The life lived and the things loved as children are often what form the character and tastes we carry with us into adulthood. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of our family cabin at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was a place where many childhood memories were made. Ours was a red cabin trimmed in white with a large eating and dining area. A gold couch sat along the wall underneath a large mirror and white Priscilla curtains covered the wall of windows in the room where my grandfather slept.
It was to me “almost heaven.” We would leave home with our station wagon loaded to the hilt with clothes, towels and enough groceries to get us through the week. I remember the joy I felt as we turned down the gravel road winding its way down to the lake. As we pulled up to the cabin my grandfather, who always had a good joke and a pot of green beans and potatoes waiting for us, greeted us.
Leaping out of the car, we headed down to the dock where we walked across the bar with our hands. An initiation of sorts, like monkeys swinging from tree to tree, it often resulted in someone falling into the water – clothes, wallet and all. A race around to the boathouse to see if our canoe was still in place and then a pause to look at the mountains against the blue sky were the ways we greeted the lake each time we arrived.
The big mountain that sat directly across the lake was a soothing sight each summer. Always the same, year after year, it was a comforting sign of strength and dependability.
It was in these waters I learned to dog paddle from the low diving board to the dock without my life jacket. For patience and precision, there was nothing better than learning how to set out a trout line. But oh, how it paid off when we reeled in a 4 feet long spoonbill and cheered as he flopped around on the floor of our green aluminum fishing boat.
As children we loved catching baby frogs along the shoreline and making cozy homes for them using shoe boxes and tissue paper. Each day was a new adventure-whether it was constructing a raft out of an inner tube, canoeing around the cove, or being make believe seamen in Grandpa’s big brown and white boat.
Mornings would find us walking along the beach collecting old treasures such as broken shells and discarded fishing lures or bobbers. Endless afternoons of splashing in the water, doing a balancing act on an old inner tube, learning to water ski and keeping Grandpa’s boat washed are all scenes of happy family times. I loved it—every room, every piece of old furniture, the mountains across the lake and even the century-old Carver family cemetery behind the cabin.
In the evening when the wind subsided, the lake calmed down. As the sun set behind the trees, there was a longing in my heart to keep things just the way they were forever. Oh, the memories of that place. Year after year it was the same. Intoxicating to us who knew it, filled with years of happiness, and appreciated by those who experienced its meaning. To be removed each summer from scenes of ordinary life and routine to the beautiful Ozarks has been God’s gift to our family. My Grandfather could not have dreamed when he built the unique cabin in 1958 that it was an instrument in divine hands for the blessing of our family so many years later.
Nature itself furnished most of the amusement we loved. Evenings of playing Monopoly, Sorry and Scrabble furnished the rest. The lake afforded us the opportunity to appreciate God’s creation. We would sit quiet and still waiting for a crane to gracefully land on the dock. A chipmunk would catch our eye as he scampered across the front porch. We would throw bread to the ducks and watch them from a distance as they seized the crumbs and raced back into the water.
And so we children were shaped. Life has come full circle. When our own kids were growing up, it was me packing the car, hauling them down to the lake each summer. Now I am blessed to have my grandchildren experience summers at the lake as well. As I watch them making their own childhood memories, I thank God for giving us His beautiful creation to enjoy—and especially for giving us our little red cabin on the lake.
