Dock Porter

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One of summer’s hottest reads should be a lesson for writers who have a manuscript on their computer that they abandoned decades ago. “The Dockporter,” by former Michiganians Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone, is a coming-of-age story about two young men who haul luggage on Mackinac Island from the ferryboat to a hotel by bicycle. Set in the ’80s, the book follows dockporter Jack McGuinn, who falls in love over the course of a summer while working on the island. Like so many summer loves, the romance ends when everyone goes home.

Twenty years later, Jack has become a successful industrial photographer and is returning to the island for a 10-year dockporter reunion. While on the ferry, he tells the story of that fanciful summer to a stranger. Jack is somewhat apprehensive about the trip, as he knows that his summer love Emma will be there in preparation for her wedding.

McVeigh used his own summer experiences on the island with Bolone to write a movie script, but life got in the way. The script, which received some interest from Hollywood, was relegated to the dustbin. The two men eventually got married, had families and went about their lives.

McVeigh, 52, and Bolone, 60, have repurposed the original script into a fun summer read.

“We connected right away on the dock. We had a mutual respect for each other and we always kept in touch,” Bolone said.

“I modeled Jack on myself initially, but he is a fictional character based on a lot of different porters,” McVeigh said.

McVeigh also admits to being inspired by the “big personality” of his friend Jim. 

“Jim was into theatrics and was here to entertain. For him, it was more than a job,” McVeigh said.

Dockporters have always been seen as outlaws who worked hard during the day – balancing huge loads on the front of their bike and cycling up monster hills to deliver luggage to hotels and summer homes. When the sun went down, they went into high gear and partied through the night. In the book, Jack relates the dockporter’s rally cry: “Tonight we drink, tomorrow we ride.”

“We were wild as hell and we learned a lot about how to behave and misbehave. It’s a small town with no cars, and its intimacy changed me fundamentally. Until you are on the island, you don’t realize the effect of cars on life. You feel safer and everything slows down,” McVeigh said.

Bolone has a similar feeling about island culture. “I was raised on Six Mile Road near the Detroit Airport. I was 15 when I first stepped on the island and it was completely foreign to me. It was like being on Mars, and I hoped to return one day,” Bolone said.

He did and it changed his life, ultimately meeting his future wife on the island. Today, Bolone teaches creative writing to eighth graders in Toledo and McVeigh, who pursued a successful career in Hollywood, lives in the Philippines with his spouse who is a doctor there.

In real life, both Jim and McVeigh both had close connections to the island. McVeigh’s family had a cottage on the island and Bolone – before becoming a dockporter – was a historical reenactor at Fort Mackinac.

In addition to the burgeoning summer love, the story of “The Dockporter” revolves around a rapacious developer intent on introducing golf carts to the island, which would replace the dockporters. Jack decides to make a risky bet with developer. If he can break the 21-bag record for riding with luggage on his bike, the developer will drop his plans.

Readers will love the spunky Emma, who hails from Ireland and works as a singer at the Grand Hotel. Both Jack and the developers are courting her charms with the wealthy developer in the driver’s seat.

The lesson that McVeigh and Bolone want writers to take away from their experience is that Amazon makes it easy to transform an idea into a book. “Self-publishing, unlike movies, doesn’t rely on big money. Writing books is much freer and faster than making movies,” McVeigh said.

The two writers are already working on a prequel to “The Dockporter,” which takes the characters back in time 10 years to when the movie “Somewhere in Time” was being filmed on Mackinac Island. The book is appropriately titled “Somewhere in Crime.”

For readers who can’t make it to the island in person this summer, “The Dockporter” is a nifty alternative. Long time visitors and summer residents will love the many oblique references to island characters like Judge Glen Allen, who road his bike around the Island well into his 80s.

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