Autobiography - Family the Early Years

Growing up in Lake Bluff was like being in a Coca Cola commercial. We liked Lake Bluff so much we owned three homes there and encouraged our son and his family to live three blocks away. Lake Bluff is on the bluff on of Lake Michigan. It is a quiet village with a lovely beach and gazebo in the downtown.

Alison was born in 1979 and JP was born in 1982. Joining Indian Princess and Guides was a very fun experience. It helped me plan special events with both children by blocking out my calendar a year in advance. There were weekly tribe meetings, summer and winter camp outs and pine wood derby’s. Our tribe was the Hunkpapa of the Lakota. Their tribe was among those that defeated the Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn. Alison’s Indian name was Yellowee as in things that are yellow. JP was Brave Eagle and I was Sunfish. The summer and winter camp outs at camp Anokijig were a highlight. We would depart on Friday afternoon and camp out for two nights and return home on Sunday wearing the same clothes we had on Friday. Yes, we brought changes of clothes but never needed to change. Days were filled with swimming and fishing and hiking. Evenings were spent with singing around the campfire. I became the medicine man of the council. My job was to find innovative ways to light the giant tribal bon fire. My idea was to shoot a flaming arrow into the pile of fire wood. I practiced with an arrow wrapped in cloth. On the night of the council campfire I soaked the arrow with charcoal lighter fluid and lit it on fire. My first shot was half the distance to the fire. I ran up to the arrow and shot it again. It landed just short of the wood. My third shot landed on the kindling and the bon fire blazed to life. I had not considered the added weight of the charcoal lighter fluid in my trajectory calculations. No worries. We all sang Kum ba yah.

The pine wood derby was always a fun event. We built tiny wooden race cars. We carved them, painted them and fine tuned the wheels. The real challenge was adding lead weights to get the best balance. We had two cars in each race and always did well.

JP was a Boy Scout and became an Eagle Scout. There were many wonderful camp outs over the years. I attended all of them along with several other Lake Bluff fathers and sons. I found a daily calendar page that said “When all things are equal - hire the Eagle Scout.” I posted it on the refrigerator.

We went canoeing with the Boy Scouts in the boundary waters of Canada. We learned that we could camp comfortably with less stuff each time. On our first trip we had to make three trips back and forth on each portage. A portage is the trip overland trip between two lakes to move your canoe and gear. The second trip we only had to make two trips back and forth. On our third trip we made our portages in one trip. We had our gear in backpacks and carried the canoe.

On our third trip JP and I were paired with one other father and son Don Smith (same name as Priscilla’s father) and his son. We had a wonderful week and decided to return a day early to an island near the parking where our car was parked. The sirens call of Pizza Hut was too strong. We paddled to our car and went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Don’t tell our scout master. We had hung our food bags from tree limbs over the lake shore. This was necessary every night to keep the bears from getting into our food supply. We never kept any food in our tents. We might have been a little lazy that night because we were going home the next day. Around midnight we could hear the sound of loud slapping on our food bags. JP and I joked - you go, no you go check it out. Then we called out to Don and son to go check it out. We all laughed and went back to sleep. We did have some mace just in case the bears got too close.

We made fourth canoe trip to Canada and Alison and her friend Audrey Kultzka joined us. We were joined by Jack and Johnny Sheppard and Bill and Geof Raymoure. We paddled down the Mississauga River for a week. We had four canoes and all our gear. There were no portages. Within the first few minutes on the river a bee flew under Alison’s life jacket and started stinging her. I was nearby and started wacking her life jacket with my paddle. Anyone watching would have called the police because I was assaulting my daughter. I killed the bee and we continued on.

There was a stretch of rapids where our canoes could barely make the passage. JP and I tried to help by taking Alison’s canoe through the rapids. We capsized and all of Alison’s and Audrey’s gear floated down river. Everything was in dry bags and nothing got wet except JP and me.

We camped on the rivers edge each night. It was primitive camping not in campgrounds. We had orange shovels to dig individual latrines. That is primitive. One night we camped in a parking lot near a bridge. It was a dirt parking lot. We pitched our tents cooked dinner. Some of the campers left their Teva sandals outside the tent to dry. JP and I kept our shoes in the tent. In the morning all the Tevas were gone. Did animals walk off with the Tevas or did a person collect them? I am a light sleeper and heard nothing. The mystery is unsolved to this day.

The next day the wind was blowing straight down the river. We decided to attach masts and sails to each canoe. We went ashore and found straight tree branches. We sawed them with our fire wood tree saw and lashed them to our canoes with our clothes lines. The ground cloths for our tents were the sails. We blasted down the river with our square rigged sails like we had motors on our canoes. It was exhilarating. All four canoes were racing each other. After a few hours were checked our map. We could not identify any landmarks. We realized we had traveled the distance of paddling for two days in four hours. We were one day away from from our haul out. Bill Raymoure called one of our Lake Bluff neighbors, the McMurrays, that had a farm in Harbor Springs, Mi. This was on our way home. They invited us to camp out on their farm for two days. Lots of fun.

Boy Scout camp outs were interesting to say the least. One family had two free range boys that would show up at the Grace Church parking lot. They had no camping equipment or extra clothes or food. We always took them along and made it work.

On one winter camp out we camped inside Eagle Cave. The year round temperature was 62°f. Each troop set up in a separate section of the cave. At midnight we heard a splash in a six inch deep pool and a boy screaming. Each troop was hoping the other troop would rescue the victim. After a few minutes I checked it out. It was one of our scouts Adam Hyman. His father had not attended. He had some issues and was wandering around the cave in the dark and and tripped into the puddle. We got him dried off and back in his tent. Several years later we heard that Adam was at another scout camp. He poured so much gasoline on the fire wood that when tried to light it the gasoline exploded and injured him. His family sued the scout master and the Boy Scouts for his injuries.

JP’s Eagle Scout project was to build a play ground at Priscilla’s pre school at the church of the Holy Sprit in Lake Forest.

Alison was active in music and sports. She played the clarinet in the Lake Forest high school band and played on the water polo team. Alison said the real action in water polo takes place underwater. The players grow their toenails long and try to scratch the legs of the opponent. There is peace and tranquility on the surface but the battle rages beneath.

Our family adventures became more adventurous when we bought a Coleman pop up camper. We hit the road and traveled north, east, south and west. We traveled west to the Bad Lands, The Heads (Mount Rushmore), Custer’s Battle Field, Devil’s Tower and Cody, Wyoming. Of course we stopped for free ice water at Wall Drug.

Heading north we travelled to Canada and visited Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec on our way to Boston. Traveling east we camped out near Washington, DC and visited the nations capital. Traveling south we visited Springfield, Illinois and the Lincoln homestead.

There were many camping adventures in Illinois and Wisconsin. For several years we would camp in Galena for the Columbus Day weekend. Several times it snowed. We enjoyed the Christmas Fair there each year. Another favorite location was Devil’s Lake. We would camp out and go rock climbing. This was the real deal with belay lines at the top of the climbs and harnesses and climbing shoes. Alison was an amazing climber and could lift herself on a hand hold the size of a pea. Another nearby location was the Wisconsin Dell’s. This is a kids paradise with water parks, go cart tracks and duck boat rides. When Alison and JP graduated from high school we sold the camper and bought a 39’ sailboat. Many sailing stories to follow.