Tulip City Dispatch

  The clubs above were a total of $9 - sold as a package not to be broken up.  That's a 3 through 9 iron MacGregor MCX, which my sources tell me retailed for about $495 in the early 1980's and sat below the MacGregor Muirfield line and above the MacGregor Tourney line.  I know the Tourney line has a pretty cult following, so I'm optimistic for the MCX Irons.  The driver is a knockoff of a Taylor Made Burner Bubbleshaft.  The actual model is Tour Model Heater - obviously well used and loved, but it came with the package.  Methinks the driver might've come from Maple Hill Golf back in the late 90's or early 00's.  Tour Made was a mail-order company, and Maple Hill used to have a program where they'd order clones and mail-order club components and assemble them as some sort of quasi-custom built golf outfit (my first set of clubs was like this). The bag is a Marley-Hodgson Ghurka bag that I picked up for $3.  Ghurka is a high-fashion brand of handbags, purses,

Update on the $50 Thrift Store Golf Challenge! As set forth in the initial post, the rules were as follows: -The budget, of course, shouldn't exceed $50 -I'll be assembling a standard set of USGA-approved golf clubs - no more than 14 in a bag -All clubs must be USGA conforming (exception being if I find a set of Ping Eye 2's) -I won't buy irons piecemeal; I'll specifically seek out full sets starting at 3 or 4 iron, and going through 9 iron -Woods/drivers and wedges are allowed to be purchased piecemeal With that being said, I found a set of MacGregor MCX forged irons for $9, and a few woods/hybrids for $2 apiece.  I'm incredibly  close to having a complete set of golf clubs, including the bag, for right around $30, which leaves around $20 for balls and tees.  Pics will be forthcoming, as I decide which thrifted putter and woods are best for my own situation.

 Something which I've been struggling with for the past 5 years has been the proliferation of "fake news," in the forms of misleading headlines, on through repeated lies and untruths from people we should trust (including the elephant in the room of 'alternative facts'), and Macedonian fake news mills spreading lies on social media to tilt the zeitgeist one way or another.  It is my aim, in this blog, to be able to filter through the biases around local historical events and showcase them in a meaningful manner.  It's hard during these times of CoViD-19 to find those primary sources, since libraries and such are often closed down.  In-person interviews and meetings are nonexistent; the one I've done over the past 6 months has been over the phone. As I found with my article on The Melon Heads , the amount of truthiness in any given situation can vary.  This doesn't mean that every viewpoint you don't like  is a lie or otherwise "fake news."

Being a history buff means that I take a great deal of interest in world events, the impact they left, and how they influenced the world I grew up in.  As it pertains to this blog, the events and topics I write about are not necessarily world-changing or paradigm-shifting, but they've had some sort of impact on someone's life, at some point in history.  As I write about junk food reviews, I think back to "iconic" foods from decades past, such as McDonald's McDLT or the pizza they had in the 80's, and I want my little corner of the internet here to stand in remembrance of things like The Travis Scott combo or the Chocolatey Payday bar.  It's not life-altering history, but it's a bit of nostalgia.  As I write about thrift store golf clubs, it's coming from a point where someone before me loved and enjoyed the clubs; part of the mystery is wondering which courses the clubs played on:  Had they played on my favorite West Michigan courses?  Had they tra