The Summer of 1962

Summer of 1962

The next summer Sharon and I were 17.  We were older and wiser, or so we thought. This year we were staying in a really tiny cottage on the other side of the Lake.  The occupants were Sharon’s Mother, my Aunt Marie O’Donnell, Sharon and me and Sharon’s younger sister, Diane, and her good friend, Renee.  We were packed into the place, but we didn't mind the cozy feeling. My "cousin of the heart", and Stanley Decker’s sweetheart, was not with us that summer.  I’m guessing it may had had something to do with the fact that her mother didn’t want to risk sending her away on vacation again with the Fries Family and company. 

My family and my Aunt Margie and Uncle Bill and their family and my Grandpa O’Donnell and Aunt Anne were all staying in Scott’s farmhouse where we had stayed the year before. 

We failed to find the Decker Brothers even after our Uncle Bill Foulkes had given it his best shot.  Instead, that first evening at the Lake, Sharon and I went with my Aunt Marie, my Aunt Anne, my Aunt Margie and my Mom to the Chestnut Lodge for a drink and a little socialization.  I guess the men stayed back at the Farmhouse to oversee the younger family members. Although technically below the legal drinking age of 18, Sharon and I sat at a table in the main dining room of the Lodge and ordered a drink (probably a soda but possibly a rum and coke or Tom Collinsn). They weren’t as particular about checking Identification back at that time in history and we may have had fake birth certificates anyway, like most of the kids of the era. Besides we were less than a year away from the legal drinking age of 18.  

There was an Masters-of Ceremony at the Chestnut Lodge who was doing his best to bring people together. He was using some silly ice breaker games as a means of introduction.  I remember being coaxed into joining an activity that involved unraveling toilet paper.  Before we knew it the MC had very smoothly moved us to a table where these two guys were sitting alone.    This was how Sharon and I met our next set of country men ( Notice I didn’t use that prejudiced terminology, “Hillbillies”. )

 I want to mention that for the purpose of this story I will be using pseudo-names.  As the story progresses I believe the reasons for anonymity will become clear. So let’s just call these country men RA and Fergie.   Sharon was paired up with Fergie and I was paired up with a fellow named RA.   Back in 1962 the thing to do to show chivalry and interest was to offer to buy a lady a drink and so RA did just that.  And, since I knew very little about alcohol beverages at that point in my life, RA suggested that I could take a sip of his Gin and Tonic to see if I wanted one of those. I took a tiny swallow and thought it was a most horrifying taste - more like bitter medicine than anything one would drink for pleasure.  No wonder it is called tonic I thought.  Not wanting to look like a mere child I probably quickly ordered something like a rum and coke which was the one mixed drink I could tolerate.  Since I wasn’t much of a drinker, I sipped on that one drink for the rest of the evening.  I remember having quite a bit of fun and when it was getting time to leave, these “older men” (probably 4 or 5 years older than us with real jobs - RA worked road construction which I thought was cool) asked to drive us back to the cottage.  They told us they wanted to pick us up for a date the following evening and needed to see where we were staying.  We went into the bar area where my Aunts and my Mom were sitting at a table, chatting. They obviously were not leaving while we were sitting in the next room having drinks with two total strangers.  “No way in hell are we leaving you here” was written all over their faces.  When we told them that our new found male friends wanted to drive us back to the cottage, they initially said “no”.  Of course Sharon and I began to beg and promised that they were responsible young men and that we would go immediately to our cottage.  We even brought RA and Fergie into the bar area to introduce them to the ladies. The men were very polite and promised they would drive slowly and carefully directly back to our cottage. After exhibiting their best behavior my Aunts and Mom finally consented to let the guys drive us around to the other side of the Lake.  We walked hastily to the parking lot and got into the car with RA and Fergie.  As soon as we pulled away from the Chestnut Lodge we realized that our older, wiser female protectors were practically glued to the back of Fergie’s car.  Till this day, I don’t know how those four Ladies paid the bill and got out to their vehicle so quickly.  They followed close behind us all the way back to the cottage.  Not sure what exactly they would have done should our country men made the decision to take off down the road in the opposite direction.  Knowing my Aunt Marie, she probably would have followed in hot pursuit! She was a feisty little woman, that Marie Murphy O’Donnell. 

The 1st photo above is the cottage we stayed at with Aunt Marie Murphy O'Donnell in the summer of 1962 (The photo where the cottage looks really dilapidated was taken somewhere between 1962 and before the cottage photo was taken in 2018 - as you will notice someone updated the cottage, painted it brown and gave it a new life) and the two mermaids photo was taken on July 7, 1962 at the Afton Fair in Afton, NY when our Grandpa TJ O'Donnell took us there. My younger brother, Marty, also had a funny photo taken that day at the fair.  He was in a salon, sitting next to TJ and he was holding a bottle of whiskey.  Both TJ and Marty had Bowler type hats on.  I don't know exactly where that picture is right now.  If I come across it I will add it to this blog entry.