It was a hot summer day in Plymouth. 1952! My Dad was smoking his daily ration of cigars in the office of the local Foundry as General Manager and his family (wife and 4 kids) were sweltering away in the City Club apartment.
Bucky called mid-morning and inquired if we wanted to go out to Elkhart Lake to the Fireman's Park. It had a great park area to romp around and we could all go swimming. So promptly at noon, Bucky picked us up in 1938 Cadillac and we zipped out to Elkhart. My Mother didn't have a drivers license until the late 1950's so my Dad had to drive. We only had the one car. My Dad would drop us off and go back to work. So we were "commited" for the afternoon.
Fireman's Park hasn't changed much. We parked for free in the gravel parking lot. We always wore our swimming suits so that we didn't have to change clothes at the beach. My Mother brought a big bag of "stuff" along to take care of us for the afternoon. It was always filled with candy bars, chewing gum and "sun tan oil". No it wasn't sun block with a PF factor of 45 like today. The sun tan oil (I believe it was Coppertone) was always heavy and thick and it was rubbed on like you baste a pig. I guess the idea was that you would develop a golden brown suntan even though you had light white pigment skin. When you went in the water the sun tan oil would wash off. I remember a lot of afternoons where we ended up wearning T-shirts in the lake to give extra protection. There was a small building near the beach where we could buy a soda.
Fireman's Park had one of the greatest beaches in the area. It was white sand and you could walk out 50-100 yards with the water getting gradually deeper. We would bring snorkels and water masks for diving. Yep, we frittered away the whole afternoon in the water.
Then around 5:00 PM my Dad would come back to the lake to go swimming, "fry out" and finally take us home. I know that we would throw the baseball around and I think there was an occasional football. The Park had plenty of shade trees and they provided concrete permanent outdoor grills.
For some reason I remember my Mother (who didn't smoke cigarettes up to this time of her life), worshipping the sun. She loved to lay on a blanket in the park near the water lathered with sun tan oil trying to develop a tan. A tan was symbolic of healthy. It was a desired look.
As the sun would begin to set around 7:30-8:00 PM we would jump in the car and trundle on back to Plymouth. Somehow the hot apartment didn't seem as hot. We had spent the day at the beach and we didn't even need a cottage. Maybe those days influenced my desire to own a cottage later on in life? Hmmmmm?
The lesson Grasshoppers is that your early life influences the choices you make later in life. There were many good times that my family shared while I was growing up and Fireman's Park remains indelibly etched in my mind. I could revisit the same routine today if I wanted. Of course I wouldn't look the same. Another Hmmmm!
Love,
Dad