one, two, 34.

Get my shoes on at the door.

I'm alive.

six seven eight feeling great.

I'm gonna shine after I do it, I'm gonna do it.

But do they get a look at this guy with the beautiful color about the weather?

Just for me to not share it with another?

I got to show to give that out.

Singing show, I'll take a look at a beautiful for That's Earth, your beautiful.

The to make beautiful life.

And if you want to see that come along with me, that's right.

Welcome to experience Michigan.

I'm the show's producer, Kelsey Zimmer, and we have a great show for you today.

Thank you so much for being here.

But it is scary.

The October is almost over.

In fact, Halloween is this weekend and it'll be gone.

We hope you guys have a great time as you're out and about and stay safe.

But today on the show, we're going to look back at some of the things that we have recently visited.

We are going to the Blue Moon Vintage Shop.

We are also going to Eden Springs for a train ride.

This decked out for the holiday season, and we are also going to first head over to the Casity costume collectio so we can see this treasure in our community and Kourtney's there now.

OK, if you're like me, you have your costume closet in your basement.

OK, maybe not everybody has a costume closet, but I have one.

But there is a gigantic costume closet here locally in Michigan, in South Bend, and I'm here today with Gretta, who is the executive director for the cast of a costume company, and I'm showcasing one of the beautiful pieces that you have here.

This is just an amazing.

You already gave us the tour and we're going to work our way through it.

But there is so much to see here, and this is just phenomenal.

How long has this been in place since 1938, when James Cassidy went to Central and started to teach us a drama teacher, and he started making and collecting pieces that were going to be in service at Central High School for their drama productions and Central High School is no longer enough.

So this is God since 1970.

Yeah.

So he did it until the early seventies, actually.

And then he had this huge collection of stuff, and they had to decide how to move forward with it.

And it was obvious that it would be really helpful to keep it.

So it's been maintained all these years and we still make those pieces available to the public.

And you have some of his original pieces here, too.

We do.

We do.

We have pieces he made.

He was famous for not working with a pattern and being able to just fit a girl by looking at her.

He also had a lot of lady friends, mothers of students and people who would sew for hi or give him pieces.

So he had quite a bit of stuff on its way in and he kept everything.

So we're lucky enough to have a lot of that stuff now Now I know you've mentioned that there's kind of three different components to the costume company here.

What are those three components?

So we have a large amount that we are renting out.

And so when you come in and you want to dress up, you can.

I like the idea, but there are also pieces here that are either very fragile or very small and very special, and we don't want to see them damaged or they just aren't wearable.

But we keep them for other reasons.

And so in here, we have a lot of archival pieces or vintage fashion that are either really brittle or really small, but they're really awesome things.

And so we use them to reference when we're making other things or to show people how they were making clothes in a particular era.

How has that changed over time?

Obviously, you're seeing some of those pieces and you're also creating new pieces.

How has just the textile changed over the years?

Well, that's a big question.

But the way people could put things together, the time people had to be able to construct garments, the machines they were using, I mean, we still have stuff here that's made by hand that Mr. Cassidy famously didn't use an electric machine.

He used a tunnel machine even into the seventies.

So just the nature of sewing and putting together a garment has changed quite a bit.

And that's very different to make a garment for the fashion world and to make a costume that's going to go on the stage.

A person who goes to work in their business suit may not need to dance in it or get splattered with.

Maybe you know something in the show.

So we have to have different things in mind when we make costumes versus somebody who might be a tailor making a suit, so our suits need to do things a little bit differently.

Now, I think there was a huge selection for just women.

Sure.

Can we go check that out?

Absolutely.

Let's do that.

OK. OK, I'm feeling more in character now.

So awesome.

And this is a big room just for the women's area.

And how do you organize this?

Well, in here, it's mostly by time period.

So when somebody is doing a show in a particular period or they're going to their murder mystery dinner are popular, we can take them to the twenties and find them a flapper dress, for instance, because all of those things are in one place with their bellies, with the bone.

Absolutely.

And this is a beautiful dress here.

Tell us, thank you.

So it's part of a group.

We put our thirties forties evening gowns together.

And so when you're trying to do a show or have that moment, this reminded us of Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire.

So that's it's one of the pieces that we have here.

It's so wonderful, and I know you mentioned that people can come and they can rent these pieces.

Yes.

How does that work and what's the cost for that?

So we charge $20 per ensemble, so whatever it takes to make that one look happen.

And so if you're a flapper and you need the boa, we aren't charging every piece you put on.

It's $20 and you make an appointment with us, you can contact us via our Facebook page or our website, or you can call in and we'll put you on the calendar.

We are by appointment only.

And then it takes generally about an hour to find whatever it is you're looking for.

Fit you in.

Unless you're me, you're going to be here for hours and make sure that you're happy and comfortable in whatever it is because you need to be able to , you know, get in your car and dance all night and do whatever you're going to do in it.

So we'll work with you for that And then you have a week after the event to return that to us.

Oh, great.

And we take care of the laundry and the dry cleaning and anything that happens to the piece.

So with Halloween coming up, is this probably a pretty popular time for you right now?

It's one of the busiest times of the year, and so people can come in and we never know what people are going to say that they want to do.

They can show us an album cover or they can, you know, have some very particular idea or maybe something from anime.

And we have to figure out if we can get close to that.

I had a woman go as a slot machine once and some people who come in from all over around the region, even, yeah, people can come about 100 mile swing all the way around.

We definitely do business in a wide area.

That's amazing.

So I'm going to bring my friends here because I love to host theme parties.

What's the most popular theme?

The Tonys are definitely in high demand.

OK.

So are the fifties people really like that?

Look.

We do a lot of bobby socks, ers and fifties party.

Yes.

OK. And eighties prom dresses have been having a resurgence, so I wanted to have my that retro eighties party closet.

We can such a perfect perfect, and I know I have some extra materials lying around too.

What are some of the things people can donate here?

Absolutely.

As well as volunteer their time as a donation to tell us what you need right now?

Well, the thing that is actually most in demand is men's clothing.

If you have extra dress shirts or suits or things like that, hats in particular, we use those things all the time.

So menswear is a really high demand thing for us.

Women's wear, obviously, we're happy to have anything.

If it's a larger size, that's good for us because a lot of our collection runs small.

So we take fabric, we take zippers, we take anything that you can make a costume out of even drapes and bedsheets, zippers, ups all that good stuff.

And I know we were talking earlier to that.

You know, the sizes have changed so much over time, and so a lot of these original pieces maybe won't fit everyone like they might now today.

So that's great that you have the option.

And I saw some volunteers earlier who were helping to create some of those new costumes, too.

Absolutely.

So we build things all the time and we understand pretty well where where the holes in the collection are, where it would be nice if we had a few more pieces or a few larger pieces.

And so we work on that all the time.

Every single day we're making more things new things, updating the old things and largely trying to fill holes that we know exist in the collection so that people can come in and find whatever it is they want.

We really want people to find what they're looking for when they come and even some local South Bend labels.

Yes.

So you have some of those showcase.

We're very mindful of the fact that a lot of these clothes came from stores that people have fond memories of downtown South Bend, Mishawaka or were made here locally.

And we try to conserve a little bit of a museum of that kind of thing so that we can talk about those things.

Well, this has been so much fun, and I think I'm getting ready for my next theme party.

And maybe I'll go twenties.

Maybe I'll go sixties.

So I don't know what's your what's your what's your thought Which one should I go for?

I think the Sixties are pretty hot right now, too, and it's a lot of fun to wear a pants, a tiger print pantsuit so we can see what we can get changed.

Thanks so much, Grant.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Wonderful to have this as an option for our community here.

Absolutely.

We want everybody to know we're here and come in and have a good time.

As you can see, we're on a rescue farm.

But here at Blue Moon Vintage Market, they rescue mor than just animals.

We featured them before and three Oaks, Michigan, but they've now moved to Westfield, Indiana.

I can't wait to meet them.

This is my first time.

And when I tell you, you can't wait till you see this, it's like seeing a blue moon once in a lifetime.

Mickey and Jen, my first time meeting you, we featured you before I became so excited to be here.

Now I know your mother daughter duo love that because I have two girls of my own.

So how did you two get started?

Well, you never seen her go and you let vintage vintage.

You know you love vintage exactly as a small child.

I didn't love it when I was little didn't.

And I didn't get it when I was little.

It was, you know, drug around to the flea markets and the different locations, kind of kicking and screaming.

And those are the things she would rather have been doing.

And then as I started to get older, I went to college and decorated my apartment with treasures from garage sale and different things.

And then I got my first house and did the same.

And that's when the passion really ignited.

I think when she got her own home and we could really go out together and decorate, and this space is new.

This is so you're here.

What is it about a year?

Oh, not quite.

No, I.

We got occupancy January of this year, and this is our COVID project before, and it is beautiful.

Can't wait to show all of you what's inside here.

Thank you.

You know, let's just start going in there because there's so much to see.

Hey, big Jen, I have to say that coming in here and seeing everything, it's like this beautiful sensory for your eyes and you don't know where to look and what to buy.

But this caught my eye here.

What is this?

I mean, it looks like a door, but where did you get this?

Go ahead.

And we went on a buying trip down in Kentucky last week, and these are actually old Egyptian work doors.

Really?

Yeah, we brought him in.

They were filthy, dirty, so we took them out, pressure, wash them, put a seal on them and they took them to court, right?

And it's like I said, you don't just rescue animals here and rescue pieces.

Now, can someone come in here and leave with this today?

Like me?

Most things, yes, we get attached to some of our pieces.

So sometimes we get them in here.

We like how they look so much that we kind of either say we don't want to sell them yet or we have to really want to part with them.

I'm sure, especially when you find something like this, it is hard to park, but I can up the ante and we would sell them to you.

Thank you so much.

And this is beautiful now.

Everything is so unique.

Where did you find this and what?

What was it before you?

It became a table.

Yeah, this is one of our favorite pieces.

It is to and it's home.

So basically, it's about your mold.

OK, what's the founding mold molds our pieces of?

We call it art is actually formed.

So that like template three templates bounced around for their metal, and this was probably like a grinder at one point.

And then they would duplicate this and put one on top of it and then fill it with metal, and then they would have a grinder.

This came out of a crushing factory in Ohio, actually.

But then when they're done that it's cast aside, they don't need this beautiful piece of art anymore.

And we think that's just such a waste.

We don't love what they make with these.

We love these.

Right?

So when you got it, what did you have to do to it?

Oh, we had to clean it.

It was very dirty and grease.

Yeah.

So we pressurized it.

We sanded it.

We put a couple of coats of polyurethane seal o and then we had the glass ordered and my my dad is our handyman.

So he inserted that drafted into fit and he fabricated the legs for us.

So we decided to make it either an entertainment center or a bar that will have a new life and not be destroyed in the landfill somewhere.

Now I know your dad and husband, he's not on camera but he's like a one man band.

What does he do because he actually actually built this place?

He did.

He did.

This was our COVID project when we were trying to reinvent, reinvent our wheel due to mainly due to COVID and other circumstances that we wanted to relocate our business from three Oaks.

And we have lots of property and he's a builder.

So this was our official COVID project.

We helped with some of the work with the columns and the building itself.

But yeah, he did the building for us and we moved our store here.

Great, and it's over 5000 square feet.

So let's go and find some other things to buy.

OK.

I'm sure people come in and this catches their eye right away.

I love this.

Now, where did you find these?

Yeah, this was a fun one story.

So we had found another chandelier from a woman up on the north side of Chicago.

Her husband's an electrician, so he takes down these beautiful chandelier and puts up newer lighting.

And her passion is putting these all back together and saving them and cleaning and cleaning them, which is quite an art, a process.

But this is not your average chandelier, not IKEA clothes, OK?

I mean, this is something very special.

It is in the first one that we had bought from her.

We're like, This is so pretty.

It's like you have no idea what you've just bought.

And like, I don't know, but it's really pretty.

And we started looking into it and she taught us a lot about Chandelier.

So these are actually vintage Schoenberg's and they're all Swarovski crystals, so they're all hand car hand-cut and very intricate and detailed My goodness, when you were bringing it here, I'm sure you were probably so careful because you did not want to break one of those crystals.

Extra careful.

The most difficult part is just driving them through the city of Chicago in the back of the van without clinking or making sure that everything stays in place.

So there's lots of bubble wrap and blankets and boxes and prayers.

No backstops, no bad SOPs.

And you also have beautiful chandeliers in the front and those are actually from their international, right They are.

Yeah, those are also Schoenberg's.

They're olde and there's one is from Italy and one's from Germany.

Oh, that's great.

We learn the history of them from our our favorite lady.

Seems like you can't travel the world.

You just come here to blue in the face.

You go, you find something from everywhere.

That's right.

But take a look at some other things.

OK, ladies, you are so creative.

It seems like you can rescue something and make it into something really beautiful.

But you encourage your customers to do that as well.

We absolutely do.

We actually and sometimes we get our best ideas from our customers, really do.

And so a lot of creativity.

And in fact, this piece here is also a funky mold that we just think is a great arch.

We had one similar to this that we had sold to a fella in Lansing that he used in his new restaurant.

So we were thrilled to find a second piece, and some ideas we've gotten along the way is to put a tap on this and make it an entryway table off the table to make it more practical and use, so give it an actual purpose.

It's so hard to go around and show them everything but, but tell us a few of the things that people when they come here that they can find.

Gosh, yeah, we have a lot of farm tables that are made from reclaimed wood European decor.

We have the tiki palm tree planters that we just purchased that are in the front.

They're actually car from tiki trees.

Oh, really, you can use this planters.

Yeah.

The chandelier is we have an African connection now, so he brings in baskets and mud cloths, which are right behind you there.

That's outside.

I love the baskets in the front.

Those great.

And then we have jewelry as well that he's been bringing in.

And you can have some paintings.

They were really beautiful.

Yeah, thank you.

We have a couple of different artists that we feature.

one is a friend of ours that is a retired ironworker and his, I guess, therapy.

He was injured on the job, so his therapy is using oils and doing artwork.

And then we have a friend that does photography like Truman.

The thought the dog that you saw?

Oh, that was his.

Yeah, I love that one.

The healthy ones.

I think of Kelsey as a thing.

That's right And behind this, what is this beautiful piece here?

Yeah.

So the mirror, the mirror we had just picked up down in Kentucky on our partner travels this week and then the doors behind them are just this is a big old barn door that we salvaged.

And the two on the end are Egyptian work doors again that we just picked up in Kentucky.

Yeah, great.

Now you all have quite the following.

They can follow you on Facebook and you're open.

It's Friday through Sunday.

What are your hours?

We're attending four central time.

Technically, by appointment, we have a one lane road coming in and out of the property now that we're on our our private horse farm, but they can text or call us as well.

And we're available during the week too.

And then we'll send them our address so that they, you know where we're at and can find us.

And if they follow you on Facebook, they can actually go on and see some of the items that are coming in.

Mm-Hmm.

Yeah, we like to post kind of teasers on when we load the van and people like, how did you fit all that in the vans?

We take pictures of our traveling and where we're at and what things look like as they're coming in and as we're pressure watching and cleaning.

And we post them on our website too, so I can go on there and say, Hold that for me, I will be there on Sunday.

Yeah, we have.

That will happen quite a bit.

All right.

Well, ladies, thank you so much.

This has been so great.

It's been such a pleasure to be here I'm not telling you guys what to do, but I just want to say you better hurry on down here to Blue Moon vintage.

There's so many things to find, but you might only find it once in a blue moon.

Today, we're in Benton Harbor, Michigan, at Avon Springs Park for a crappy train ride.

Sorry about.

That's OK, that's OK. Well, before we talk about the train ride, which we are super excited about.

Let's talk a little bit about the history here, because there's so much history.

There really is.

OK. All right.

Well, in Springs Park, it was part of the House of David.

The House of David is a local religious colony that started here in Benton Harbor in 19 oh, three.

People were curious.

They were coming to check them out.

Or are these people all about?

So they decided to start entertaining them.

They started serving ice cream and playing music and stuff like that.

And that became so popular that they purchased this property and decided to open up a park for people to come.

It was a source of income for the colony.

It was very, very popular.

It opened in 19 eight.

OK, yeah.

Long time.

No plan until the mid 1970s, the House of David always ran steam engines.

Originally, they ran small CAGNY steam engines.

Later on, they they moved up to some bigger ones.

We're going to be running a gas powered one today because they're easier to start and our steam engines are having some maintenance done they'll be already at some poin What we have today is we have a loop that goes around about a quarter mile of track, which will be expanded hopefully in the next year or so.

That'll be great.

We're building a rebuilding the trestle to get across to the other side and probably double the length of it.

But we decided every year, you know, we're going to have holiday rides, we're going to have Christmas and Halloween So these are the Halloween rides.

We're in the process of decorating.

I feel very festive there.

It's not all out yet by any means, but and a lot more on this property, too.

It's not just the train, there's other things too.

Yes, we have a campground over here behind here.

We have baseball during the summer.

We're normally open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

On weekends, Saturdays and Sundays.

People can come an they can walk through the park.

It's free to walk through the park.

There's a trail that goes down into the ravine.

We have pictures out so people can see what it looked like when the park was open about that.

When we came in, we saw these log cabins.

Yeah, and you said that they're over 100 years old?

Yes So they're like original the log cabins or yeah, they're all original.

And that little white cabins.

Original?

Yeah.

Basically, all the all the buildings that you see here are original.

We're trying to save all the ones that we can and working on them.

But yeah, the log cabins, they're fantastic.

People remember staying in them.

They come down.

Oh, yeah, we stayed in that one when we were kids, you know, on memory.

People can still rent those, too.

They can.

Yes, they can rent the log cabins.

We have more a little bit more modern, smaller cabins and the tent camping area, and we have an actual house over here that we can rent out with three bedrooms, two and that's an original piece of architecture as well.

Speaking of the house there, there's a house over here that we're going to pass on.

We found the original.

Yeah, yeah.

For decoration, right?

I just like that.

That's a prop, right?

We got three, though.

Can we can we go check out?

Let's go.

Look, yes.

Are we going to go near that big building?

Yeah, we'll go right past.

So awesome.

Yeah.

So that looks a little.

That's what I'm looking at to hold your hand today.

Yeah, it does sound ghost.

So then you said, Oh, wait, the real ghost goes, Yeah, OK.

I know we talked a little bit about the history, but you're saying you actually have another kind of creepy things around here.

Can you tell us a little bit about me now before we get on the train?

What kind of creepy things scary?

Oh okay, I just might start might startle you.

Or it's like you just see somebody walk by and you think it's a person and it's not, you know?

You'll see people see people looking out the windows of this tower and the old building, and there's nobody in there because we don't let anybody in there.

Well, I'm kind of glad we're taking the ride during the day.

Exactly.

Not it not know the trigger.

Is it family friendly?

That's totally OK. Yeah, there's not anything that's going to jump out and scare little kids or anything, you know?

But yeah, when can people bring their families out to this?

Well, we're opening.

This weekend will be open Saturday and Sunday from five to 9:00 p.m. and then we'll be open the weekend after that same hours, five to 9:00 p.m. Halloween weekend.

We're going to be open on Friday night and Saturday night because the local areas have trick or treating and how they are.

But each night five to nine.

And how much is it that a train ride, it's $4 per person under three or three are free?

Oh, so yeah, come on out.

Bring your bring your costumes.

All right.

Oh yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Yes, it is cash only.

We appreciate that.

Thank you.

I want to bit about the train.

Oh yes, this is our we call it the S.W.

seven.

It's a switcher engine.

It's primarily made of other parts of other things.

The the sides look suspiciously like the back of a dryer.

Yeah, they're playing.

Yeah, it came to us just as an engine and a frame, basically.

So we put all all the metal on it.

It's not original to this one is not OK, but it is.

But the cards are.

This is our most powerful engine right now.

This is the one we'll use as we extend to the other side to pull all the work, all the work materials, the compressors and stuff.

These are original coaches.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yes.

And you can.

You can see that.

Yeah, wooden here.

Yeah, they're original.

These were made by the Bosch family.

Bosch key carriage company was big here in Benton Harbor about 100 years ago, and so they've been around these tracks many, many, many times.

Yeah.

one of the ones in particular that we can tell you about, like famous people that have ridden on these very cars would be Al Capone.

He used to come to you guys, visit the park on a regular basis.

You like to watch baseball games and he'd come down for the entertainment and stuff like that.

And there were two depots when the park was opened.

This is the park depot.

And then there was the North Depot over in Britain Avenue.

So if you know Al Capone was here, he'd typically come in the back door and he'd park out on the road.

You guys like facing out for a quick exit.

And they would tell if he was on the train.

They'd say, Don't stop at the north station.

They don't want it.

Didn't want anybody to bother him.

So they would do double duty.

Yeah, we already.

You ready?

Yes, you can sit anywhere you like and gather in.

Well, that's it for today's show, thank you so much for being a part of Experience Michigan.

We're glad that you hear as we get ready for the next holiday season, we hope that you will share some of your traditions.

Join us on Facebook and let us know what are the traditions that your family gets out and experiences in the Michigan area?

What are some of your favorite places that you g this time of year?

We love to hear about it so that we can share it with the rest of our viewing audience until next time.

Have a great weekend!

Stay safe, everybody.

Experience.

Michiana is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.