Memorial Day Memories

When I was little my parents joined a private lake club in New Jersey called Deer Lake.  The official opening day of the summer season was Memorial Day and I don't think we ever missed going on that day every year.  In 1965 we purchased our campsite in the camping area.  There were a lot of wooden platforms where people would set up their large tents, generally old army tents, moved in makeshift furniture and spent the summer.  Memorial Day weekend was always the BEST!  I had numerous friends there, many of whom I did not see during the fall and winter months.  It was so exciting to see everyone again.  As so many others did, my mom and I spent the summer there while my father commuted to work from the tent.  The campground originated during WWII during the gas shortage so people could just stay at the lake. 

We camped every summer all through high school and up until I got married.  My parents kept the campsite and and we and our kids would go almost every day just for the day.  After my father passed away my mom continued to camp by herself every weekend.  My girls loved the lake as much as Rich and I did and made many friends.  In 1988 we were transferred to Pennsylvania but not far enough away that we couldn't go to the lake.  We resumed camping with my mom every weekend until we were transferred to Texas in 1991.  She continued camping for another 2 years until she made the move to Texas. 

Once Deer Lake gets "into your blood" it never leaves.  Evey Memorial Day I think of the lake and all the fun we had growing up there.   We sailed and raced our Sunfish sailboat, we participated in swimming races, rowboat and canoe races and mile long swims.  We all learned to swim there and Rich and I took lifesaving classes.  We go back to visit once in a while and it always feels like going home.  Jennifer has also taken Lacie there twice.    My grandparents were original members and my aunt and uncle and cousins also were members.  Rich grew up there with his family but weird as it may seem that is not where we met.  Most of our friends moved away years ago, although a few still go every summer.  Unfortunately we lost contact with a lot of our old friends over the years.

Through the miracle of Facebook I started a Deer Lake Group page a couple of years ago in the hopes of reconnecting with some of these old friends.  I succeeded - there are almost 200 members of the group and I have once again been in contact with friends I hadn't seen or heard from in 40 years!  All my Deer Lake friends are very special to me and always will be.  We created life-long friendships and memories at the most special place on earth!

Now my Memorial Days are spent at home in Texas with the family in our pool.  Yesterday they all came for a swim and "breakfast for lunch".  It is amazing how fast one family can fill a pool!  They swam in the morning then we cooked a pancake lunch on our grill's built in griddle.  I have no idea how Jennifer and James can afford to feed these kids!  We went through 2/3 of a box of pancake mix, 1-1/2 pounds of bacon and half a family size bag of sausage.  They were still hungry so Jennifer scrambled 9 eggs for them.  And after that they devoured most of a large home-made cheesecake.  We ate outside in

our outdoor room that Rich built last year.  My Deer Lake friends might think they recocognize the design of the structure.  Yes, we were thinking of the camper's shelter when we

drew up the plans.  You can't see very good in the picture but the

railing around the structure is a duplicate of the railing on the bridge to

the campground.  And if anyone remembers Janet Farnow and her

renouned cheesecake - that is the recipe I used.  And as usual we talked about past summers spent at Deer Lake and how much we miss it.