In 1972 my family and I took a trip to Canada with my dad's cousin, Betty Rose. Betty Rose owned a private island north of International Falls with a cabin overlooking the lake. I have a few memories of this trip and found quite a few slides of this vacation. Our family drove from Indiana to this area in Canada just north of Minnesota. We stopped at some tourist places along the way for some Russ photography.
The Smokey the Bear is one of the memories I have from this trip. Rusty and I climbed up on these bears with our own stuffed animals; Rusty with a dog and me with my baby bear. I can remember moving from locations on this statue and making Dad take pictures of us with our animals. Smokey the Bear was very big in our lives.
Story: Across the street from us behind our two neighbors houses was a hill that led to a small area of trees before opening up into the other neighbors yards. We considered this area of trees a small woods that we played in. One morning my neighbor, Mr. Rose, came out on his back patio to see some smoke rising up from these woods behind his house. He walked toward the smoke and saw my brother (who had a huge fascination with matches) stirring a little fire he had built. Mr. Rose startled my brother by calling up to him, "What are you doing up there Rusty?" Immediately, Rusty began stomping on the fire he had built and he called down, "Playing Smokey the Bear!" He got in big trouble, but the parents were snickering behind his back over that line.
I don't remember the drive there at all. I don't know if Betty Rose came with us or we met her there. I do remember that once we got to Canada and the little area where we got groceries we had to be taken to the island by boat. Betty owned a boat and according to my mother, whose memory isn't so great about this trip either, she kept it with a gentleman in the town. Connie thinks Betty Rose got her boat and took us all to the island. I kind of have a memory of being taken to the island by a man. It will be a mystery unless I see Betty Rose this year at the family reunion and her memory is better then the two of us.
At any rate Betty did have a boat and we did go on the boat to do some fishing. But before that we somehow got to the island via a boat.
I have a small memory about the island. I remember some men working on the island, but I'm not sure what they were doing. It came up once during a conversation about that vacation and I think my dad may have said they brought us groceries or something. For some reason they gave my brother a coin, a Canadian dollar or something. They didn't give me anything which is probably why I remember it.
Connie isn't sure when we did this trip in 1972, but she said it was pretty cold while we were there. She thinks it was in the summer right after we moved to Indiana. I remember playing down by this area and collecting rocks.
The water was cold. Rusty was a wimp. Okay, I don't really remember that part, but just look at him. And there I am, the expert swimmer out there on the rock playing the mermaid.
Eventually I convinced him to join me. I do remember that striped bathing suit I was wearing too. I had that for quite some time. Odd what things I remember.
This was us waiting for the boat so that we could go out fishing, I think. And there is Rusty's dog whose name I've forgotten and me with my bear, Teddy. I was always very creative with naming my animals.
Must have been cold out there on the water fishing. I have no memory of fishing. I do remember sleeping in bunk beds in the cabin and singing a song at night when all of the lights were off. It went like this:
Glack gung went the little green frog one day,
Glack gung went the little green frog.
Glack gung went the little green frog one day,
And his eyes went glack, glack, gung.
And then we would laugh and laugh before falling asleep. I also remember talking to everyone after the lights went out. And I remember Betty Rose made great pancakes in the morning and her secret was using water in the mix. Or maybe it was milk. Whatever it was it was not what my parents usually used and so there was a big "discussion" over this in the mornings.
The biggest memory I have of that trip was her stash of comic books. She had piles and piles of Archie comic books that I spent most of my time sitting and reading and reading and reading those comic books while sucking my thumb or eating. I was determined to read every one of those Archie comic books. It was the best part of my vacation and my first introduction to comic books and Archie, Veronica, and Betty. I don't know if I ever read them all, but I asked Betty Rose about 6 years ago what happened to those comic books as they would be worth something. She didn't know.
I'm throwing this picture in at the end here, not because I remember it, but because it is so arty. Or at least I think it is. And Connie looks so happy and so young. And there is Russ' shadow taking the photo. Ah, vacations...
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