Red Chuck

Lake Catherine

Out of all our travels recently, its nice to report that we had a great time here in the Natural State this weekend. Katherine and I took the kids to Lake Catherine Friday after work for a family reunion. Helen and Harrison went fishing with their cousin Jack. Actually they cast plastic fish into the lake and then reeled them back in, which doesn't make for great fishing stories but does make for great fun (if you are under the age of 7). In lieu of a great fishing story, cousin George told us about an incident he witnessed a couple days before (George and his family rented cabins for the week, so they had lots of good Lake Catherine stories).

George's Story: "Earlier in the week, the cabin next to ours was being rented by an elderly woman who was confined to a wheelchair. One day I noticed that the woman was sitting not in her wheelchair but in a rocking chair on the porch facing the lake and that two young boys were pushing her wheelchair up the hill beside the cabin. After getting the wheelchair to the top of the hill, one of the boys jumped aboard and rode the chair down the hill and off the dock into the lake. The other boy cheered and then ran down to the water's edge. The two of them fished the chair out of the lake and then pushed it back up the hill for another turn. As this continued, the old woman started yelling at the boys, 'Quit ramping my chair off that dock!' Of course, she couldn't do anything to stop them other than yell loudly from her rocking chair, which she did for an hour or so."

George's story is pretty good but the best part was his closing comment,

"Yeah, that's not the kind of thing you'd find people doing if they were staying in the Hamptons."

Even though Lake Catherine ain't the Hamptons, it sure seemed idyllic Friday evening. A cool breeze was blowing off the calm water. The kids played well together and after "fishing," they went for an evening swim. There were hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, there were funny stories in the air, and miracuously, there were no mosquitos above the skin.

Posted by Red Chuck at August 8, 2005 12:36 PM