Timing is everything. At my first stab at this blog, I thought I had the greatest lead-in: “Should an older man on the eve of his 39th wedding anniversary be spending time waxing over his mancave?” There’s no relation between the two dates, only that some improvements in my mancave have finally settled in. Our anniversary and that football game have come and gone, and more than ever I want to share my updates. I announced the mancave a month or so ago (1), and every moment down there has been bliss. But that doesn’t mean I don’t keep my eye open for possible improvements. And some did come my way. I feel compelled to describe them here.
For starters, let’s see a shot from my new toy. My collected cell phone camera lenses include a “fish eye’. This gives you a panoramic view of the business side of things, and hints at other additions. You can see that next to the big Cody painting is a smaller framed item. That’s the photo taken at Bull Run Tavern in Shirley, Massachusetts (45 miles west of Boston) that inspired Angie’s painting; you can see it in my earlier post. You can see the dryer face is plastered. Here’s what you’re seeing.
That lintel over the washer and dryer had been bare. Now see it ordained with two bicycle helmets framing 7 post cards featuring labels from fruit and vegetable crates. Then there’s a card featuring Dick Cheney to the right of the deep blue helmet. And underneath all that is my Commander Cody corner and decorations for the dryer.
While you may not appreciate it with a fish eye, that helmet to the left is mine, and many decades ago, I painted it up to resemble the iconic winged helmet worn by the Wolverine footballers for nearly 90 years. Here’s my helmet propped up next to a real Michigan football helmet, won by my wife at the Women’s Football Academy in 2008. Back when we rode bikes a lot, Kathy used to enjoy the oohs and ahhs of those passing us, their remarks hitting long after they’d passed me.
We just missed the chance to celebrate an anniversary. On October 1, 1938, the Wolverines, led by first-year coach Fritz Crisler, took the field against the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science Spartans (they ditched “Aggies” in 1925, same year they added “Applied Science” to their name). Wearing their Crisler-designed winged helmets for the first time, they beat the Spartans for the first time in 4 years, 14-0. Crisler designed the helmets while coaching at Princeton, a big-time football power back in that day (2). He wanted a way to distinguish downfield receivers from the opponents so his quarterback could see them better. It worked, as every school that adopted their own version of the winged helmets saw passer ratings go up. Princeton dropped the helmet when Crisler left, only to pick it up to celebrate a new stadium in 1998. Out there in New England, the Fightin’ Blue Hens of Delaware still wear a winged helmet. Their colors are maize-and-blue. Yes, it would be a confusing sight if the two teams ever played each other. Closest was 2009, when the Hornets of Delaware State came to the Big House and got trounced 66-0. Their uniforms were boring, too.
I’ve never seen a label on a fruit crate that looked boring. Colorful and humorous, they are great little pieces of American folk art. In medical school, I took to gathering up empty crates from the Franklin Street market, ripping off the ends, then decoupaging them for protection. They’re in a box downstairs somewhere, although they have found their way to walls in some of my previous residences. Somebody recognized the art and began putting the images on post cards. Much lighter and more portable, I pick them up when I see them and saw that bare lintel as ripe for a little decoration.
Before we leave the lintel, let’s not forget ol’ Darth Vader. While Cheney had his faults, he could be entertaining if you were on his side. The creator of this card takes all those fears of Cheney’s ruthlessness and distills them into a few vignettes.
The original mancave decorations left a bare white face to the hanging-up portion of my dryer. No more. As you look at the front, starting a 7 PM and moving clockwise, there’s a movie poster for “Reefer Madness”, a popular movie among us stoners back in the early 70s. Above that is one of my many Commander Cody posters. The late George Frayne IV (a.k.a. the Commander) was an accomplished painter and sculptor and did all of his own posters after his brother died. That Jeep logo is off my first Jeep, a ’91 Cherokee Limited, which gave 20 years of great service before rusting out. I found in Facebook that cartoon of Michigan’s mitten filled with the names of famous rockers from our state and managed to capture it to print out. The wolverine skull you’ve seen before.
To the opposite wall, I’ve added a framed print of an advertisement Commander Cody’s manager took out in Rolling Stone. It was 1971, and they’d just appeared in a glowing profile there (3) and had just released their first album. George’s brother Chris, also a UofM art student, did the band’s art till he died of multiple sclerosis in 1998.
One final upgrade, technically not part of the mancave, is the big poster I hung on the door to the storage room, just across a small entryway to the door to the mancave. The little circular items toward the top are the poker chips the promoter used as tickets to the event.
Yes, all those great bands graced the revolving stage at the Goose Lake Music festival that first weekend of August 1970. Yes, I was there with 200,000 of my closest friends and we saw ‘em all. Just don’t press us for details. Some have called it “Michigan’s Woodstock”. Happening 13 months after, the organizers managed to avoid a lot of the gremlins that plagued the masses at Yasgur’s Farm. But the locals didn’t much like the swarms of drugged-out dirty hippies, so made sure the facility would never be used for such a thing again. It’s a campground now, but every August they bring a few bands to the stage to celebrate the memory. In 2016,“Glorious Noise” made a documentary – Goose Lake International Music Festival (4). Careful, it begins with several minutes of locals bitching about hippies. But there’s plenty of great music!
Those hippies are all grown up and headed over the hill these days. But, you can bet if they pass through my mancave, they’ll be clean!
References
1. Ike B. mancave! And so clean!! WordPress 6/9/25. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2025/06/09/mancave-and-so-clean/
2. Bentley Historical Library. UM Athletics History. Michigan Football. Michigan’s Winged Helmet. 2/23/2001. https://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/helmet/mhelmet.htm
3. Ed Ward. Interview: Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen. Rolling Stone 4/16/70. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/interview-commander-cody-and-his-lost-planet-airmen-179296/
4. gdcrow. Goose Lake Festival 1970. YouTube https://youtu.be/o7RFG000QGo?si=btsnfBjptsdZ9aud.
Bob Ike's blog 
Nice mancave life….a place where we can be anthropological
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