I first started to go to Runyan Lake when I was nine months
old, and spent most summers there until I was twelve. From
then until I entered service at eighteen this was my
principal residence. I spent the sixth, seventh and eighth
grades at a little brick school house two miles from the
cottage, and the next four years at Fenton High School. I
count myself as one of the luckiest people on earth – I had
grandparents who took me in, raised me as if I were their
own, and gave me love, understanding, and an education.
Runyan Lake is one of the loveliest places, in a pristine
location called Tyrone Hills. We lived on the North side,
which was called Walnut Shores and looked across the lake at
trees and hills, as there were few cottages on the south
side of the lake. Summers were filled with such activities
as swimming, fishing and sailing. Winter, which could be
very severe, was a time for ice-skating, skiing and ice
fishing. My favorite time of the year was Autumn. I would
race for home, grab great-grand-dads old double barrel shot
gun and head for the woods, where I would hunt until dark. I
shot so many rabbits and pheasants, that grandpa complained
about eating too much wild game. Grandma Lyon would can the
meat to eat in non-hunting months.
One of the chores that Noel and I had was the trip to
Clintons farm for milk and eggs. It was a one-mile walk and
we would carry a galvanized milk pail. Sometimes we waited
until they finished milking the cows and ran the liquid
through a separator. When it was poured into the pail, the
milk would still be warm from the cow’s body temperature.
(Milk was 25 cents a gallon and eggs l5 cents a dozen.)
Runyan Lake always reminded me of a giant green gem. It was
very deep and fed mainly from underwater streams. The water
was always clear and clean and you could make out objects
twenty feet away when swimming underwater. One of our
past-times was to anchor a boat in very deep water. Each
person would have a clothespin with his name on it. The one
who could swim down the deepest and put his pin on the rope
would win the contest. We used to go so deep that it was
very dark and scary.
One of our favorite times was in the evening. After dinner
all of us kids would gather on the end of someone’s dock. We
all had blankets to cover ourselves so the mosquitoes
wouldn’t eat us alive. We would all take turns relating what
we would do for a living when we grew up, the kind of car we
would drive, the place where we would live. Little did we
realize that we were living and enjoying the best times of
our lives. World War Two had started and changed our lives
forever.
