Memories of Past Times

Cottage – Family (in the beginning) During the beginning years of cottage life, we all enjoyed the cottage. My brother and sisters came up most weekends. This was especially true of my brother, Chuck. He, and his friend, Dennis Bradley ( one of the 4 founders of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, located in Hamilton and, its first president ) were in partnership of a seaplane, a Seabee. Dennis and his family also owned a cottage on Lake of Bays . Their cottage was on the Dorset (east) end of the lake and ours on the Baysville (west) end. They would fly up to the cottages from Toronto. One weekend Chuck would keep the plane at our cottage and the next weekend, Dennis would keep the plane at his cottage. In the beginning, all families would stay in the original cottage, but because the families were growing larger, Chuck built his own prefab cottage on the property. It added a great deal to the cottage site, both in value and accommodations. During the time, we all got together to s...

Cottage - Guests (Part Two) Another time my best friend, Richard , was invited to the cottage to be with me. My parents had invited one of their friends ( Mr. and Mrs. Watson ) also for the weekend. Rich and I had a wonderful time swimming and playing around. In the afternoon, a little before supper, we both fell sleep. My dad and his friend decided the play a joke on Rich and me. My mother and her friend went along with the joke. They came into the room where we were sleeping and asked us why we had missed dinner and slept though the night. They actually had us believing that we had missed dinner and had slept through the night! Eventually, my mother broke the news that we had been tricked! Over time, I had other friends visit the cottage, none them were tricked the way Rich and I had! The adults had one “ kid win ”, but I had their “ adult money ”!

Cottage - Guests (Part One)   My parents, especially my father, were very social. They loved to invite friends to the spend time with them at the cottage. There were a few couples that they invited more often. One of those couples, the Moniers , liked the area so much that they bought a cottage themselves from, who else but Mrs. Haynes , herself! Yes, that’s right, the same lady that we had purchased our cottage from. Their cottage was on the same cottage road that ours was, but was located on a different bay. In thinking back, my must favourite memories of the cottage, not counting swimming, boating and waterskiing, were the evening card games. One of the most memorable games, was with two of my parents’ best friend couples, the Moniers and the Watsons . The evening of cards started off normally. This evening the card game of choice, was poker, 5 card draw.  The stakes were 5, 10, and 25 cents. For me, the game become interesting when I started to win, and I won lot. Not m...

Huntsville Our cottage was quite close to Huntsville . This is where we shopped for our cottage supplies. We didn’t go to Huntsville often during our summer vacations, but I always enjoyed our visits. This was especially true when I was younger. There was one store, in particular, that I loved to explore. It was the Algonquin Outfitters , located on the main street. This store was amazing! It was like the other “ trading ” stores that I told you about earlier. However, it was much different, in that it was much larger and had more fun things to discover and play with! Like most young children, my eyes grew “ very large ” when we entered the store. My parents would indulge me by giving me lots of time to look around. Eventually my parents, usually my mom, would have to drag me out of it, with a promise that we would be back soon. She was able to convince me every time. As a kid, I never tired of going to the store. I am sure that my mother had other thoughts! However, she always kept h...

The Marinas (Part Two)   My few years working at the marina were great and set me up for a lifetime of work. However, good things sometime come to an end. That’s what happened to my relationship with Cal Martin and the Kelmar Marina . Although my experienced with the marina were positive, my fathers were not. I believe that Cal started to take advantage of my father and his business. The interaction between then both became strained. At the end of one of the seasons, my dad decided he had had enough and moved his business and boat to the other marina, the Baysville Marina , owned by Gordon McCormack ( he also owned the Baysville General Store ). I don’t think that this new relationship was quite as warm as the one with Cal, but, as they say, business is business. Fortunately, my work relations were over with the marina and I went on the bigger and better ( ? ) things. I became a “ gas jockey ” and worked for my brother-in-law at his ESSO Service Station in Toronto . More about...

  The Marinas (Part One) As I mentioned before, there were two marinas in  Baysville ,  Baysville Marina  and  Kelmar Marina . My dad, from the beginning of our adventures on  Lake of Bays , chose to deal with  Kelmar Marina . The family who owned it were very hospitable and were great to deal with. When I turned 14, the owner of the marina, Cal Martin, offered me my first job! Boy, was I excited! I was to help his customers with their boats and to help at the gas pumps. I loved the job and was very enthusiastic about it. To get to the job, I would take our boat and tight up at the marina docks. Cal was great to work for. Part of Cal’s business was making waterskies, especially slalom skis. Cal knew that I like to waterski and offered to let me build my own. What a thrill! It was bright yellow and I kept it and used it for a very long time. After an unfortunate waterskiing accident, my “ baby ” ( the ski ) was retired! I’ll tell you more about this “ t...

  The Village - Baysville (Part Two) What I mean as “ fun ” was ice cream, candy and Miss Langmaid . Miss Langmaid owned and ran Langmaid’s General Store . It was a typical country store, except that it sold “ excellent ” ice cream. Miss Langmaid always served large ice cream cones. One of the quirks of going into the store was Miss Langmaid, herself. Whenever anyone entered the store, she would shout out, “ Up for the summer! ” It happened every time we entered her store. I often wondered if she said that when a “ local ” customer entered. I enjoyed, going there, Miss Langmaid was always cheery and pleasant. At the back of Langmaid’s store was the Muskoka River. Beside the store was a small but beautiful park. It overlooked a dam that controlled the river. Judi and I still visit the park when we are in the area. It’s shaded and peaceful, a great place to sit and relax after long drive. Across from Langmaid’s was an old country inn. It, too, sold ice cream. Sometime we would go t...