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From Mike Merrill, Membership Assistant:

Everyone needs a special place where they can get away and escape from the world: mine is Warners Lake. I have been going there during the summer season since I was 4 months old, for 38 years now (yes, I am one of the old ones here at Tripod). It is a special place; single lane dirt road on an old farm, where everyone knows everyone. My camp was actually the chicken coop on the farm, and the building next door was the pig pen.

When I was growing up at the lake there were the big kids (I was one of them) and the little kids. Only 2-4 years separated us but when you are 12 years old that is a lifetime. Crab apple fights, hiking, water skiing and of course swimming filled our days. The big kids were infamous for their ability to send a little kid home crying after one of our marathon crab apple fights. A stern warning from an adult would follow, and then we would do it again the next day. We stole apples from Aunt Bessie's tree while she took her daily afternoon nap, like clockwork, at 2pm. Fishing (no longer an interest), dissecting frogs (not in years), riding our bikes (of course with playing cards in the spokes to be cool), and nightly softball games occupied the summer season. And of course, those delicious peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches, on nothing but white Wonder Bread.

Now, a few decades later, it's happening all over again. Lots of kids, from 13 years down to 18 months are gathering at the lake. My daughter Hannah is the youngest now, so I guess she'll be the one coming home crying after a crab apple fight. She is currently the littlest little kid, but I am sure there will be more. The only thing different now is that Aunt Bessie's crab apple tree is now my crab apple tree, and I am known to take a nap at 2pm sometimes, just so the apple-stealing tradition can continue.

Hannah and I go up to the lake every other weekend and have a blast. We get away from the worries of life (my worries, she doesn't have any yet — getting her diaper changed and eating are her only big concerns). I broke into laughter last week when three kids went down the lane with playing cards in the spokes of their bikes, attached with clothespins, the only way to go. Amazing how things in life can change so much, yet remain the same.

-Mike
Membership Assistant (8/6/98)

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Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the archive.

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