Some important anniversaries are taking place this year. It’s been 250 years since our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The City of Silver Bay will recognize its 70th birthday with many events this summer. More impactful than that, a group of guys who graduated from William Kelley High School in 1976 went on what became an annual fishing trip over Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend this year was the 50th fishing outing for the group at Fourmile Lake in the Superior National Forest. Nine of the original class were at the USFS campground to celebrate the anniversary, catch some fish, and enjoy the fellowship they’ve all enjoyed for half a century.
More impactful than that, a group of guys who graduated from William Kelley High School in 1976 went on what became an annual fishing trip over Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend this year was the 50th fishing outing for the group at Fourmile Lake in the Superior National Forest. Nine of the original class were at the USFS campground to celebrate the anniversary, catch some fish, and enjoy the fellowship they’ve all enjoyed for half a century.
The senior class in 1976 graduated before the holiday weekend. Lenny Moe, an original member of the group who has missed only one of the fishing outings for domestic tranquility, said there were 180 kids in their graduating class. He said that someone on that first trip suggested they do it again “next year.” And they haven’t stopped.
Swede Larson is the only other member of the group to miss only one year at Fourmile. He was working in North Dakota that year and was returning to Silver Bay for the trip when his car broke down. Asked about what is meaningful about this annual event, Swede said, “Being with friends, and keeping up with people you grew up with.”
Mike Guzzo said, “I am just grateful to have been there this year.” Mike’s the unofficial pancake maker for the group’s breakfast day. He’s advanced from wearing gloves using a griddle to cook four cakes at a time over a woodfire to a highend Blackstone flat top, where his productivity is much higher, and he doesn’t burn his hands.
Pushing 70 now, the guys are a pretty low-key bunch. In bed before sunset, unlike in the early years when they sat around a campfire until dawn. In 1981, they had purchased blue caps for everyone in the group to wear. According to Lenny Moe, the group was featured at Trestle Inn, sporting their blue caps and enjoying some adult beverages. Apparently, they made an impression on the proprietor. The next day, Larry, Lenny’s younger brother, stopped at that landmark establishment because he couldn’t find the group. When he asked said proprietor about them, he heard, “You mean those idiots in the blue hats?”
Now, this group of fishermen is fondly referred to as the “Fourmile Idiots.”
Silver Bay Mayor Wade LeBlanc, several years behind the original group at school, says he “weaseled in” the group about 20 years ago. Like many of the original fishermen, Wade’s sons have started attending the outings. LeBlanc is credited by the others with establishing that sons and grandsons needed to be at least 21 to share this experience.
Mike Guzzo says that he cherishes these Memorial Day outings. He told me that some in the group start arriving at the campground the Monday or Tuesday before Memorial Day to set up RVs and the large canopy that covers two picnic tables to keep them sheltered from the rain. Some of the guys only come for a night or two, others spend the week. They knock down camp on Memorial Day and head for home.
Mark Ness is known as the camp food guru. He said that the big breakfast day features a virtual buffet that includes eight pounds each of sausage and bacon, along with eight dozen eggs and a towering stack of pancakes. He said the annual outing is “Just one of those things. No matter what we’ve done since high school, we feel like we’re 18 years old again, and all having a good time.”
Not too many people today can say they see their high school friends every year, but these guys from Silver Bay are a special breed. Congratulations on an amazing 50 years together from the Northshore Journal.
