Just off Elm Street near Suttons Bay High School, those passing by may notice a large, sparkling and green shamrock decoration along the bridge in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day this month.
Those decorations and others seen over the last year, such as a Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas tree, were handmade by Suttons Bay residents Judy Walter and her husband Jon. The Walters, who were looking to downsize, moved into a home across from the small bridge last June. A month after settling into their new home, Judy said she and her daughter decided to add some Fourth of July decorations to the bridge for the first time.
“These are all done in jest and fun,” Walter said. “I’ve always done seasonal displays in my house, and I was feeling like this is a much smaller house and it was going to be a little bit harder to do that, so I might have been subconsciously looking for another way to replicate that…” Many of the other villages in Leelanau have annual July bridge walks, so to fill the absence of one in Suttons Bay, Walter had a small one of her own last year with about 13 people present, including her supportive neighbor Liz Vinnie.
“Ms. Vinnie and I served fudgsicles on her front porch,” she said. “Things just kind of grew from there.”
After the Fourth of July, Walter and her husband put together “back to school” themed decorations, like alphabet squares, school books, and apples, along the bridge. The next holidays the Walters’ created ornaments for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentines day. Using items she recycles or finds at Samaritan’s Closet, Walter is able to repurpose things she already has around her house.
“For Halloween, the witch on a broom, that was kind of a challenge to get her up there. We used a black hooded cape and fashioned a broom out of something we had here. There were real pumpkins and it said happy Halloween,” she said. “Then for Thanksgiving we made a turkey, and the turkey was from leftover materials from our house remodel. It was really funny because that turkey went on to be the Christmas tree… the Christmas tree became a big red heart for Valentines, and then that heart became the big green shamrock. I think that’s probably going to be it because we have whittled it down to form these other things.”
It takes about a week or so to come up with a theme, and then comes creating decorations from scratch and setting up displays that will withstand the elements.
“Well the bridge certainly needed something, there’s nothing very picturesque about it,” she said. “My husband helps me with the design and he does all the lettering of signs (on wood), he’s a semi-retired architect. Early on, the builder that was working here, Andrew LaForest, also helped us with the construction of the turkey and cutting stuff out and things like that… he was god-send here on the remodeling of this house.”
That wooden turkey cutout is Walter’s favorite decoration as of yet, adding that it made for a good laugh when she first saw it in its finished form.
“When we put the turkey up I thought it was hysterical, the proportions of it. It just made me laugh,” she said. “The funny thing is people that now know that we do it (bridge decorating) like at the grocery store, the clerks will ask ‘well Judy, what’s coming next?’ And we’ve had people when Jon and I are out there working, they’ll stop and say ‘that’s so great, it makes my day!’ so that’s fun, too.”
Due to other obligations, Walter will most likely miss putting bridge decorations out in time for this Easter, but she said she may have a couple other ideas planned for the season ahead.
“I think we’ll just have to do something springy when I get back then… maybe I’ll put some flower baskets out there for the summer,” she said. “One of the things that has been motivating is I have a friend, for example, that tells me ‘well Judy, I got something you can use for Halloween this next year’... So we’ll see. None of it has been written in stone, it was just kind of a creative fluky thing that turned out to be fun.”
