I was 12 when my family rented a cottage down in Chestnut Cove, on the Derby side of the point at the north end of Alton Bay. My dad rented a 3-HP motor for the rowboat, and I was in heaven. Over the next five years we rented for one or two weeks each summer. I was hooked. I remember almost drooling over the used outboard motors at Downing's Boat Landing, wondering how much motor I could afford to buy with paper route income. My dad likely hoped it wouldn't come to the point where I could buy one, with an appropriate boat, as he'd have to deal with towing it around.
When I got married, we honeymooned up here for a week, still in the Alton Bay area, with a rented boat. That was 1969. We rented a cottage up near Sally's Gut in '73 for a week, again with a rented boat. Finally in 1975 we bought a small cabin on Long Island. Properties were somewhat affordable then. Our kids spent much of their summers on the lake. In 1992 we moved up-shore to a better, bigger lot. The dream was always to retire up here. In 2010 that happened. We sold the house in MA and used the proceeds to build a decent structure for year-round living.
We consider ourselves extremely lucky to be able to be here now, living the dream. Given the way properties have skyrocketed in value, driven upward by the buying power of those with big bucks, we couldn't have afforded to be here if we hadn't started out way back then. Others will have their own dreams. But it all starts with that dream. As that song from the old 50s musical "South Pacific" says, "You got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?"
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