I’ve decided that October is going to be Guest Blogger month! (And, no… it’s not because I’m a lazy blogger.) Today’s very special Guest Blogger is Kathrine Charlotte Atwood Laycock, AKA KC, AKA Mommo. Yep, she’s my mom! And very proud I am of her. KC has been writing most of her life, for work, but also keeping a journal, to help her keep her head on straight. She has within the last couple of years started to write memoir pieces, and each one is like a perfect snapshot. Her use of description takes you straight to the scene she is trying to capture. After you read this piece you’ll understand that when Mom and Dad decided to retire there was no better place than Cedar Community, a retirement village on the very lake she describes in this short piece!

A summer day on Big Cedar Lake

By KC Laycock

I wake up slowly to the strangely silent crunching sound of the black and white Nash station wagon rolling down the incline to the road out to Hwy. 144. Dad never starts the motor, but lets gravity carry the car so he won’t wake us, which of course, it does. He is on his way each morning to drive to Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee where he is, in his words, a worker bee in the engineering department.

The air in the cottage already feels warm and sticky as I roll over on the lumpy mattress cot in the corner of the main room. My cousin Binky moves around the squeaky cot in the other corner- and I can hear the crackle of the thick plastic cover on his pillow.  He is so allergic to dust and the cottage is mildewy and always smells like the mice we live with all summer.  There is the lingering unpleasant odor of the “thundermug” under Gramma’s bed in the corner bedroom. One of us will be assigned to carry it to the outhouse to empty. Sure hope it isn’t me this morning - I think I will pretend to still be asleep.

My sister Judy and I do buddy up to go to the outhouse on the corner of the hill over looking the gravel pit - not our favorite place- more because of the wasps that hang out in the corners- rather than the smell, which is barely cut by the lime Dad sprinkles down the holes in the two seater.

We scramble back to the cottage to pull on still slightly damp swim suits.  We do not bother with shoes all summer.  We have a slice of toast and weak instant cocoa. Mom packs the picnic basket with PB sandwiches and plums, closes the gate so our black and white mutt Pepper will stay in the yard - and off we go to the beach in Rosenhiemer Park.

The way down the hill is a challenge in bare feet.  The gravel is sharp and tar hot as we cross the road and walk through the the rim of old oak trees to the beach.  We race across the strip of hot sand to the water..I feel the welcome wet coolness and take in the familiar setting like it is a friend welcoming me back for another summer day in it’s lap.  

Oh this is the sweetness of a summer childhood on Big Cedar Lake - water , sun, a bit of lunch and the quiet murmur of the the voices of Mom and Aunt Bert as we play with our cousins.  I hope today will go on forever!