Is it just me, or does summertime scream Lake Season? There’s something about seeing a lake that makes me immediately think of good times, lazy days, and a slower pace of life.
Fond memories of lake time began with childhood trips from my family home in Metro Milwaukee to my grandparent’s cottage “Up North” in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin. It was here I’d trek every summer with my mom and younger brothers in July for a-10 days to two-week sabbatical from suburban life.
My mom got to visit with her parents so she had a few extra hands to help entertain my brothers and I as we spent endless days on Fence Lake with a million different floaties and sand toys.
My grandpa took pride in carting us around in his shiny motor boat. Life was slower Up North. Life was also predictable. Every day we were up early, swimming or running errands in town before lunch, then more beach time before clean up and snack on the screened in porch at 4 o’clock.
After snacks my mom and grandparents enjoyed “Happy Hour” while listening to the television news, my brothers and I found random bugs to collect, flowers to smell, and whiffle balls to hit before dinner.
Grandma’s kitchen always smelled wonderful; she was a great cook! I feel like everybody’s grandma is a great cook (like it’s a prerequisite of being a grandma or something). After dinner we’d continue to hang out on the porch and watch the lake quiet down as the sun dropped and the lightning bugs appeared.
If our visit coincided with the 4th of July holiday, my mom would let my brothers and I walk up and down the long pier at dusk swirling lit sparklers.
By the time I hit my teen years, I wasn’t as jazzed about going Up North. I was much more invested in hanging out with my friends. The thought of being without them for endless days made me crabby. I remember the summer of my sophomore year in high school listening to Bruce Springsteen’s album, “Born in the USA,” on cassette tape through my Walkman like a million times. It was the only thing that brought me solace because I wanted to be with my friends and not my brothers.
I’ve been able to live on a lake a few times in my life as well. When I was in fourth grade my parents found their “dream home” on a lake 30 minutes outside of Milwaukee so they packed us up and moved us out there for two years, until my dad had had enough of the commute to his job (30 minutes away). That lake wasn’t as nice as Fence Lake…there were lots of weeds and the beach not seaweed free.
Many years later, when I was fairly newly married and we had three kids, we decided to move onto a lake in the Milwaukee suburbs because my husband bought a boat and it was too much of a hassle to deal with the boat launch and three kids every weekend.
Our first year-round lake home as a couple was kind of a disaster. Even though my husband had put A LOT of work into it, we lasted one (very, very cold) winter there before we moved on.
My husband really loved lake living. In summer he’d come home from work, get his trunks on and head out to the jet ski to unwind. In our second lake home, we had more space, more frontage, it even came with an above ground pool (that he ripped out) and a separate cottage.
By that point we had another baby, four sons by this time. Our lake house was located on a busy street. Between the traffic on one side, and the lake on the other, I didn’t go outside much for fear our youngest would drown or get run over. I’m know I wasn’t the most fun wife and mother during those years.
My husband finally listened to me and after two more years we again moved to dry land where we had our fifth child and a boat slip on the water. Now that was fun! We’d take the kids out on the lake to tour around and look at the big homes built on the shore. The lake our slip was on had five different bars and restaurants to stop at as well. Often, we’d take our youngest with us as we had a “date night” on the water and leave the older kids at home with a sitter.
Time on a lake became minimal in 2007 when we sold the boat and moved from Wisconsin to Texas for my husband’s job.
However, there have been a handful of times we have taken our kids up to Broken Bow and rented a pontoon, everyone loves those trips!
Maybe someday there will be another lake home, and Tom and I will be the grandparents our kids bring their families to…
Life on the lake brings fun, peace, laughter, and ease. I hope this summer is bringing you a little lake time with your friends and family!
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