To the Editor:

As a long-ago employee of Nancy May Pfeiffelman on Mackinac Island, I felt compelled to write following a feature story about the shop's closing, published March 19. I worked for the bike shop from 1964 to 1968 and Nancy was my boss at the shop down by the Straits Dock. I lived in the Pfeiffelmann home and later under the bike shop itself.

It was my first time away from home, and as others have written, I learned valuable life lessons under her direction. I later went on to work for Carriage Tours, but remembered my days as a "bike boy" fondly.

I have returned to the Island often since that time and, as the landscape has changed, some things have remained constant. The Grand sits atop the hill in all its splendor, and the fort and bluff homes greet you in any weather, but it was seeing Nancy, sitting in that booth renting bicycles, that really made me feel that I was home.

Now, too, that is gone, and it's kind of sad and at the same time, I'm excited for Nancy. A talented photographer, for the first time in more than 45 years, she has an opportunity to pursue other summertime endeavors. I appreciate all she meant to me in my formative years, and I hope she has a ball. Bob Elmer St. Ignace