From Cold to Warm

Uncle Willard's Cabin

Runyan Lake, Fenton, Michigan

L to R- Joanna (my mother) Shinkle, with sisters Helen and Becky

 at Runyan Lake as Teenagers around 1950

It was a bit cold yesterday.

My drawing class was over and I had to make it back to my car in the chill. I put my head down and opened the door to the outside and began walking swiftly. I stayed on the path and used it's borders to guide me to the parking lot; rarely did I look up. On that path there was a sound and a smell that was so familiar. I looked up to see a red motorcycle, started and waiting. The motorcycle had a rumbling sound and a strong smell of gasoline. 

That smell and sound pulled me to my Uncle Willard's speed boat, sitting in the waters on Runyan Lake in Michigan,  with rumbling motor and pungent smell of gasoline. So many feelings and memories flashed through my mind as I allowed them to ruminate . Instantly, I was  a child again and in a matter of minutes I could see the faint rainbow swirls in the lake from the oil and gasoline. I could see the myriads of colorful dragonflies in the air that collected around the planked dock. The double-decker dragonflies scared me the most.  My mind's eye drifted to see Uncle Willard in the driver's seat of the red speed boat. He always had a hat on his head and it seems to me that it was most often a fishing hat. Funny, I don't recall him ever fishing. 

It is strange how a memory can jump around from detail to detail because from the hat on his head, my thoughts jumped back to his small cottage that sat up the marshy, long path. There was one particular area of that path that had tall grasses on either side and it was between those grasses that the ground was the most squishy and soft. When my foot met the earth, water would seep over the tops of my toes. I once saw a snake in that area and because of that I would run through quickly to the other side; the end of the tall grasses representing my safety. 

Once inside the screened-in front cottage, there hung an expandable, hanging rack full of hats. Certainly, this is where my Uncle picked his hat for the day. There were sailor hats, military hats and all kinds of fishing hats. My sister and I tried them on and laughed at our reflections. Inside that front cottage, there was a kitchen, one bedroom and a small den that led out to the screened porch. At one of our visits my sister Joni, cousin, Bill and I stayed up in the attic on cots. Coming down the attic ladder one of those mornings I ate a huge bowl of oatmeal that my Aunt Becky had made. To this day I remember that oatmeal as the best I have ever eaten! 

When leaving the front cottage the springy, squeeky back door led to a short and narrow concrete path that led to the back cottage. In the concrete walkway there ran a small canal that had the coldest water I can remember touching. Michigan summers are filled with warm days and cool nights and the water was especially frigid in the early morning hours. The well water was not only cold but it's smell was awful. I think I was told it was the sulphur in the water that produced this smell and it made me want to not drink the water while I was there. Somehow the smell made it poisonous in my mind.

In the back cottage there was a bathroom and one bedroom set off from a larger dorm-like room filled with beds. My parents got the single bedroom and although I can rarely recall sleeping beside my parents I do remember sleeping there one night with my dad. I must have been sick or scared. I lay there listening to his breathing and heartbeat and how slow it seemed to be compared to my young child rapid breaths and heartbeat. It was in the back cottage I remember walking in on my great Aunt Helen undressing. I remember thinking I NEVER wanted to grow boobs or grow old!!

At Runyan Lake I learned how to play a card game Thirty-One, and where I practiced shuffling cards with my small hands practicing the bridge shuffle. When the day was rainy or cold we played a lot of games on the porch.

In Michigan I remember eating the fullest, sweetest blueberries and I recall our family sitting around the table for dinner and eating hot, buttery corn on the cob. After dinner we played a game called Michigan Rummy and I felt grown up and smart.

But most of the time we were down at the water. I watched my brother, John and sister, Kathy water ski from inside the boat. I would holler to the driver when they went down. We circled around them, tossed them the handled roped and up they would go again.  They made it look so easy and I wanted to ski like they could but after trying to get up on the skis one day I felt defeated and never tried again. In the evenings before sunset, we all got on the pontoon boat and rode lazily around the perimeter of the lake. I liked to sit on the front edge and stick my feet into the water and watch the strange strands of water that my toes formed as we moved along.

I loved to swim in the lake and remember racing against my Aunt Becky one time. I found her to be sweet and attentive. She seemed to be a celebrity to me since I was named after her. She won of course. Her laugh is one I can still hear.

I think the last time I remember going to Uncle Willard's cabin I was in the fifth grade. My family had moved to Michigan and we went there to help my uncle rake leaves and get the cabin ready for closing for the winter months. In those HUGE piles of leaves we jumped in and hid from each other. It was bit different being there in the crisp, cool fall.  We only lived in Michigan for a little over a year so that was the only Autumn I spent there.

I know that the cottages on Runyan Lake are now gone. The back cottage burned down. I think the area has big, fancy places along it's shore now. In my memories though the sweet and simple cottages will remain, untouched and unchanged. 

In the days I spent there with my parents and sisters and brother, cousins and aunts and uncles I remember feeling warmth, love and happiness. In recounting those times I know that the best gifts we can give our children are the memories of simple things that include traditions and just being together.  It is in the lazy days that we allow our children to feel free and uncomplicated, to just bask in the sun and feel the love of life.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the gift of Runyan Lake.

my brother John and sister Kathy water skiing on Runyan Lake.