I had befriended a person who brought underprivileged kids from the city to his cottage for the weekends. His place was empty during the week. He trusted me with the key to his place, and allowed me to use his row boats or canoes any time I wanted and that was a real blessing.
Sometimes I would row or canoe to Vail's or Bloomers, the two other communities on the lake. Some of the rented boats on Vail’s side had motors making it much faster and easier! But, I always rowed across. Bloomer's was across the lake and took a good while and you needed lots of elbow grease. Just as you went under the bridge from the canal to the lake, there was a group of lily pads with frogs on them. I always wanted to stop and see them as they fascinated me.. the frogs were so cute on the lily pads and the fragrance of the flowers was intoxicating ! When I got older and had read some of Lord Tennyson's work, I imagined myself as the Lady of Shallot looking for her Lancelot. I was always a romantic and daydreamer of sorts. But, instead of having an elaborate boat like The Lady of Shallot, I had a humble little rowboat!
So, I had my own personal retreat at my friend’s bungalow. He had a collection of more comic books than I had ever seen and I would spend hour on end reading them. My favorites were Casper, Little Lulu, Wendy, Archie, Betty Boop which became a favorite of mine over the years, and also of my daughter Keri's. When we would be traveling my husband and I always thought of Keri when we saw Betty Boop~~ I liked Superman and others too. I would prop myself up with lots of throw pillows like Princess and the Pea (one of the stories I loved as a child) on one of the rustic bunks that overlooked part of the lake and the canal, and I thought I was in heaven reading until I either fell asleep or had to go home!
I also enjoyed coloring and lying in the hammock at our place. The hammock sat on the front porch area and there was a tree that hung over it just at the right angle to keep the sun out of my eyes. Mom would make fresh lemonade or iced tea with fresh mint, and bring it outside with sandwiches and cookies. The mint grew right under our rickety little back porch where we could watch the cows grazing. Sometimes my mother and I would make up lunch and bring a blanket and place it under a huge tree in the cow pasture. We just had to be careful to not get near any cow droppings! Another refreshing drink was Kool Aid. It came in a package in different flavors and you added water and sugar. The food coloring got all over and stained if you spilled it. Sometimes we would add lemonade to it and called it "Bug Juice" as the lemon pulp looked like bugs!
Having a Lemonade Stand was always fun too. My Mom would help me set it up by a road near my Nana's bungalow, and I thought I was so rich if I made any money!
Dolls were something I played with until I went to boys... ha ha ha, and I had a large collection of the most beautiful paper dolls. I liked the more up to date ones. Some of my friends had Victorian paper dolls, but I wanted the most popular fashions for my dolls. I would so carefully and methodically cut out their outfits and dress them up and take them on imaginary adventures. I remember thinking to myself, “I wish I knew how to draw because I have designs for doll clothes in my mind” LOL!! An example of the dolls I owned is below:
No matter how I fixed my dollies for bed, my Mother told me, I could not go to sleep before getting out of bed one more time to just tuck them in again! My Mom would try to do it for me after reading me a bedtime story or tucking me in, but I just had to do it myself!
Fifties Doll Bed that looked just like mine
Peach Lake Memories is a 15 Chapter book with vignettes about my childhood memories. It is copyrighted. Please ask for permission before using any information in my book. Thank you .. donnatrex@yahoo.com
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