
incredibly um, talented teachers, administrators, they just need more students.
KB: Yeah. [Laughs]
JU: That’s, the problem is the cost of housing.
KB: Yeah, absolutely.
JU: I see that definitely just looking at the prices of homes in the newspapers and the ads and things like
that.
KB: Mhm yeah, big problem.
JU: And we have to protect our environment.
KB: Mhm. Yeah.
JU: That’s, that’s really so important. That we [pause] we don’t want to lose the beauty of the area. I
mean that’s what attracts people.
KB: Right.
JU: The fact that we were able to protect the property from Oval Beach to the piers was amazing, and
the late senator Patty Berkholtz was so important in that, in raising money. She died this past spring.
We’re mourning her loss because she was so important in that, trying to protect the property.
KB: Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, remembering that this interview is going to be saved for a long time.
JU: Mhm.
KBL Uh, when somebody listens to this tape, say in 50 years from now. What would you like them to
most know about your life and community right now?
JU: My life in the community? Well I think everyone in a community has to give back to their
community. In volunteer work, or donating money for good causes, that’s what makes a community
vibrant and I hope I can continue to do that.
KB: Yeah. That’s great, and also do you have any um, advice for a young person who might listen to this
tape?
�Jane Underwood – Interviewed by Katelyn Bosch
October 8, 2018
16
JU: Get involved in things. Work for good. Whether its social issues, political issues, whatever, whatever
you can do to make it a better world.
KB: Mhm, yeah.
JU: Because the people that are just for themselves, I feel sorry for them. You’ve got to give back.
KB: Absolutely, that’s great.
JU: Okay.
KB: So that concludes my questions, do you know anything else that you want share that you didn’t get
a chance to?
JU: Well, let’s see. [Pause] I can’t think of anything, I think I’ve hit all the points I wanted to make.
KB: Okay. Sounds great. Well thank you so much for being here and sharing your memories with me.
This concludes our interview.
[00:34:58]
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History
Description
An account of the resource
Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1910s-2010s
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Various
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Michigan
Saugatuck (Mich.)
Douglas (Mich.)
Michigan, Lake
Allegan County (Mich.)
Beaches
Sand dunes
Outdoor recreation
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Saugatuck-Douglas History Center
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
image/jpeg
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
DC-07_SD-UnderwoodJ-20181008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Underwood, Jane
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-10-08
Title
A name given to the resource
Jane Underwood (Audio interview and transcript), 2018
Description
An account of the resource
Jane Underwood's grandparents and father came to Saugatuck during the summertime. They stayed in a hotel in Macatawa before buying property in Saugatuck. In this interview, Jane reflects on her own experiences summering and sailing in the area and then moving to Saugatuck during her retirement.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Bosch, Katelyn (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Michigan
Saugatuck (Mich.)
Douglas (Mich.)
Holland (Mich.)
Allegan County (Mich.)
Outdoor recreation
Sailing
Oral history
Audio recordings
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Stories of Summer project, Kutsche Office of Local History. Grand Valley State University
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Relation
A related resource
Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng