13 Comments
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Carrie's avatar

Really beautiful. Thank you.

MaryBeth Sellers's avatar

This played my heart strings and I traveled down memory lane. I remember bare foot all day and how filthy they would be! I’m more saddened that life as you wrote about is gone for my family. Everyone always too busy to get together. But your writing brought so much joy, thank you!

Jen Lamoureux's avatar

What a beautiful way to be remembered. Brought me right back to spending my summers with my grandparents camping in western Massachusetts. While reading this, I could literally smell the fresh mowed grass and the damp woods right as we would arrive and the smell of coffee brewing in my grandma’s percolator. My greatest memories were from those years. Thanks for sharing.

Sean Curry's avatar

I’m sorry for your loss.

Reading this brought back some memories of my own grandfather. Some I hadn’t thought about in years. Some I might have never thought about again had you not helped jog my memory.

Thank you! Your words help me to remember a man I never want to forget.

Jeff Krogstad's avatar

Love, love, love all this! Outdoors and family and smells and playgrounds. And btw, my wife and I just got our sailboat into a slip on — yes — Lake Koronis! We have been so enjoying time there the last couple weeks!

Susie's avatar

I'm sorry for the loss of your grandpa. Tim and I had similar experiences with ours -- we're so lucky.

Tom Kapocius, PhD's avatar

Thank you, Dave. I have similar memories and they instilled a love for the smell of pine forests and the sound of water against the shore.

Linda Ward's avatar

❤️ Thanks Dave.

Rob Kimm's avatar

I'm sorry for your loss. Your childhood cabin experience sounds like mine a hundred-odd miles northwest of you, right down the the crawlspace with the dirt floor, random gear...and an astonishing population of spiders. My grandfather taught me to fish. As i write this, his favorite fly rod is hanging on the wall over my shoulder. That childhood led me to a lifetime in the outdoors and fishing industry (including writing for our mutual friend Rob Dreslein). I still stand on the dock and pester the sunfish 25 generations or more removed from the ones I pursued relentlessly as a kid. It never gets old.

One of the things tell my kids often was how lucky they were to get to know their grandparents as children and as adults. Through the sadness, think on that too. Another gift of time. 97 is a pretty good run.

Perry Smith's avatar

Thank you for sharing. May his memory be a blessing, and it sure seems it is!

Meyer Patricia's avatar

This reminds me of my childhood at our cabin on Lake Superior. We still have it in the family, now 4 generations.

Katie Belanger's avatar

So sweet. Thanks for sharing.

Nancy's avatar

This is lovely, Dave.