Monday, June 30, 2014

School House Lake

Priceless  #mom #janice #hayward #wisconsin


For many years our family went to Hayward Wisconsin for a week or two in the summer.
It was a small resort on little lake with skinny perch.
The perch were cleaned in a tiny fish shack at the lakeside.

We swam in the pool all day every day.
We hunted chipmunks.
We went to the dive in theater and stalked the bear at the dump.

But coasting.
That was my favorite.

This particular back road was roller coaster like.  Up and down, Up and down.
Our dad would race up the hill and after he roared over the top he would put the car in neutral...and coast down.  But it had to be fast enough to get up the top of the next hill.  How exciting!!!

I can still see those hills.
I can still feel the thrill.

****

Our mom had the twins when she was 32.
(Her later in life babies...ha)

Just think....I have a child who is near that age!!!

She was so young.

Young and loving her babies.


Did you vacation with your families?
Did you travel around the United States?
Go to the same place?

My kids got a mixed bag.  We mostly visited family around the states...along with summertime visits to Minocqua.

I wonder what my children remember.


****

Encourage one another,
Donna







18 comments:

  1. Hey, it's me :-)

    It's always so good to see you here. I love when you reminisce about your growing up years. And a photo of your lovely mother is frosting on the cake.

    Summers in Alaska meant camping no matter what the weather. Thankfully we had a camp trailer and we were geniuses at setting up shelters that would keep the rain out while still allowing the roasting of marshmallows. Good times.

    But the best summers were when we went to California to see my grandparents, who lived in Sunnyvale. Oh it was like heaven for a kid from Anchorage to experience all the delightful things like rodeos, redwoods, big fireworks, Marie C. Pie Shop, Hearst Castle, and going to the beach!! Of course being with my grandparents was the most special part. Ahhh the memories.

    I'm with you, I wonder what my kids remember?

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  2. Minocqua Minocqua minocqua, Boulder Junction, Hazelhurst Highway K and 51.
    I want to go to there

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    1. Just got back! Minocqua, Phillips, mercer, park falls... It was all wonderful!

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  3. Nurse! This post pulls all kinds of emotional strings for me.

    Curt and I honeymooned at a rustic cabin on the lake at Hayward. (the cabin was a gift from an older couple in my church) We took a rowboat out on the lake and fished! We slept most afternoons because we were so tired. Hayward had a Fourth of July parade we went to.

    It wasn't Wisconsin, but I remember the rolling hills of southern Michigan. You perfectly describe coasting. After I learned to read, I would read aloud the signs on the side of the road: Pass With Care. Do Not Pass. Pass With Care. Do Not Pass. Can you imagine how obnoxious it was? It's a tribute to my family that I don't remember them being irritated.

    I love every picture of your mom that you post. Full of vitality. This one is glorious: the hair! The glasses! The lipstick! The smile!

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  4. Anonymous10:31 AM

    I love reading about your family stories. I'm always so amazed at how much Katie looks like your mother.
    Yes, my family did go on vacations. We went to Minnesota and stayed with my aunt and uncle, to Osage Beach, MO to stay with family, to Kansas City to the amusement/water parks. Then, one year my parents rented an rv and travelled down to Branson. We called that trip "motorhome madness" and the song "life is a highway" was popular.
    Oh my gosh. I just remembered a trip that we went on. I was in fifth grade. Me, mom, my sisters, grandma and great-grandma hopped in the minivan and went out to Colorado for a family reunion. After spending time with family they thought it'd be nice to travel on up to Yellowstone. No hotel reservations. The big motorcycle rally, Sturgis was going on. NO hotels had vacancy. I mean none. Ok, so we stopped at the police station to see what the heck to do. The lovely dispatcher lady invited us to stay at her home for the night. So we did. I think she could plainly see we were harmless. LOL Luckily, the rest of the trip we found hotels to stay in. I was so glad to be home after that. : ) You know, for only being in fifth grade I remember being awestruck at the beauty of the land out in Yellowstone and the Black Hills. So, so beautiful. I can't wait to go back.
    Sorry for the book.

    Sarah P. from Iowa

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    1. LOVE these stories/memories Sarah P!! What fun!

      My dad grew up in Montana and the region is very special to our family :-)

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  5. That sounds like the most delightful sort of roller coaster. Your Mom is beautiful. I am so glad God gave her to you : ).

    We visited my Grammy Kindel. She lived in a trailer in Clarion, PA. She lived up on a hill in her little tin house. For the longest time I thought a tin house would be the MOST WONDERFUL place on the planet to live.

    Every Summer we would go for one week to Grammy's. That drive would be LONG! The longest 6 hours ever. We had so much fun once we got there. My Grammy got her water from a spring so one day we would get to go to the spring to fill up gallon jugs. We went on walks down the road and played in the creek. Sometimes we would find the clay part of the creek and that was cause for lots of excitement.

    We would catch fireflies at night. My Grandma had this box of toys that was SO MUCH FUN! She had some of her old purses in it and empty spice jars. I still remember them.

    I miss her a lot. My friends went to the shore or to Disney World for Vacation, but you would have never been able to convince me that those places were any better than my Grandma Kindel's trailer.

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  6. I, too, love reading your memories of your parents. Those memories shape us into who we are. My family spent a week every year for five years at the same quiet beach house with another family. We also took along our favorite baby sitter who stayed on the beach with us all day long and played games with us at night until we couldn't stay awake any longer. Such fun.

    Then when I was 11 our family bought a lake house and spent eight summers there before selling it. We went boating, skiing, tubing up and down the lake when we weren't swimming or laying out. It was a lovely way to spend a hot SC summer! Independence Day was my favorite when we would stay up all night long (the kids tried) to watch over the pit cooked pig. Seeing who could pull the most skiiers behind a boat (we had 10!) with flags in our hands. Fireworks on the lake while we lounged in the boat at night. Such great childhood memories of family vacations and rips.

    By the way, I was 18 and married before I ever made it to the mountains even though I'm in SC where there are mountains and beaches. My daddy always gave my mama the choice and she picked the beach every time. They would go to the mountains in the fall by themselves.

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  7. My parents would pack the four kids into a station wagon with air mattresses in the back so we could sleep while they drove. We would head south to see grandparents in Florida (Miami area). We would stop in TN at a motel called the "Southernaire" which had a HUGE (to me) swimming pool. It was where I finally learned to swim ... wonderful memories. We would also go to Dubuque, Iowa to see family and have a picnic on "Decoration Day" (Memorial Day now). We'd be all dressed up in our finery to watch the parade as it went up to the cemetery to place flowers and flags on the grave. To this day my cousin drives up to "watch the family up" each Memorial Day and place flowers and flags on their graves. The hilly roads outside of Galena, IL enroute to Dubuque afforded us the experience of "roller coaster hills" and I remember them well ... I had a GRAND childhood and often thank my mom for it ;-) Linda

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    1. My folks are from Platteville.. I know those hilly roads very well!!

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  8. Anonymous1:42 PM

    Summer vacation memories, I have a bunch. My father liked to pack the car and take off for two weeks. Most of our vacations included my maternal grandmother who made the famous statement about our trip to CA across Death Valley, "Why, I don't know what those folks are talking about, we did not get hot at all." Our car was new with AC. We went to CA, CO, The Great Smokey mountains and my favorite trips, a couple of times to New Orleans. We lived near a beach, so it was Yukon Ho to the mountains for us. Good times and good memories...always had to find a motel with a bath tub for my grandmother and a swimming pool for me.
    love and prayers, jep

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    1. Anonymous1:44 PM

      Oh yes, loved the picture of your beautiful mother and you or maybe Sue. jep

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  9. Anonymous1:45 PM

    What a great pic of your mom and sis!

    We used to travel to Pennsylvania every summer to visit family. We'd spend time at each grandparent's home and then sometimes split up and stay at different cousins' homes, too. With six kids and two parents, it was hard to fit all of us in, but our relatives were gracious and we kids had such fun sleeping on cots or sleeping bags on porches and talking into the night. Listening to AM stations on the radio, sharing dreams for the future, laughing about any and everything. Such great memories! My kids grew up with all their cousins living within an hour of one another, so their memories will be quite different.

    Mary Z

    P.S. Molly is going to Minocqua next week to stay with friends. She's a lucky girl! :)

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  10. Anonymous9:58 PM

    What a beautiful picture of your mom...and is that you or one of your sisters? I am curious about Minocqua. Is it a lake, or a camping area? Did you do the rent-a-cabin thing and go out on the lake in canoes? This always sounds like a glamorous midwestern vacation to me. My parents were homebodies when I was growing up so we didn't vacation much but we did drive from California to Washington every summer to visit grandparents. Favorite memories are walking through my grandpa's tall corn, my grandma taking us to the library to find good books to read on long, lazy afternoons, and the hiss of the sprinkler as we ran through it. What glorious days.

    Debbie Z.

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    1. Minocqua is a town in Northern Wi. There are many lakes including Lake Minocqua. My sister lived there so she had a house. When we took the children up there we stayed at small cabins on the lake. Those cabins are gone now...which is a sad thing...we would still go there if we could.

      It's a beautiful area. Lots of skiing, boating, fishing, and bar hopping for those who love that.

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  11. Anonymous9:21 AM

    We are driving from our home in Duluth, MN to Hayward, WI for a week at a lake cabin this month. Two kids, a dog and our boat. We can't wait! Our favorite place to visit in town is Tremblay's Sweet Shop so we can try out the fudge and buy a treat or two.

    Minocqua is also a wonderful summer vacation spot. My husband's aunt lives there (his uncle just passed away in May). They have lived in a house on a lake since the 1970's. Beautiful place!

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  12. Anonymous7:25 AM

    Late entry as I can get on Terry's laptop today. :) We took two long memorable vacations as a family when I was 4 and 5 years old, to the Smokey Mountains and to the West Coast. I don't remember anything about the Smokeys except feeding a bottle to a bear in a pen outside a gas station. I remember a bit more about the West Coat because we stayed with cousins in Oregon and they had a cow they milked. I was allergic to milk so don't know why Mom let me drink it but I had a horrible allergic reaction and spent the next day sick while everyone else enjoyed the beach. Then a seagull did its business on my cousin's head which I thought was hilarious. We also went to Yellowstone and to Mt. Rushmore but I have only the vaguest memories of those. When I was in my early teens, we took a couple of shorter vacation trips to historically significant places my dad wanted to see: Calvin Coolidge's museum in Iowa and a battlefield in Springfield, Missouri. Mom insisted we go to Silver Dollar City in Branson while we were near. We went to Six Flags St. Louis one day every summer and to one or two Cardinals games every year. The rest of the summer was spent at the local swimming pool and at church camp. Fun memories!


    Sandy C.

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