More Memories of Canada

You know, the post about our summer vacations in Canada triggered more memories about those times that just begged to be shared.

Over the years, there was another family, close friends, who would join us on these trips once in awhile. Red and my dad worked together, and he and his wife were close friends of my parents. Red was a character and fun to be around.

We seldom saw any dangerous wild animals while we were at Desbarats Lake, although we were always warned about bears and such. One year, we were told that a cougar had been seen in the area. Well, Dad and Red were cleaning fish late one afternoon at the fish-cleaning bench that had been set up between two large pine trees, about halfway between the cottage and the lake. As they worked, they were discussing what they had heard about the cougar, when a squirrel jumped out of a tree and landed on Red's shoulder before scampering on down to the ground and away to safety. Needless to say, Red nearly had a heart attack. He was sure he'd been attacked by a cougar.

On another occasion, a squirrel had built a nest in the outhouse and wouldn't let anyone near that important structure. I mean, she was ferocious. No one wanted to see the baby squirrels perish, but going into the woods to take care of business wasn't really an option, either. My dad finally saw an opportunity to remove the nest while Mama Squirrel was away from home.

With no electricity, there weren't many options for evening entertainment; so the four of us often spent our evenings playing card games around the table together. That wasn't something that we did a lot at home, so it was kind of special during our two-week stays at the cottage.

There was a little store in town, where Dad would take some of our fish, to have them put on ice and held for our trip home. What I remember most about our visits to that little store is that that's where I could get Jersey milk chocolate bars. They were the best milk chocolate bars in the world (well, in MY world, anyway). The closest that I can get to them here in the U. S. is Hershey's Symphony bars, but they can't quite measure up to my memories of those Jersey candy bars.

There was an old log bridge that had to be driven across, just outside of town, requiring a careful lining up of the car's tires with the two boards that would support the car's weight as it crossed.

 

The bridge we had to drive across was similar to the one pictured above, but not as long and with no railings. (By the way, that's Harvey the RV and Doug in the background. This picture was taken during our Alaska adventure.)

 

My brother would get out of the car and help Dad line up the tires just right for the bridge crossing. As a kid, this short crossing always made me nervous. That bridge surely didn't look as if it would support our vehicle. But it never let us down. (Ha! A Pun!)