I have five siblings. My grandparents would take us up 3 at a time. The "beach wagon" would be packed on Thursday night. My grandfather would pick us up at school so we didn't have to wait for the bus. We would head to the lake. We always looked for the tepee and the totem pole on the hill in Hooksett. We would never stop on the way. My grandmother always said, every stop is 20 minutes less time on the island. We all wanted to be the 1st one in Wolfeboro and would stick our foot as far forward as we could when we passed the Wolfeboro sign.
I remember picking blueberries with one of the neighbors. We did not have an oven. We brought the blueberries to my neighbors house and her grandmother made the best blueberry muffins I ever had.
We stayed in an old WWII kitchen army tent for the first few years. I used to think the patches on the tent were from bullet holes. After my grandfather passed, the neighbors decided they did not want to keep putting up the old tent. They made arrangements and got all the wood over to the island to surprise my grandmother with a new cabin. On the way over in the boat, I asked my grandmother what she liked better, a tent or a cabin. She said she preferred a tent. All the neighbors got together and built the cabin in a weekend. My grandmother was a daughter of the prohibition and did not allow alcohol at the camp. Years later, when we replaced the roof, we found NO BEER NO WORK written in big black letters on the roof.
My grandmother was famous for her sour milk donuts. We had some new neighbors that were camping in a small tent. It was pouring rain. She brought them fresh warm donuts and a pot of hot coffee. They will never forget that. One of our favorite dinners was simply spagettios and scrambled hamburger. We always had to wait a hour after lunch to go swimming.
My grandmother instilled the love of the island in me. The time I spent with her on the island was precious. To this day, there is no place on earth that I would rather be.
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