I’m a first-time Forum writer, but have been enjoying the Winnipesaukee.com website for a few years and especially the Forum. If I ever want to know what’s going on in the Lakes Region or have a question about maintenance, etc., Forum participants (lively bunch that you are!) seem to be prescient and have the questions and answers already out there on the Forum. I’ve enjoyed reading through all the threads and most recently, the “memories of the lake” thread. Although I’m now a resident of Jonathan’s Landing (thus JL Girl), I’ve been coming to Lake Winnipesaukee for 20+ years as we rented a cottage every year. Long ago, we owned a cottage on Cobbett’s Pond near Windham, NH – those were my growing-up years and I have very fond memories of the pond (more like a lake) that have carried over into my love for Lake Winnipseaukee. Seems as though you grow up near a body of water, you have an inherent and long-lasting for all things “water-like”.
Harkening back to my childhood, were there vendor trucks that used to visit cottages on Lake Winni like there were on Cobbett’s Pond? – i.e., Cushman’s Bakery, the milk and egg man, the vegetable and fruit man, the meat man…they’d drive in on a special day and we’d go see what they had - my mother, aunt and grandmother would pick out that week’s supplies and all the kids would lug the items back to the cottage. We had to walk out to the main drag to get the mail and would make up stories about various scary people (or so we thought) that lived in some of the cottages on the way back. It’s a wonder the mail ever got back in one piece. We used to slide down the pine needles on our cottage hill on a piece of cardboard, until my grandmother would make us put all the pine needles back. Remember all those sights, sounds, and smells that somehow embedded themselves in your memory only to be conjured up at some later time, like in winter – the sounds of boats on the water, the boat slapping the water and pulling against the wharf, the smell of eggs and bacon in the air as we came to the breakfast on the porch, the taste of cantaloupe (to this day, it reminds me of camp!), the pines whispering in the breeze, the sun dappling through the trees, the absolute stillness of the water early in the morning, feeding bread to the “sunnies” in the water, hanging over the end of the wharf to see those enormous spiders inside, waiting the interminable “hour” after lunch before we could go back in the water, putting on a wet bathing suit, the special smell of camp that would sometimes linger on blankets that you’d open in the winter and be transported back to those camp days, opening camp in the spring (my parents scraping the boat – a wooden dory like boat – before they’d paint it), playing cards and board games, reclining upside down and half hanging on the floor to read a book (it was better that way!), listening to the floor console radio and the marine channels late at night, etc. I could go on and on! Special time! I have later memories at Lake Winni which I’ll share in a future post, but wanted to say hi and I’m glad to be a part of the Forum.
I think your posts are great and check there each day to see what’s new. The webmaster is a miracle person – I love all that you have done with it – great work!
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