Lake Memories

Spent some time at our lake cabin. We've been retreating to this property for over 40 years. There are so many memories there, in every tree, every dip in the path through the woods, every morning when the mist rises off the water when the sun breaks through the trees. I read an article in a science magazine to the effect that your memories change every time you visit them. I guess every visit leaves a mark, which asks the question of how much memory is real and how much is all marked up from visits.

Our trips to this spot began with camping, using tents and a VW bus with a mattress in the back. Over the years we added a mobile home (1953 New Moon, furnished with a working kitchen and bathroom, $150 plus towing.) Most of us still preferred the tent, until we added a big room and porch. We put a Franklin stove in the middle. If you stuffed it full of split wood and small logs and got it blazing it would last until about 4 AM. No one wanted to go find more wood at that time, so we shivered and added robes and coats to the blankets. Our memories filter out the mice and snakes that came and went during the night, the cranky toilet, the cranky guests. Our memories still include the whole shebang burning to the ground the night of our oldest son's bachelor party.

After wearing out a new mobile home, we built a little house on the same spot. Heated and air conditioned, same great view of the lake from the screened porch. We walk over to the thermostat, flick the switch to heat or cool, and never miss the wood stove. We don't take these things for granted. We don't miss the mice or the snakes, but we think we miss having noisy kids under foot. They would probably make us cranky now.