The Drummond Girls

May 15, 2015
Loyalty and friendship among eight women. In 1993, Link (Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, 2013) was "a thirty-one-year old wife and mother of two, a bar waitress with a college degree" who was about to engage in "the most radical act [she'd] committed in years." She was headed to Drummond Island in Lake Huron with three other women, her fellow co-workers, for a three-day wild weekend. They planned to stay up late and eat and drink whatever they wanted. For three days, they had no responsibilities except to each other and to "just keep going." From that auspicious weekend, the Drummond Girls were born, and they vowed to return each year together unless they were pregnant or dead. When four more friends were added to the mix, the final group was set, and this troupe of women faithfully returned to Drummond Island each year. With humor, honesty, and a deep love for each individual, Link describes the slow but steady buildup of friendship and loyalty among the members as they ate, drank, played pool at the local bars, wandered in the dead of night through the thick woods to find bears, and generally bonded in ways that many women may never experience in their lifetimes. She discusses the troubles with spouses who didn't understand the need for these trips and the ups and downs of each woman's life off the island, which only underlines how free these women feel each time they gather. Link ably portrays her initial sense of isolation and need for friendship, providing descriptions of the wilderness she has found on the island and her increasing allegiance to these women as they all gradually grow older and experience life events that change them forever. A moving, honest, and laughter-filled account of eight women who gather one weekend every year and enjoy themselves to the fullest.

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February 15, 2015

The women portrayed here met in 1991 as waitresses, bartenders, or regular customers at Peegeo's Food & Spirits in northern Michigan. They took their first trip together to remote Drummond Island when one of them got engaged. Since then, they've traveled there annually, but the focus here is their latest trip and their worries about the eldest, Beverly, whose memory is fading. Billed as a distinctive tale of blue-collar boomers, and Michigan-based Link knows the territory; she's won numerous regional awards for her memoir, Bootstrapper.

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