Down Memory Lane: Boats and Lakes

I rode in a boat on a lake this weekend. It's been a while. It made me think of my history with boats and lakes.

I grew up on a lake: Kitsap Lake in Washington state.

The first boat I remember having was a little dinghy, a row boat that we like to paddle around in.
Then we had a 8-foot white boat with a little motor on it. It's the one we were playing on when we weren't supposed to and my little sister fell off and almost drowned.
One day someone delivered a very large box to our driveway. When Dad finally got home we opened it to find a new speedboat! It was about 15', green and white, nothing fancy, but it was the beginning of a water skiing life that lasted for years. We always joked that our boat came in a Cracker Jack box. I drove the boat a lot more than I skiied behind it.
Another boat sometimes joined us. Kennedy's flashy red speedboat came to use our lake and our dock, and we loved that.
For my 8th birthday I got some swim fins, and swam in them for hours. I didn't know I had them on too tight until I got out of the water and saw that I had worn away the skin on the front of my ankles. I had big wet scabs for weeks, and still have scars from it.

We visited other lakes too. We spent a couple of summers on Lake Wilderness where we stayed in a rustic cabin and there were other activities like paddleboats, tennis, horseback riding and a little store--and a pretty girl named April Flowers. Wildcat Lake was not far from our house and we had church and private parties there. We didn't much like mucky Island Lake, but enjoyed Horseshoe Lake, the lake at Girls' Camp, and other lakes and beaches around the sound and the ocean.
Once we went out on Puget Sound on Dr. Almond's yacht. Dad sent us because he didn't want to go; my very active father didn't think sitting around on a boat all day sounded like much fun. It was.

Ferry boats were a large part of our life in Washington, the part I miss the most. We rode from Bremerton to Seattle for football games, shopping, and special occasions including the World's Fair, the Torchlight parade, and watching fireworks over Elliot Bay. From Poulsbo we rode the Kingston-Edmunds ferry for work and to see Mom/Grandma, and the Bainbridge Island ferry to get to Seattle and to the temple. The ferry from Port Orchard was a different experience, as were the runs to Port Townsend, and the ferry to Canada.

Lake Washington in Seattle was where we watched hydroplane races and saw shows including dancing waters and diving from high platforms built over the lake. We crossed the floating bridge over it, enjoyed the zoo nearby, and saw the huge lake from UW's Husky Stadium.
Lake Mead near Boulder City was a favorite in Nevada. Near the magnificent Hoover Dam, it was where we swam, where I did a day trip on the Jolley's boat (friends of my parents), and it was part of the scenery at our last lunch with Grandma Beth.
There were other lakes and reservoirs and boats, but I can't always remember where they were or what they were called. I haven't yet been to Lake Powell.

My favorite boat rides were the two cruises we took, one to Mexico and one to the Caribbean.
One of the highlights of my life was to be pulled by a boat on a parasail over the ocean.


We call the house I grew up in The Lake House. For awhile we lived on the cliffs high over Liberty Bay, and delivered phone books to the Bainbridge Island Marina where some people live on their boats.

I don't think of myself as a water person, but all my life I've had experiences with water, with lakes and oceans and beaches. I have memories of swimming, waterskiing, creeks, ponds, tadpoles, fishing, aquariums, water parks, showboats, docks, seafood, seagulls, herons, ducks, otters, lily pads, frozen lakes, beaches, digging for clams, and, of course, Ivars.


In spite of the itching we endured from the duck mites, I like a lake--and other bodies of water (though I don't need to get in them).

And I like a boat that will take you away from the known shore to another world,
--a cool, windy world of azure peace.

Take me away... It's so refreshing.

Mommy-isms

I love Mommy-isms.

I've often wondered what my own children will remember me saying. What things did I repeat over and over again that revealed my values, or my neuroses?

I haven't yet recorded those ideas that have been guideposts in my life, but I did get to thinking about some cartoons that I've seen over the years that I have never forgotten. Some of them became guideposts. Here's a few:


On cleaning house:
"Cleaning house while children are still growing is like shoveling the walk while it is still snowing."

On leftovers:
"You liked beans on Monday. You liked beans on Tuesday. You liked beans on Wednesday. Now all of a sudden on Thursday you don’t like beans?"

On disciplining kids (a picture of a father spanking a child over his knees):
"This will teach you not to hit!"

On picky eaters:
"Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he's buying." --Fran Lebowitz

On family relations:
"Men and children are like wet spaghetti: they can't be pushed; they can only be pulled."

On choices:
"Our future is shaped by our past--so be very careful what you do in your past." --Ziggy


It helped to know that--
"If it was going to be easy to raise kids, it wouldn't have started with something called 'labor'."


One last quote that saw me through:

"To get the whole world out of bed
And washed, and dressed, and warmed, and fed,
To work, and back to bed again,
Believe me, Saul, costs worlds of pain." --John Masefield

Easter Baskets

I woke up this morning to an Easter basket—my Easter basket, one just for me! (Thanks, E-Bunny)

I can’t remember ever receiving an Easter basket in my whole life. (I apologize to anyone who may have given me one and I don’t remember.)

My mother didn’t do Easter baskets. I didn’t do Easter baskets for my children. That was a conscious choice made by my husband and me. When our firstborn Jennifer had her first Easter (she was all of 3 or 4 months old) we bought her an Easter basket. Well, really it was a small plastic pail like you use in a sand box, full of candy and toys. That morning as we stood in the dark-paneled family room with red shag carpet, with Jennifer in her high chair and the tacky gift in our hands, we decided we did not want Easter to come from K-Mart. This is not what we wanted Easter to be for our children. We always had lots of Easter candy, and we dyed eggs and had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday, but Easter Sunday was about celebrating the Atonement and Resurrection of the Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

Now, I do not judge nor fault those of you who give your children Easter baskets. It was so fun to get one! And it certainly is more in keeping with the spirit of Easter, of the great gift of salvation that was given, then, say, eating ham during Jewish Passover. But I can’t help but feel some sadness for the children of God who think Easter is just about bunnies and baskets.

“There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter …the babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection.
“Of all the victories in human history, none is so great, none so universal in its effect, so everlasting in its consequences as the victory of the crucified Lord who came forth in the Resurrection that first Easter morning.” --Gordon B. Hinckley

My mother didn’t do baskets, but every Easter we all got a whole new outfit, from our head to our toes. We went to the department store and got dresses and petticoats, socks and underwear, shoes, gloves and even hats. Is that a secular tradition? Does it smack of who has the bigger or better Easter bonnet? Maybe. But for me it made Easter feel special, something worth dressing up for, and reminded me of all things new. Somehow we were transformed into something better than we were.

Last night someone left roses on my doorstep. Did they know? Did they sense that this day about death and resurrection might be especially tender for me? Did they know how grateful I would feel this day for the gift of eternal life and for He who made all things possible?

Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!

My basket, and my heart, are full.