 "One of my fond childhood memories was that of going out
to the cabin at Lake Julia in the Model A Ford, with the tilt-out windshield open to the summer's
cooling air.
"On the way, the trip was always punctuated by one of
the adults pointing out the corner on which Dr. Holdredge was killed in an automobile accident
and how he drove like a "bat out of hell."
"The sand road going into the cottage was very narrow
and lined with trees and shrubs. We were continuously reminded to keep our hands inside the car so we
wouldn't get an arm caught on a branch and torn off. The road had a gentle roll to it, but in the
Model A they looked like mountains to me.
"Upon reaching the cabin, we were greeted by an
abundant crop of sand burrs and cow pies from the cattle that grazed in the area. Between the
burrs and the cow pies in varying stages of dryness, walking had to be done with an acute awareness
of your footfalls.
"Aunts Marie,
Leona & Florence
were always very generous in supplying us kids with some candy treats, some of which had to be
earned by our performance of singing or presenting some other form of our childhood talents.
I frequently told of how Grandpa Stimler, who
died many years before my birth, and I had hunted the two deer, whose heads were mounted on
the cottage wall, from a submarine. How's that for a talent?
"Grandma was the
one who had to check the bedding for mice and when she did find some that scattered around the cottage,
all the women would be climbing up on chairs screaming to the point the mice must have been rendered
deaf. Grandma always chided them with her "Ach, a little mouse won't hurt you!"
"Drinking and cooking water were pumped from the hand
pump in the kitchen and plumbing was only a short walk towards the road. Grandma would always heat
her curling iron in the chimney of the oil lamps, which were the night's source of lighting. Besides
the eating of meals, cards in varying forms were centered on the big round oak table.
"Summer thunderstorms were always a night time delight.
The lightning would flash in through the screen windows, light up the room; the thunder would
rumble and the winds would rustle the leaves of all the trees. Occasionally the winds would blow
hard enough to drive the rains inside so someone would have to go outside to drop the shutters.
"Just across the road behind the cabin, the ditches
were usually filled with water and algae. To keep us smaller kids away from there John Parent
told us there were alligators in there. Boy, that was enough to keep me away, at least until we
were old enough to help pick berries along side the road. Then those alligators had mysteriously
disappeared.
"The swimming and the fishing was good, but the great
times shared with our cousins and family in the pleasure of simple and innocent times is woven
tightly into the fabric of my memories."
-- provided by Joe Hall
SKI News, 3rd Edition, April 2000
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