Five of the six kids in the Hartwell family spent summers at the cottage with our Mom, and our Dad would come up on the weekends. He would take the boat down on Sunday and we would be without a boat all week until he returned Friday night. But one day, someone came rowing the MacPhail’s (Lot 8) rowboat into our bay screaming for help, They needed a boat to take someone to the hospital but did not have a boat available. We could not help as we also had no boat. It was after this incident that the eldest would take Dad down on Sunday nights and go pick him up on Fridays. Of course, we had no phones back then so on Friday, it was a waiting game as we saved a spot for him to park the car along the road as there was no parking lot. He would have to stop in Coldwater to pick up another block of ice for the ice box to keep the fridge cold as there was no hydro. My Mom would have to use up the food carefully as the ice melted through the week. Great memories of Mom reading Gulliver’s Travels, or some other classic, to the light of the Coleman Lantern while we were all in our beds. I am sure that after looking after 5 children and their needs all day, she most likely went to bed soon after! We never had TV at our cottage and still do not until this day. Playing games and doing puzzles or reading is how our evenings were and are spent.
