"It's supposed to be smooth, and that's like two years ago that that happened," she said. "They don't do surgery on them; mine was pretty typically slow to heal, the way that it was hanging and separated like that. Eventually, it made like a groove - one bone sitting on top of the other. That was pretty traumatic for me."

Described here is a scene that sounds like it could've come forth from an outtake on a particularly gory Mel Gibson film. (Released pre-racist meltdown, naturally.) In fact, what's being presented is so full of quick-paced action and deftly dramatic interplay that it could feasibly power the plot-lines of multiple cinematic endeavors. And last year, it fueled at least one - Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, the filmed-in-Detroit summer flick Whip It.

Yes, our discussion here centers not on warfare, but roller derby; roller derby in Mid-Michigan, to be exact. Although, when it comes to the hard-hitting ins and outs of the sport in question, differentiating between derby and modern war games can sometimes seem as complex as the splitting of hairs. (Or, as the situation frequently warrants in this case, bones.)

"My derby wife actually broke her ankle and had a plate inserted. A ref broke his ankle. I mean, it'll happen, but I think it happens with any sport where you're full-contact."

And she ought to know. As acting coach for the Lansing Derby Vixens, one of two Lansing derby teams to spring up within the past year, Clifton's derby experience extends back to a stint in Evansville, Ind., where she first learned to skate and cut her teeth with a team called Demolition City Roller Derby.

"I had a son at a young age and missed out on, I guess, the camaraderie I would have gotten in college," she says of what initially propelled her to try her hand at derby. "I wanted something a little more challenging, so I had heard we had roller derby. I already had it in my head that I wanted to get in shape, so I just decided that I wanted to try it. I didn't know whether I'd be good at it, and I wasn't really that good at it in the beginning."

In this regard, her experience is hardly unique. Indeed, moms of all stripes, backgrounds, and skill levels are eagerly strapping on skates and helmets (and, in the instance of Jackson's Jack Town Rollers, at least one grandma) to populate the Mid-Michigan derby teams in surprising abundance. It's interesting that women moving into middle age would actively choose to pursue a sport as brutal as roller derby, but then again, after the agony of childbirth, what's a few fractured vertebrae here and there?

But it isn't just the matronly adding a ferocious snarl to Mid-Michigan's derby darlings. One of the best things about this blossoming activity is the diverse and cultural makeup to be found within each compounded team's DNA structure.

"It's just nice to see such a variety of people out and interested in this new thing. I've gone to other bouts in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, and you have this stereotype image of what a derby person is like," says Micalee Sullivan, secretary and board member for the Mitten Mavens, a derby team also based in Lansing. "We're covered in tattoos and we have crazy hair, and they're just kind of punky-looking ... whatever stereotypes you have. But you know, you come to these bouts, and there's just like people of all ages."

Like the aforementioned Derby Vixens, the Mitten Mavens boast origins in a very grassroots and community-oriented genesis.

"There was a group of us that decided that we felt the best way to run a league was to be nonprofit, to have it be a membership run, nonprofit league, which means that everybody who's a member of our league has a say," said Sullivan, whose derby name is Hymen Executioner. "We're always holding votes for logos, uniforms, everything, so we really try to stay true to that."

Down in Jackson, the newly minted Jack Town Rollers has also tapped a wide range of experience and skill into its lineup. And in much the same manner as Lansing's Mavens and Vixens, the Rollers adhere to a strong community committed principle.

"I roller skated before and snowboarded - all the X-Games sports - so it kind of came natural. But with a lot of the girls here had never skated before," says Sarah "Bellum Crusher" Rand, league manager, coach, and founder of the Rollers.

"I hadn't skated since I was six years old at birthday parties," adds Bonnie "Barko" Mills, the league's co-manager.

When asked what the concept of roller derby brings to the Mid-Michigan landscape that perhaps no other single activity does, Mills responds with an impish grin upon her lips.

"Sisterhood! And I think a place where girls who felt like they hadn't really fit in anywhere else in other sports or societies or clubs, maybe they can find that in roller derby. We accept you as you are - it's just a come-as-you-are type of thing, and it's an acceptance kind of a sport. We just rely on each other emotionally and physically."

And thus, in this simple assessment, we have the very core and nexus of the Mid-Michigan roller derby collective. Bones may snap as easily as matchsticks, bruises may form in aching scarlet, fragile muscles will be tested and tried to their very limit, but in derby, these three teams have found a slab of earth upon which to call their own. Sisterhood prevails, friendships flourish, and roller derby dames of all creeds, colors, and cultures rule the rink with an iron skate.

"It depends on the girl's attitude," Mills said. "You have to go out there knowing you're going to do the best you absolutely can. It's all about attitude."

Charlotte Frontier Days is a nearly week-long bonanza filled with yehaws, bucking bulls and dancing ladies. For the 40th year running, the town of Charlotte is inundated with 60 to 80 thousand folks seeking to live it up, frontier style.

"It's neat to see how many people come to our community, supporting our local businesses and restaurants," said Cindy Gaedert-Wing, Frontier Days publicist.

The five-day event offers a slew of activities for all ages from kids contests like bubble gum eating to a hula hoop contest and even a children's fleas market with an appearance Cubby the Clown. The massive Arts & Crafts show is a large attraction, featuring vendors from as far away as Florida.

"We have a really cool rodeo, and there are [music] shows Friday night, Saturday, and a Sunday matinee," said Gaedert-Wing, whose favorite attraction is the rodeo.

On top of days filled morning to night with activities, each evening a different band is featured, including Centerville, winners of the Michigan State Finals of the Colgate Country Showdown, along with DJs who add to the sound mix.

The rodeo is one of the biggest attractions, with seven main events. See bareback bronc riding, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing, tie-down roping, team roping, and the always gruesome, bull riding.

A saloon provides refreshment for the adults and "new this year, we have ladies night on Thursday night at the saloon, with no cover for the ladies and we have all male bartenders," Gaedert-Wing said.

Additionally, the saloon features various entertainments. Thursday and Saturday offers the "Dancing Deputies," a troupe of fancy stepping ladies, clad in snazzy matching outfits from the Campbell Dance Studio, who call themselves the "step-sisters." On Friday night, patrons can get rodeo-style kicks on the mechanical bull.

The Cowboy Golf Outing provides relaxing fun for bandy legged slowpokes. Drive in-movies at dusk offer a relaxing respite from the days' activities, a living history encampment gives a taste of bygone days, and pony rides behind the sheep barn add variety, along with the always popular parade featuring marching bands, motorcycles and more.

"After the parade, the whole road is filled with kids' games and everything is free. There are over 21 games," said Gaedert-Wing.

Check out hot automobiles at the Car show, cheer on the hearty lunged kids at Frontier Idol, test your endurance at the Chili Cook Off, get winded during the 5k Race, and take home a hottie at the Stud Auction. But, no small town event is complete without a pageant. Egg on your favorite gal for Frontier Days Queen.

More than down home fun, Frontier Days supports various causes.
"All the money we make we give back, to the community in different events," said Gaedert-Wing. "We just got done finishing our pledge to hospice, and fund smaller projects to beautify our community."

Tickets are available online.

"You get to play for people that never heard cowboy poetry and here's the best part, they don't work you to death so you can catch all these really great people performing," he said from his home in Bainville, Mont.

An award-winning poet, Groethe's been reading his poems, singing his songs and performing at cowboy poetry gatherings since 1993. Poetry's been with him much longer than that. After his parents passed away in the 1990s, he found copies of poems he'd written as a boy.

These days, the poems might come to him quickly. He's always working on one. He keeps a small notebook in his shirt's front pocket and fills the front with ideas for poems, the back with lists of chores he needs to work on. When the two parts meet, he'll start on a new book.

"Eventually, something will strike me and I'll hear a line," he said.

The festival will mark his first visit to Michigan. Promoters find him through cowboypoets.com and his previous appearances at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., and the Dakota Cowboy Gathering in Medora, N.D. He's also performed at the National Folk Festival.

"I am a ranch hand/cowboy for a living," he said. "I've never made a phone call for a gig yet. I'm one of those people that have been writing poetry since I was a little kid. I've never gone out and pursued it as a livelihood."

About 90,000 people are expected to the MSU Museum's Great Lakes Folk Festival during the three-day event.

"People come and stay and stay and stay for hours," said Lora Helou, MSU Musem communications director. "While they are there they discover all this other music that they hadn't heard before. It is fun to explore around and dip into some other cultures."

The festival includes performances by Alberta Adams, Chulrua, De Temps Antan, Klancnik & Friends Band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, among others.

Each performer will be playing more than once so festival-goers won't miss a performance. Working within a network of venues from across the country, the festival line-up is planned by organizers who talk with others to learn about the best music out there.

"One of the misnomers about folk music is the idea of the singer-song writer strumming a guitar on stage," she said. "What people learn [at the folk festival] is folk music is such a broad term."