Thursday, June 30, 2011

Leech Lake Memory

In Minnesota there is a lake.  On the west side of the lake is a town called Walker and stretching North from the town is Walker Bay.  On the west side of the bay was a resort called Lake View Resort. The first time I went there I rode up with my grandparents.  I can still see my grandmother (in my mind) as she sat by the lake. 


For about 30 years we would go to Minnesota for my mother's summer vacation. There is something magical and restorative about this lake.  Just sitting there for those weeks would make the rest of the year much better.  We would swim, go for drives, boat rides.  I would fish with my uncle.  In the evening we would go up to the Lodge and socialize and play cards.  We made friends with the others who were there and all of us made plans to come back the next year at the same time.  My mother's sister Fran and her husband were the ones who first discovered the lake (I think) and two of her other sisters and their husbands got property there.  My Aunt Jo still has her cabin on the lake and is hoping to be able to go up this summer.  She is having some health problems and needs to be here to "doctor." -  


Hopefully they will find out what is going on with her and she will get over the dizziness and be able to go to the lake again.  (Anybody who wants to send her some good thoughts is welcome to do so.)


The land behind the cabins and all around the area was deep forest and beautiful.  


I miss going there.  My sister misses going there. I guess that memories will have to do.   What is the point of all of this post.  Well days and nights have been mixed up because of the medicine I am on and this morning about 11:00 am. I took a nap and I had my warm blanket over me and I was dreaming that I was at the lake and I could see the bay stretched out before me and I jumped off the hill into the lake (you could not do that) and floated on my back.  I could see my sister floating over on an inner tube with a paper plate with a couple of hot dogs on it.  I yelled something to her and she said something about them being a Korn King Hot Dog and there were more in the fridge if I wanted one.   


So I woke up from the nice floating sensation and went to the kitchen and fixed myself a cheddar bratwurst from Lew Wright Meats (just try em).  Then I went on about my business.   I suppose that I was thinking about Leech because Randy and Fay are going to the Cabin for the week-end. 


Thanks for stopping by,  Hugs.


The photos are stolen from the Web.  All of my pictures are either in slides or in photos and are stored in the basement.  Perhaps someday I will be able to digitize them and share them. And yes, there are leeches in the lake but they attach to fishes and not people or at least in 30+ years of swimming in the lake I never had one on me.

2 comments:

Dee said...

Great post, Jay. It really brings me back to a simpler time in life. Sending all kinds of healing vibes out to Jo.

Colby said...

Jay,

My family used to go up to Leech Lake just about every year when I was a kid. My brothers and I would go up there with our grandparents, and our parents would come some of the years. We started out in my grandparents camper, but once we were "big" we got rid of the camper and stayed in a cabin.

We would always stay on the North shore of the lake and go fishing for northern pike and yellow perch on the east side of the lake.

Good memories!