LAKE MAGNOLIA

I can still smell the bacon frying. I can hear the coffee percolating. I can see my grandmother (Magranny) standing in a tiny space that was the kitchen of the camper trailer.

I can hear our laughter as my cousins and I chose who had to sleep on the top bunk which meant that your nose was one inch from touching the ceiling.

I can still see the white sand on the bottom of the lake. The minnows at the water's edge were plentiful. (Be sure to click the link at the bottom of this blog to see pictures.)

I remember the air bubbles that would come out of my grandfather's (Grandaddy) mouth as he stood on the bottom of the lake at the end of the "big dock" for minutes at a time with a grin on his face, while us kids had to come up for air before we could go back down and check on him again. I remember it all.

When school was getting ready to end for the summer, my parents always let me know that my grandparents would soon be taking us to Lake Magnolia for the week. To me, it was better than Disney World.

Adam and Kelli were too young to come with us in the beginning so for the first few years it was just me and my two cousins—Bryan and Ashley. We would pile into the truck and play Uno and Connect-Four all the way there, while sucking on peppermint sticks that Magranny brought along, in case we got thirsty she would say.

As soon as we parked, the three of us would have a race to see who could touch the water's edge first. Do you think I ever beat those two long-legged boys? No, but the feel of the ground as I tried is a treasured memory of mine. And they always waited on me. They had to wait a long time. Ha, ha!

After we got a toe in the water, we would run back to the camper where our grandparents were diligently "setting up shop." Back then, I didn't understand the work that went into taking us on these trips. Now, I do.

In the mornings, the water was like pure glass. Perfect hydrosliding conditions. We couldn't wait for Grandaddy to get the boat out. And he couldn't either because he liked to swing us through the scary alligator infested weeds. (or so we thought)

He would somehow whip that boat in such a way that our slide would fly through the weeds at the lake's edge. You just had to hang on tight and pray you didn't fall off at that particular time into those weeds and be eaten alive by an alligator. I can see Grandaddy's face in the boat right now laughing.

Oh, but we loved it though. We wanted to go again and again. I remember when Bryan started skiing in just his shoes and then advanced to barefoot. Ashley and Adam (when he was old enough) were the 360 kings. They would turn their slide around and around. Kelli, who was a tiny thing, would slowly be pulled through the lake on the slide, while lying on her stomach.

If we weren't in the boat, we were in the water. We did have one dock game. The goal was to see who could get their feet the closest to the dock's edge without falling in. But, since falling in was the best part, it didn't really pay to win.

After a day of fun, Magranny would always cook us a full meal for supper in that tiny kitchen of hers…pork chops, hamburgers, spaghetti, you name it. I don't know how she did it, but she did.

After supper, right before nightfall, we would take a walk. It was a fairly long walk and Grandaddy brought his lantern with us every time. But, he NEVER used it. Even though it would turn dark while we were walking, the light would never be turned on. "Grandaddy, aren't you gonna turn that light on? It's dark." He never did.

And, so, a family joke developed over the years and is still used today. "Would you rather walk in the dark or get slung through the weeds? Would you rather walk in the dark or do yard work in the hot sun? Would you rather walk in the dark or lose electricity during an ice storm?" You get the picture.

We always made it back to the camper safe and sound. As we settled in bed, we wondered aloud what kind of sleep walking or sleep talking antics Ashley would pull in the night. Sleepwalking/talking runs in the family.

Two things stand out in my mind. One night he somehow fell off of that top bunk onto Grandaddy who was asleep on the bed under him. Grandaddy wasn't hurt but Ashley's nose swelled about 3 times bigger than normal and we made sure to get plenty of pictures. I also remember him trying to walk out the door in the middle of the night and Grandaddy grabbing him.

Over breakfast the next day, our excitement would build as we prepared for another fun-filled day. I remember that Magranny liked to swim from the "little dock" to the "big dock". She was a good swimmer. Back and forth she would go and I would wonder how many times she was going to go before she got tired. It was always a lot. Every now and then when she turned her head, she would flash us a smile as we watched her from the bank and then she would continue on.

The memories that we have from Lake Magnolia are truly priceless. There are so many, and I wish I could list them all. I can't end this without telling you about Grandaddy and his Oreo cookies. We used to always eat cookies after lunch and Grandaddy liked to pretend that he wasn't going to share his Oreo cookies with us. And, when the Double-Stuffed Oreos came out, he really gave us a hard time.

He would laugh and laugh as he pretended that we couldn't have any, and then he would give us one, and act like that was it. Of course, he let us have as many as we wanted in the end. To this day, he kids us about the Oreos and flashbacks of those days at the lake enter our minds.

I wish we could turn back time, and go once more. I wish we could re-live just one day of it all. Breakfast…getting slung through the weeds….lunch….listening to Grandaddy laugh about the Oreos….supper….walking in the dark…some of the best times of our lives.
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Go to this link to see the one set of pictures I have from Lake Magnolia. I wish I had more.

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/gQ5tq7Xr