Ode to Findley Lake 
***note the names of places and people have been changed for privacy***

In the summer, my family would make our way up to Findley Lake, New York for the fun week of Fourth of July. This was tradition which we did all throughout my childhood and was always a blast. We would play soccer, using pop cans as “goals”, running around outside for hours and hours until we collapsed under the warm sun. We would have a fantastic breakfast every day, from flap jacks to eggs, we ate it all that week. We would play card games like twenty-one and go fishing until the owls started to chatter among themselves. The tradition stopped during my middle school years, after my family and I moved to Erie, PA. We decided to go back and visit at least one more time, my freshman year of high school is when we finally followed that decision through. We packed up traveling bags and headed on our way too the old little trailer were we use to spend our summer days. 

My brother, James, my Mother, my Father and I returned to the lake on the week of Fourth of July, like we use to every year.  On our way into town I was surprised, I saw so many stores closed and boarded up with for sale signs clearly placed on the doors.  The town was lively and bright when I was a child, stores and stands use to line the main street, yet barely anything was there like before. I wondered how this had happened, how did it go from a lively town to a ghost town in only a few short years? I was surprised as we drove down the street and I was able to name all the stores which use to the be there before.  We finally arrived at the trailer, and it was just like it was before. The same musty scent rolled up from the floors and the rooms still looked like they were stuck back in time, with the same sofas and beds like always. My brother and I sat up awake on the floor playing 21 and listened the owls chatter as we kept track of the score. The bedding was still the same with the same ancient prints and patterns on them like before.  

The next morning when we rose we ran down the lake. Although, things were quiet in  different of the way than  they were before. The dock was no longer nice and new, now, it was damaged and old, looking like it would not hold.  The lake was the same, the water still a bright green from the untamed masses of seaweed which floated on the water’s top. James and I would swim until our skin looked like prunes. We had brought down our kayaks like all the years before and went out for a trip around the lake. James and I were shocked when we could barely keep a float as the power boats whizzed by and almost sunk our modest boats. Even after they were gone our little boats bobbed like bobble heads. Before, there were only small power boats which would glide slowly by, not these monster boats which could wash you as they fly on by. 

When we were done with our trip around Findley Lake, we pulled our boats up onto shore and walked into town. There was no longer the bookstore, or the nice lady who ran the store with her enormous fluffy white cat who would prance across the floor. When my brother and I walked into town people always starred when we saw me and the giant, my almost seven foot tall brother. There was still the barn house store, which sold little trinkets and toys. I could remember exactly where everything was, it hadn’t changed since I was there before. The lollipops and candies were still in the same corner and so were the pretty dolls and the many rows of toys. Some things had been added, yet, most things were the same in this little barn house store. We bought the lollipop sticks like always and then headed on our way to the small restaurant to order our lunch. 

When we walked in I was surprised to see how much the restaurant had changed, this once small neighborhood restaurant was now fully high-tech. There was now TV’s on the walls and computers on the tables which lit the room up brightly like it never was before. The menu was still the same, with the same sandwiches and salads like before. As we walked back after we ate, we munched on our lollipop  sticks, too impatient to wait until we go back the trailer. We would return to the house with a we-just-ate-all-the-candy-we-bought look on our faces. 

When we returned we hopped on the tree swing and played popcorn, a silly game we used to always play as children at the Lake. The game’s point was to try get the person who was swinging to say the word “popcorn”. The person not on the swing could try to get it out of the person in anyway, from asking round-about questions to pushing the swing to the maximum speed and height possible. We played and played games of popcorn after popcorn. Until, we felt the great big thud! This thud is the feeling he or I felt when he or me feel off the swing or crashed into tree trunk.

Looking back, I now see that these memories, which were not always perfect, were so important. My brother and I might have fought on these trips or we might have played too rough from time to time, but in the end though, I can honestly say that I would not take any of these memories back, because these are what have made me who I am today. I learned that is ok lose and not always be the best, that family is important, and that nobody should be ever left behind from these simple family vacations. These were truly amazing times, which are sadly gone and in the past, but I still have memories which can always make the good old times last.