This can't be a good idea.

We spent two summers vacationing at Samoset Lodge on the shores of Lake Nipissing, Ontario. It was a great place: the fishing was wonderful, the cottage was clean, and we rented a nice little boat to zip around the big lake. A delightful, German couple owned the lodge; they'd speak to my Parents in German.

There was no television, and there was no radio. There was a peculiar source of entertainment at the cottage: a gregarious ground squirrel who visited every day, begged for peanuts, and sat on our laps. The ground squirrel (or its progeny) reappeared each year that we were at the cottage. Our family albums for those two years are filled with photos of the ground squirrels.

We named all of the visitors "Čipūlis," a Lithuanian word that I made up to mean "little chipmunk."

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Mom knits in front of our cottage, unfazed by Čipūlis.

 Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. My instincts are good, and they tell me that this situation requires cautions. This is a rodent.

Tatjana at the Lake

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, visits us at Lake Nipissing. This photo illustrates the colors of her housecoat.

A Special Outing, in Three Takes

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Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Our host at Samoset Lodge took us Gar fishing. We often caught many species of fish during the two summers we vacationed at Lake Nipissing. Catching a Gar, however, was a rarity. My Dad, who worked as a dental histologist, found these fish especially fascinating. This expedition thrilled Dad.

Home Movies

Mom shoots some film as we arrive in "The Swan" for our summer vacation at Samoset Lodge, along the shores of Lake Nipissing.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, July 1964. We've reached the rental cottage. Mom wears her nose guard.

We ate what we caught.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Dad's caught a Northern Pike, and he won't be releasing it.

During the two consecutive summers we vacationed at Lake Nipissing, we caught a lot of fish. My Parents bought a storage chest, we filled it with bags of ice, and we brought many pounds of fish back to Chicago. There, we stored it in our basement freezer. My Mom doesn't touch fish, and I don't like to deal with the bones, so my Dad and his mother, Tatjana, were the only two who ate it.

Fishing and knitting ...

… again.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, July 1965. I show off another pan fish while Mom knits.

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Lake Nipissing, Ontario, July 1965. Mom works on the sweater top of a knitted suit. She's taken care again to protect herself from the sun.

On the Water

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. During our summer vacation on the Lake Nipissing shore, Kadis, the husband of my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, and his daughter, my Toronto Cousin, visited us. Here are Kadis and Toronto Cousin as we head out for a ride in our rental boat.

Blueberry Picking

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. My Mom and I pick blueberries along the shore of Lake Nipissing. We encountered no snakes there. It's likely that my Dad anchored our little rented boat so that Mom and I could search for the tasty treasures.

We follow the sea plane, and Mom does laundry.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. A sea plane landed on one of the Madison lakes yesterday. The story reminded me about how often sea planes appeared on Lake Nipissing.

July Road

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. We're approaching the Lake Nipissing cottage.

We're missing a captain.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. I'm anxious to go fishing with my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, during her visit to the lake.

Keep that knitting handy.

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Mom and Dad have gone for a walk in the pine forest surrounding the lake, and Mom has brought a project in her gray knitting bag. She's knitting a red, mohair sweater that she would wear the following summer, when we made our first trip to Glacier.

Lake Knitting

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Mom's knitting again while we fish. She's working on that black and green cardigan that she wore for several years. Mom brought her fancy knitting bag.

Still Fishing

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Ours is the only boat visible on the lake.

Vacation Knitting

 
Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. My Mom works on a project while we take a boat ride around the lake. There's no better time to catch up on some knitting than during a summer vacation. Some people talk about "summer reads;" we ponder "summer sweaters."

Vacation Knitting

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. Mom works on this suit while we take a boat ride around the lake.

Three Generations

I recently submitted all of our family's 8mm home movies for conversion to DVD. The clerk was surprised that we had about 7,700 feet of film to process. He was delighted, however, that my Dad had organized everything by date and place. It would be easy, the clerk concluded, to maintain the chronological integrity of the eighteen reels.

My Mom forgot that she usually was the one responsible for shooting the home movies. This was especially true when we traveled on vacation. Dad shot the black-and-white photos and slides, and Mom handled the moving pictures.

I showed this photo to Mom last night to remind her that she often had a movie camera in hand:

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. I'm on the little rental boat with my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, and my Mom. Tatjana summered in Toronto with her daughter, my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, but she took the train up to the lake to spend a July week with us at the cottage.

Full

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1965. The Samoset Lodge chipmunk—whom we called "Čipūlis"—has had enough.

Sisters-in-Law

Toronto, Ontario, July 1964. My Dad's twin sister, Jonė, and my Mom relax in a park. We had stopped in Toronto to visit Jonė and her family on our way to Lake Nipissing.

Tasty

Lake Nipissing, Ontario, Canada, July 1964. Čipūlis eats the peanut now; he's saved more for later.