With both our parents being in the education system, we were very blessed to have all our summers spent there growing up. When we grew up and had our own children, our careers allowed us to continue to spend our summers there and so our kids got to experience the same magic, with all their cousins around. No TV, no computers, just plain FUN and creativity and the great outdoors.
~Heidi O’Brien
My parents, Alex and Joanne (Joanne passed away in 2009) were very excited to “win” Lot 8 – a beautiful peninsula. They discovered after they won the lot, that my mother’s father had brought Boy Scouts to camp at the lake and they camped on that very spot! There is a stone “table” that is still there that my grandpa made! I remember us coming up the lake using a 7.5hp motor that had to be turned around to go in reverse. It took us at least an hour. Heidi was not yet born so there were 2 adults and 3 kids (Mardi, Jennifer, Stephen) all in a 9×9 tent while my dad built the cottage. My mom was on the challenging task of keeping 3 small children safe as well as cooking over a fire and Coleman stove every weekend for 2 summers. I think my dad had the easy job! We kids were blissfully oblivious and had a wonderful time growing up there, catching frogs in the swamp, fishing, swimming endlessly, submerging and playing in the canoe and having our assigned chores to do. For that, we were rewarded 1 penny per day. By Friday, we had 5 pennies and paddled or rowed to Bolyea’s at Haunted Narrows to buy penny candy! Heidi and I went on to bring our own kids to the cottage every summer for many years, and they did all the same things! I have not missed one summer since and I’m now 64!
~Mardi Redshaw