The Cabin - Part 4

Activities Around the Cabin

Swimming AND diving happened all summer long for many years until the diving board cracked and had to be removed. The dock ladder often became slippery and was scrubbed regularly. The dock finally gave way to a new one, that was built by my daughter and grandson in 2004. The float, a wooden structure mounted on metal barrels, was anchored to the bottom of the lake with an iron chain attached to a huge metal wagon wheel. The float was taken in to the beach bank before winter and then re-launched in the spring. Our family men took care of this maneuver yearly until several years ago when it was too much to handle by the one who did most of the duty alone.

Fishing still is a main activity, done by almost every family member - big or small. An old flat-bottom row boat with an electric motor was in service until a new "V" hull one took its place. Just throwing a line from the bank or dock results in a nice catch often. Fishes caught are: pickerel, largemouth bass, bullhead catfish, perch, crappie, bluegill sunfish and longear sunfish. A long time ago walleye, northern pike and trout were stocked and caught, but were fished out.

Boating is our recreation in water through the use of rowboats, canoes, kayaks, sailboats, paddle boats, pontoon boats - all human-powered or electric-powered watercraft. Then there are the non-boat floation items used for drifting, paddling and moving about: tire tubes, rafts, noodles, and inflatable or foam lounge chairs. What fun!

Picnics, steak bakes, pig roasts, birthday and graduation parties and holiday celebrations such as 4h of July and Memorial Day, were mustered and enjoyed by family, friends and guests. Once there was even an outdoor poultry processing demonstration, put on by my mother to educate an assemblage of youngsters and adults. What an experience that one was! Exclamations of "yuk!" "phew!" and "wow!" rang loudly several times. A barbeque chicken dinner followed, of course.

There are the quiet activities and pastimes: Walking, running, dog walking, bicycling, stroller pushing, ice skating, tenting, reading, and porch sitting. Go carts, quads, snowmobiles, a powered ice boat, the "ice-screamer" horses and ponies, motorcycles, tractors, mowers, saws, weed wackers, snow blowers, generators, and commercial vehicles are the noisemakers. I almost forgot to mention the target shooting before hunting season and horseshoes clanking against the old iron posts!

Cabin Tranquillity is not tranquil all of the time!

Mom & Pop had no idea what they started!

The Old Diving Board
The Old Dock
The Old Float on Tilt

The Old Float Repaired

The New Dock

Grandson & Son
Daughter
Husband
Grandson
Flat Bottom Boat
New "V" Hull Boat
Floating & Lounging
Daughter's Inflatable Friend
(Me) Grilling Hamburgers in Tire Rim

Granddaughter's Birthday Party
Blue Ribbon Hand Made "Pig-Rig"
Skewered Pig Cooked
Removing Skewer
Removing Chicken Wire Wrap
Picking and Tasting
Poultry Plucking
Poultry Processing
Son on Motorbike
"Dune buggy Gang"
Brother on Motorcycle
Trail Riding
The "Ice Screamer"
Granddaughter on Quad
My Kids and Husband Snowmobiling
Mom Mowing
Husband Blowing Snow
SC Friends Camping
Brother & Pop First Sign
Husband Replaces Sign

The Cabin - Part 3

A Few Questions and Answers

(1) How many uses did the clothesline have besides for hanging wet bathing suits, beach towels, wet rags and laundry? (Once there were two lines, until the rear tree had to be cut down.)

A. Some are: It once displayed a spray can painted sheet I made as an anniversary banner for a gathering in 1994. It also stored bead and plastic canvas home made "twirlies" I made to be given away to each couple attending the anniversary celebration.

It has shown off a pair of crocheted blankets I designed and made in 1977, using 32 different colored skeins, for my two youngest children after first receiving a blue ribbon award at the regional fair. It is still, and always has been a landing spot for assorted types of birds to rest between flights. Old line is always reused for tying down "things."

(2) How many logs have been split over 37 years as firewood for the original fireplace, and then later for the firebox barrel insert? (ash, oak, beech, birch, hickory, maple, apple, cherry)

1962

A. Tons of logs were made into an exceeding number of cords, all then stacked neatly, of course.

(3) How many bare babies' butts were placed in the old porcelain sink or on its built in porcelain corrugated drain board for bathing the little ones?

A. Six that I have personally placed there. Several others who I can think of were also subjected.

(4) What other uses does the bathroom ceiling (covered with random tongue and groove knotty pine planks) provide?

A. It provides a loft floor. Sleeping up by the rafters was a place for friends when there were too many visiting overnight for the overflow of beds such as the sofas, porch swing, and floor cots. Once it held four fold up cots for my kids when they were young; they loved to all go up there, but only the older four were permitted to sleep there. It has always been a source of storage space.

1968

1969

(5) Why do I live here?

A. Just because. (Re-read all of the above.)

The Cabin - Part 1

The Cabin - Part 1

It started as a dream retreat, a log cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania, on a private lake, a peaceful place and an escape from the working world. Location: one hundred thirty five miles from their current home near another lake in northern New Jersey. My parents planned to call the cabin, "Tranquility." They met in a church and were married in 1934 in a town called "Tranquility."

In 1999 my mother (PFN) wrote about its name. She was 85. It was the year of their 65th wedding anniversary.

This is her writing:

TRANQUILITY ........by PFN 1999

It's just a word, isn't it? Funk and Wagnalls says "tranquility" whether it is spelled with one or two "L"s means the state of being tranquil, rest or quiet.

But to a certain writer, it was, and is so very much more. First of all, it is a small country village not far from here where a beloved aunt taught school in a little one-room building. Later the same building became a community center. She retired after many years and was later to marry the man she would meet in almost the same location. This happened, would you believe it, in the village cemetery where he had come to place flowers on the grave of his first wife. After they were married they lived in a home just a few feet from the community center and the little white church just across the road.

Another chapter began when this writer and her parents came to celebrate a mortgage burning ceremony in the same former schoolhouse. It was now enlarged and became the gathering place for chicken and waffle suppers, harvest homes and other affairs put on by the church. This time a large group awaited a concert that was planned.

The uncle had invited a gentleman from a nearby farm where he was working as a state milk tester, to be the soloist. At the conclusion of the performance, the young man (tall, dark and handsome, of course) asked to be introduced to one of the young women in the front row of the audience. This he did and so began a new era of "tranquility." The girl had come to the evening meeting to drive for her parents and to practice her recently acquired driver's license.

The young couple dated for a couple of years and found they had a number of things in common. The next step was an engagement and soon a marriage. Inside the wedding ring the word "tranquility" was engraved as a fitting motto; now, after almost sixty-five years, it is barely visible.

Soon a family came along. First there came a daughter who was baptized in a beautiful large church in another small town. The next child was a son who was baptized in the little white church just across the road from the spot where so much had started.

As the family grew it moved to an urban town nearer the father's business needs. Soon twin daughters came along to complete the growing family. They were baptized in the large stone church on the green. All the children developed many interests and another diversion seemed to be in order.

A little log cabin in another state provided rest and recreation with new friends and interests. Of course, the cabin had to be named "Tranquility." The signmaker had erred and spelled it "Tranquillity." It became quite well-known around the little country lake that had been built by a cousin. This relative had generously offered the family the privilege of choosing a building lot wherever they liked. An ideal spot near the dam and spillway provided a choice view of the whole lake including watching the many forms of wildlife.

On the porch of the cabin hangs a framed article entitled "Tranquility," apparently the sentiments of another writer had written and published many years earlier as evidenced by the yellowing newspaper article.

Many things were happening around the world, the foremost of which was the landing on the moon by the astronauts. Was the "Sea of Tranquility" just another coincidence?

Two more minor things added to this strange saga when the oldest daughter began selling articles of jewelry put out by a famous company that specialized in home party sales. One very popular item was a silver pendant depicting the moon landing and was called "Tranquility." It sold out quickly and everyone in the family has tried to find this special piece but has had no luck so far, Another company that made cosmetics, took advantage of the publicity and put out a skin fragrance also called "Tranquility." This was purchased and is enjoyed still. How strange that a single word could be the focus of so many happenings!

The little country village, the community house and the tiny white church remain there still today. Perhaps our story will have its ending in the neat Tranquility Cemetery where it had all begun so many years ago.

The Tranquility United Methodist Church, was built in 1870.

Plastic Angel

A recent note from one of my "other sisters" impressed me very much and I quote her message here. She also took the photo of her angel.

"This angel was in my husband's family’s, so she’s about 60 years old. When his mom first gave her to us, 40 years ago, I thought, “She’s plastic,” not the heirloom quality I thought the handpainted one my family had was. Our kids even said, when small, that she looked like a blonde Wonder Woman, but I have come to love her and the Christmas traditions that she represents, and want to share her with all of you! May such treasures and blessings also be yours this season of family, friends love and joy – and the traditions that bring it all – and us – together !"

Reflecting and Contemplating

1937

I had a really good childhood during the 30's and never knew I was living in an economically stressed time. The only indication I consciously knew there were "problems" was during the time my dad took our cat and her kittens to a farm because they were" too much." My twin sisters had just been born. The year was 1942. I enjoyed the privileges of being an only child until I was three. When my brother was born, I don't remember any changes and, after the twins came, I still don't remember feeling less important or neglected at all. My ego and self esteem and self-importance were completely undamaged and elevated. I absolutely lived in my own happy world. I was the apple of my father's eye, my uncle's eyes, my grandpa's eyes and I knew it.

As a young teen I still felt special. Perhaps it was because my mother spent so much time and effort promoting modeling aspirations with me. I don't remember wanting to be a model, but being considered to be "pretty" my best guess is that my mother wanted it both for herself and me. She was on a mission and I was also to benefit??

That lasted until I was around fifteen and by then, I had become confident, bold and even adventurous, relying on both my higher than average intelligence and appearance. My emotional stability was ruined at age seventeen when the first and only real love of my life married someone else. It was my own fault, because I turned him down by refusing to live in a trailer on a marine base. I didn't know that a trailer was a home and thought it was a big ugly box that is usually pulled behind a truck! Complete miscommunication through written correspondence did the damage to my psyche. It was a naive and costly mistake. I now trace this crisis back to the beginning of my innermost self and personality deterioration and future reconstructions.

1955

I married at nineteen, not having any idea about how to keep house, raise children, and take good care of myself and a husband as well. Now, I guess that's because I believe I was taught by example and not by actual and clear communication. Yes, I knew how to bake, sew, iron, launder, and work hard. No, I didn't realize that children had needs other than being kept clean, safe, well fed and sheltered. I knew about discipline and thought that was what was expected of a mother. Love? That was assumed, wasn't it? Having full responsibility of caring for four kids under the age of five was one I did to my best understanding of the qualities belonging to a mother and wife. My kids were never left alone, dirty, or hungry and their injuries were promptly treated. Their emotional needs weren't considered. I hadn't grasped that. It never registered in my mind to be a duty. It just didn't come naturally.

1960

At age twenty-five I divorced and remarried.

1962

Things went well through my 30's, and two more children were born.

1968 1970

In my 40's my self esteem had almost totally recovered when an unsuspected striking blow of infidelity crippled and almost killed me. Hate and jealousy zoomed forward. Trust and restraint and power vanished. It's a wonder I ever returned to be alive. But I did and without professional help or medication.

Then, in my 50's, a son's mental illness and alcoholism took me to the bottom of the pit again. I tried with all my might and every way imaginable to save him and failed. Finally, in my 60's I let him go and recovered. The encumbrance of perceived responsibility was released and restoration hurdles were again cleared. There are lasting effects, however. Hurt once, I turned away. Hurt twice, I walked away. Hurt thrice, I ran away. I've stayed away. Now I trust no one but myself. I NEED space - much space. I NEED release and escape. I am bound by my roots. I want to be understood, but I don't understand. I've returned, but all of me is not here. Much was lost.

GMR 8/23/10