#small world.

A blast from Lord Huron’s past

Here’s one for the “Small World” file:

Our Up North neighbor, George, was at Cheboygan Brewery and got chatting with two fellow customers - a couple who lived downstate, but kept their boat at the Cheboygan marina.

They mentioned they were in the market for a piece of property. It so happened that George has a 10-acre parcel across the road from the Lake Huron beach-front lot where he lives.

The couple came to look at the property and somehow the conversation turned to a mutual interest in music. George mentioned that the front man of a successful band spent many hours on the beach next door.

“What band,?” the man asked.

“Lord Huron,” George replied. “Look them up on Google.”

The man’s jaw dropped.

“You mean Ben Schneider?,” the man said.

I’ll cut to the chase: The man was Chris Rugh an eight-grade English teacher at Chippewa Middle School. He not only knew Benjamin, but also Lord Huron’s guitarist Tom Renaud and drummer Mark Barry, who also went to Chippewa.

He walked over and introduced himself and reminded me that we had met backstage at one of LH’s Royal Oak concerts ... and at a parent-teacher conference, or two.

Surveying the beach from our deck, he recalled that Benjamin had written a class theme or two about his experiences on the Lake Huron shore.

“So this is the place he wrote about ....,” said a wistful Mr. Rugh.