10
in other words
september11
2012
Living on a Lake in the Country: Endless Summers
By Gayle Rich-Boxman
Do you recall as a child how endless summers
seemed to be? The countdown of days until summer
officially began, the plans with friends and family—
sleeping in, (or not) and having hours upon hours to
play.
One of the summer delights that I experienced
as a child and as a young person,
was going to our cottage in the
Thousand Islands on the St.
Lawrence River, a tributary of
Lake Erie between New York
and Canada. You had to get on a
boat as your transportation to get
to Murray Isle, where our cottage
was located, as there were no cars
on the island; just homes, docks, a
post office and a library! My sister
and I were 5th generation of family
to own property on Murray Isle
and it was pretty rustic summer
living as a small child. We had
an outhouse, no drinkable water
and you had to bring everything
that you planned to live on for
the summer up the long pathway
from the boat into our cottage,
many many times. There was a pump house located 1/3
of the way around the island, and my younger sister
and I would trek along the well-worn and rocky path
to the pump house, hauling empty plastic gallon jugs
to be filled with fresh potable water to bring back to
the cottage. It was quite a feat lifting that heavy metal
handle and pushing it up and down vigorously at least
10 times before any water would come out and quite
tricky holding the gallon jug under it so that the fiercely
cold water would end up IN the jug and not splashing
all over your feet! Definitely a two-person job.
It was rustic, but the memories of learning how
to put a worm on a hook while fishing with Dad, or
being taught how to swim, start
and run an outboard motorboat
and get up on waterskis for the
first time were small examples of
the makings of lifetime memories
that we shared as a family living
on the water of the St. Lawrence
in the summers. Sharing these
simple summer routines made us
feel closer as a family.
As an adult, I wanted
to recapture those timeless
memories. The yearning for an
escape that was befitting of my
childhood was hard to find, but
never off my dream list.
Then I discovered Fishhawk
Lake ten years ago. It had the
same sweet woodsy smell that
took me immediately back to the
times I spent as a kid wandering along the well-worn
paths both near the water as well as the meandering
ones in the woods that took us to the other side of the
island. The sounds traveling across from the other
side of Fishhawk Lake reminded me of how well you
can hear on water—everything from a dog barking to
childish laughter while splashing around in the water a
quarter of a mile away—a lesson I learned early on as
to how sounds can be heard more easily across water
than land.
There was the appreciation for a simpler
life. People who all waved at each other, whether
you knew them or not. Helping out a neighbor who
might need a tool that wasn’t in their own array of fix-
it items. Playing games—such a big deal in a small
community—gathering people together to laugh over
cards or horseshoes, and always ALWAYS friendly.
These are some of the similarities I have found at
Fishhawk Lake.
Many people that I do business with in real
estate who find their way here to Fishhawk Lake are
trying to recapture those same or similar memories
for themselves to share with their children, their
relatives, their friends. Not everyone seeks this
simplicity--this way back to a memory of endless
summers filled with genuine joy of living and playing
on water in a small community. It is something that
they may not readily be able to describe to me, but
something that I completely understand. It is a way
to get back to the basic calm in life. To sit by water
and take it IN. To hear the sounds it makes, to smell
the delicious CLEAN of fresh air and fresh water…
it is pristine, untouched, basic.
Many of us want to go back to our easy breezy
childhoods when time seemed like FOREVER and
you got to enjoy a summer without complication,
and simply being a kid was easy to do.
As Labor Day came and went it gave me a
moment to reflect on those endless summers and
took me back to a time when you looked forward to
going back to school, reconnecting with friends and
sharing delicious moments of what you did on your
summer vacation.
You can contact me, Gayle Rich-Boxman, Broker
with Vernonia Realty directly at: (503)755-2905
or e-mail me: richbox@centurytel.net You can
also check out my website for current listings
in the Fishhawk Lake community: http://www.
lakehomesatfishhawk.com/.
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