Enjoying Lakes

Photo: Long Lake near Waupaca, WI

My fondness for lakes began in the mid-1940s when we regularly visited Chain O’ Lake, which was but a mile and a half from the home farm. To clear up the spelling of the lake’s name, Chain O’ Lake has no above ground connection to another lake. But it is connected to a series of other lakes underground. So those naming it comprised—no “s” on the name.

One of my favorite memories involves Hank Lackelt, who Pa hired him for the summer of 1943 or 1944. He owned a Model T Ford “Touring car,” which today we would call a convertible.

On hot summer evenings, after the cows were milked and turned out to pasture, my two brothers and I would pile into the Model T with Hank at the wheel and chug our way along the dusty country road to Chain O’ Lake. Once there, he would back the car into the lake, far enough for us to jump off the back of it into the lake’s cool waters. What fun it was. We would splash around in the lake for an hour or so, until sunset. Then we’d push the car out of the lake and be ready for our trip back home.

But we had to do one more thing before we left the lake, check for bloodsuckers (leaches). We saw them as an annoyance, even if we might emerge from the lake with one or more hanging on us. Earlier we’d discovered the remedy for removing them. We had a salt shaker with us. A little salt sprinkled on the bloodsucker and it fell to the ground.

THE OLD-TIMER SAYS: Nothing better than jumping into a lake after a hard day’s work on the farm.

ANNOUNCEMENT: My “Telling Your Story” Writing Class at The Clearing in Door County is set for July 19, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 if you are interested in attending. A few slots still available.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 12, 6:00 p.m. Frank B. Koller, Memorial Library, 2 US-51, Manitowish Waters. Old Farm Country Cookbook, with co-author, Susan Apps-Bodilly.

BOOKS FOR SUMMER READING;
For more about our antics on the farm when I was a kid, check EVERY FARM TELLS A STORY and LIVING A COUNTRY YEAR.. Purchase from your local bookstore, or buy them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org