Are We There Yet?

Way back in my memory it seems to have started with a pig.  Not a real pig -- but a big ceramic pig -- A really big piggy bank.  The purpose of this pig was to gather dimes.  And it worked.  As the months rolled by, dad and mom would empty their pockets of all change and deposit all the dimes in this pig. Those little dimes are heavy. It got heavier and heavier.  This swine depository was our vacation money.  Sometime before the appointed departure day, we would open up the pig (he had a small removable hole in his tummy) and count the dimes.  We were always surprised at the amount accumulated -- I don't know how much -- but it seemed like a lot to me.  That paid for our vacation.

We were not dirt poor but we didn't have much if any discretionary income.  So my parents in their wisdom saved their dimes so we could have a proper vacation every year.  The chosen location was always Ideal Beach (later Indiana Beach) at Lake Shaffer near Monticello, Indiana.  Let me tell you about this cabin we rented for a week at the ridiculous rate of $10  -- not a day  -- but $10 a week!  The cabin  -- which was lined up in a row with several identical cabins -- all tucked in together -- had a central kitchen area with a table and chairs. There were two bedrooms walled off with nothing but drab heavy curtains -- no walls.  A screened in front porch completed the little structure.  It was not heated  -- it had running cold water with a sink and a two burner gas cooking stove and an ice box -- NOT a refrigerator -- an ICE box  -- which was supplied with ice by an ice man each day.  There was NO bathroom -- a big central building housed crude rest rooms -- for the use of all the cabins -- one for men and one for women -- with a shower room with water heated by a big black, sun-heated tank on the roof.  It was usually cold water. That little cabin was our home for the week.  Oh yes -- along with the cabin came a row boat with oars.  Dad rented a little outboard motor from a guy at home who had such items for rent for a small fee.  It came with a gas can which one could fill for probably less than a dollar back then.  We did this routine for a number of years -- we even rented the same cabin every year -- I think it was number 27.  Maybe my folks were superstitious!

Almost as much as the actual experience of those vacations was the anticipation.  The day came when we loaded up the old 36 Chevy with all our stuff -- we waved good bye to all our neighbors and headed north toward our haven for a week.  We were so excited!  As we whizzed along a few miles from town -- I thought we would never get there and I asked the traditional eternal question every kid has asked his parents a hundred times -- "Are we there yet?" Dad told me to be patient.

We finally arrived.  We had prepared for this annual event for months in advance.  Mom and Dad made out a menu so we could buy exactly what we needed and nothing more -- no wasted food.  We could not eat out at a restaurant -- couldn't afford that.  But we did splurge and brought along our own Pepsi Cola (it was bigger than Cokes) and beer by the case.  My sister Susie and I saved our pennies and had our own little stash for some of the pleasures of that Shaffer Lake resort -- especially the salt water taffy made by the Sering family, who went from Crawfordsville to the resort each summer to their little booth to make and sell their wonderful taffy.  They would draw a crowd when Mr. Sering would pull and slap the taffy together with his strong hands and arms from a hook on the wall. How he could make that candy talk back to him.  It was probably not good for our teeth but it was so chewy and delilcious!  We didn't care.

Then there was the big wooden classic Chris Craft motor boat called the "Wahoo IV"  Susie and I did not yet understand Roman numerals and so it was known to us (to this day) -- not by its real name -- the Wahoo 4 -- but as the "Wahoo Ivy".  We budgeted our little pool of funds for one ride on that boat -- what a thrill!  The owner of that boat also had a miniature golf course which cost a dime and a free game if you sunk the last hole in one shot.  There were arcades and rides and the toboggan water sled and the roof garden, where an ice cold coke in a bottle was a nickle -- it was a wonderland for a couple of kids for a whole week. 

While other folks had a big powerful boat to cruise around the lake -- we had our little row boat with the dinky little outboard motor.  But that was OK -- we would follow the big boats around and "Ride the waves" from their wake -- the bigger the better.  Once an a while someone would come by on water skis -- and we had our own show right there on the lake and we would cheer for the skier as they came by.  We didn't need Cypress Gardens! We just loved to lay around in that little boat and get as tan as we could.  One special night we would get into or little rowboat and row out beside the lakeside dance hall -- Susie and I got to stay up  for this late night adventure.  The live band would play and we could see the reflected colored lights shimmering on the lake. and the dancers and the music as it surfed out over the lake.  It was magic.

Susie and I had a little sister back then  -- Mary Ellen.  I need to mention her.  Unfortunately she was born with such fair skin she simply could not be in the sun for any time.  She came only once and had to be taken back home.  From then on, she stayed with our grand parents and had a wonderful time being spoiled.  Emmy -- as she became know from her initials -- died a few years ago from lung cancer.  RIP little Emmy. 


No, we didn't have much money -- and some neighbors and family thought it rather extravagant of our parents to spend money we couldn't afford every year on a vacation. BUT -- Hey folks -- I am in my 80's and I am still remembering with so much pleasure those days at Lake Shaffer.  I treasure those memories --- wouldn't trade those vacations for any new car or better house or anything ever.  Thanks mom and dad -- wherever you are.

From the heart of Olaf Hart ...