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Posts: 1438
| This started on another thread.
What do you remember from your vacations to the northwoods as a kid???
We stayed at Waldron's Silver Bell Resort on Lower Buckatobon. Last I heard, which was quite a few years ago, the grand daughter of the original owner still owned/ran the place.
How about the jingle from Virginall (or Birgnall) Motors... "He's got the sharpest, I say the sharpest, He's got the sharpest pencil in town..." I used to hate that commercial when I was a kid but still remember it 30 years later.
A big trip for us was to go to Denton's Sport Shop in Conover. Check out the fish cooler for the day and buy the must have baits. Then over to the go carts and horse riding at the barn shops in Eagle River. Dairy Queen at Bonson's for a "pig malt". Once in a while dad would get up early and run to the little bakery shop at 17/K, I think it's K that goes west just south of Conover, for doughnuts. Awesome bakery that they made right out of the house way back then.
What do you all remember?
Scott |
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Posts: 8780
| Wow...
I remember waking up at 6:00 and looking out the window of the camper to see if it was cloudy or sunny - sunny meant you'd better get up and fish now, cloudy meant the fishing would be good all morning and you could sleep until 7:30.
I remember walking to the DQ down the street for an ice cream cone and a hot dog (this was before all the dilly bar/blizzard/etc. stuff -- you want DQ you get an ice cream cone!)
I remember begging my dad to take me to Gander Mountain just about every weekend, and then begging him to buy me lures/arrows/bullets/slingshots/knives/you name it once we got there.
And the little bakery in town with the bread slicer and fresh sweet rolls, and the fattest lady in the world who ran the place... we always figured she ate the leftovers.
And Friday night fish fries at the local grill, walking up and down the railroad tracks, catching frogs and turtles...
I remember when the carp would come into the bay to spawn and everyone in town would gather up to shoot/spear/stab/scoop/club them to get them out of the lake
Falling asleep in the car the minute we left and having my dad yelling when we got home "wake the %$& up already, it's 8:30, we've been home for two hours!"
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| Fishing the Chip every year and seeing fish no one believes exist |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | I really have no N. Wisconsin vacation memories from childhood, as we did not do that type of thing. Last year we went with three other families to Big St. Germain. Last night my daughter was writing about that vacation in her journal for fourth grade. I take considerable satisfaction in that. While doing it she was describing to me the different events she remembered. I had to smile thinking how some of the things she remembers mean so much to her; horesback riding, a powerful thunderstorm that terrified one of the smaller kids, making s'mores with fudge instead of Hershey bars, how three of the adults were touched by Montezuma after Mexican Night at the lodge, and others.
I look forward to be able to give her many more of the same before she discovers boys or wants tatoos.
Kevin
I'm still hopeful. |
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Posts: 8780
| LOL
Hopefull, you just made me rember some other things from the trips to Wisconsin when I was a kid...
Like Jennifer, Nancy, Audrey, Tina, and Hope... 
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Posts: 5874
| We used to go north to Eagle River every year when I was a kid. Probably went there for about ten years, same place. The cottage was the Whippoorwill on Lake Iden. I couldn't even tell you where exactly it is now, or if the resort even exists anymore. I remember the big homemade dog transport that attached to the bumper hitch, and had straps that latched onto the front of the trunk on the 54 Buick. We loaded that car up, the 4 kids pile in, and mom and dad in the front. Seemd like it took forever to get there.
Once there, I remember my dad smoking a pipe, my first taste of beer( I think I was 6?), great food, panfishing from the dock, swimming 18 hours a day in the lake, the Fort in Eagle River, where we'd ride the cars, see the old western shoot 'em up, ice cream and hot dogs, and the horse rides.
Seems like things were so much more carefree back then. |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Every labor day weekend as a kid was at Lake "O" Bays Resort on Lake Namakogen daily walks in the woods and a row boat that went with the cabin. Not a Muskie nut back then but it was still a lot of fun. Also stayed at the campgrounds and took our boat over to Kravick's store for pop and candy etc. Was a great time to be a kid. Daily walks to the Pioneer Store from the campground as well. Seemed like more fun than just about anything back then. |
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| I don't have any. But I have spent a fantabulistic amount of money so my kid can.
Worth every penny. |
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Posts: 20216
Location: oswego, il | I have no wisconsin northwoods memories as a chile either. My first two vacations at age 5 and 6 were to north long lake and woman lake minnesta in '69 and '70. Caught my first pike when we went to woman lake. From then on we went to Kimberly's on eagle lake untill I was a junior in h.s. By the time I was 14 I was running my own boat taking either my grandparents or my brother out. The last year we were up, me and my brother spanked the camp to the point the resort owner was befuddled by our success and wanted to know where we were fishing. Those were the days. |
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| Visiting the Fudge Shop with the same young lady that still stirs today! Dinner at the Cook Shanty with my Grandfather! Arriving at Dun Rovin for dinner at 5pm to see the Bartender dressed in Black and Whites catching a big Musky before his shift! Attending Sunday Mass at the Reservation and visiting the Church Basement to buy handmade gifts and bakery items! Riding horses at Mroteck's! Ice Cream at the Dairy! The Indian in front of the shop on Main Street! Musky fishing with my Father, Uncle, and Grandfather on Round, Chip, Callahan and Pike on Windigo! Learning to Water Ski on Round and my first Kiss with a young lady at our Resort! Wow!
JK |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | My dad was from Minnesota, so we'd go to their north woods on va-ca. I remember walking across the Mississippi river, where it flows out of Lake Itasca. Photos of me with Paul B. & Babe in Bemidji. I hooked my mom in the head with a jitterbug on Clearwater Lake, and we kids dressed as pirates and boarded a pontoon boat for a day of adventure there. I remember winning a fishing contest with a northern pike and getting a new red eye wiggler bait as a prize (I may still have that somewhere). That bait caught me an even bigger pike off the dock of our cabin the next day. I remember long days of driving in the old blue Mercury wagon to get up there, and hanging out with my older cousin. Good times, happy thoughts, can't wait to get back to Minnesota. m |
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| we would spend two weeks camping at the Pine-Aire in Eagle River every summer...riding up in the big blue station wagon, tearing around the campground on my bike with a fishing pole on one handle and a plastic tackle box hanging off the other. i think they turned that place into condos now, but driving through town still brings up all the old memories and feelings. i'd spend pretty much all day every day with my blue fishing pole and zebco reel in hand hoping against hope that a fish would come my way. we had the coolest old Cris-craft wooden boat with white sides and varnished trim accents. i'd give anything to go for a ride in that boat today.
Mikie, i still walk across the Mississippi a couple times a year when i go to Itasca. what a great place. |
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| Originally from Louisiana, no actual physical memories of the northwoods as you peeps know of existed for me; closest thing to a 'ski were bayou gar encountered out of a Skeeter, back when their boats were wood...virtually all of me memories were from the pages of Outdoor Life and Sports Afield, which back then were filled w/ exciting stories of those areas and Canada, captivating us w/ pics of giant pike, 'skis and wallies...by searching the ads in the back of the mag, one could schedule a trip, buy a Cree Duck for $5.00, or purchase a live squirrel monkey for a paltry sum of $16.95...most of me boyhood summer vacations after moving were spent on a small N.C. island or the Chesapeake Bay chasing a wide variety of feesh/crabs/clam/oysters, then as I gracefully aged, chicks! For everyone's benefit, I finally caught one...still got some of those old mags I think, may pull 'em out and relive some of the cool places you folk still enjoy... |
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Posts: 618
Location: Bloomington, MN | Many of my childhood memories of Pelican Lake, WI (Home of the Musky) involve the drive up from Chicago. My Dad would make me sleep in the backseat the night before departure to avoid the hassle of dragging me from bed at 4:00 a.m. and then throwing me in the backseat. Breakfast would always be at Petey's (one of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in WI...they had a picture of Col. Sanders which was taken at their location) in downtown Fond du Lac or if it were late afternoon departure we would stop at the original Schreiner's for some cherry pie (no frontage road in those days) for which the craving would be caused by a billboard near Slinger. One of my favorite sites was the huge white Mercury factory all lit up at night with the multi-colored glass windows and the fountains spraying in the center of their ponds. Crossing the bridge on Lake Butte des Morts got me nerved due to the height, which I thought was equal to the Golden Gate back then. My Grandfather knew a man named Pete Michaelson, who would drive up from Chicago to fish off the bridge in New London. Pete died in a gas explosion, so every time we crossed that bridge we would mention him and his demise. If it were an opening day trip or if we needed licences or line we would stop at Sport-O-Letric in New London. I remember checking out the back of the Little Cleos that were stapled to the cards on the racks. I guess I was always a breast man. Clintonville "We Like it Here!", was a stop on the return trip if my Grandparents were along for breakfast a Bucky's. They had a Wisconsin map in their restaurant that had the town of Clitonville wiped off the map due to the amount of people pointing on the map showing where they were. We had to slow down through Marion, because 5-0 was always on patrol, a little Gingerbread House up on a hill, and the sharp right turn at Split Rock where if you didn't make it you would end up in the front pew of their church. Tigerton has two distinct memories for me. The good one is that on a return trip I had a little (1") bass that wouldn't make it home to my fish tank, so we released it in the Embarrass River at the bridge. We've been honking and saying "Hi" for the last 37+years every time we cross that bridge. Tragedy hit the town of Tigerton in the early 70's when a foster family had a little boy taken away from them and returned to his biological parents. The biological parents ended up murdering the little boy. My Father and I still get choked up when passing through. Wittenberg had the "Homme Home for Boys". My father at times threatened to send me there, but I didn't know what that meant until later. Birnamwood "Not Coal" was the home of Chet & Emil's Broasted Chicken. We never stopped, but it sure sounded tasty. I could write a book about my Antigo memories(not that this post is not turning into one), but the good old Cutlass Motor Lodge with the blue sailfish fountain, The Black Jack, where the resort guests would meet on their way up on Friday nights to suck down some Brandy Old Fashion double sweets and a steak prior to their 30 mile pull to Pelican. Red Owl and Copp's were also possible stops, and the dream of stopping at Fittante's Taxidemy on the return trip with a big muskie was always the case. I've known Joe since I was a kid (10 years old). He now looks at least 10 years younger than I do!! Is it due to him living in the wonderful Northwoods or some taxidermy secrets that should be sold to Mabelline?? The balance of the trip from Antigo was spent hyperventalating and rocking (without a hockey helmet) due to the anticipation of just being "there". Last year I did the trip from Chicago to Pelican (now a Minnesota resisdent) for the first time in many years. I spent much of the trip with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face. I need to stop watching the Lifetime Channel and toughen up! Maybe then I can put an elusive Muskellunge in the boat.
Corrections: Besides losing my hair, my memory must also be slipping away!! Petey's is a restaurant in Oak Lawn and now Orland Park,IL. It was Petrie's in Fond du Lac. Mr. Petrie ran for or was a State Rep. of Wisconsin and gave his kid the restaurant, which they in turn ran into they ground, but hey... whose kid doesn't! Bucky's was/is on the north side of New London, and not in Clintonville. Clintonville is still safey represented on that map, if it still exists. My childhood memories of Clintonville was stopping to sit on the farm tractors(blue & white ones if I recall correctly)parked outside a dealership in downtown and the cemetary on the south end of town blanketed with American Flags over the many Memorial Day weekends we passed through.
Edited by Clark A 9/9/2006 9:25 PM
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| 11 people in a station wagon. A 14' wooden boat with a 7.5h.p. motor for navigating North Twin lake. Every trip seemed to take forever, the lake seemed so much bigger when you were only going trolling speed the whole way. Lots of walleyes. Drawing cards to see who got to go out fishing in the morning and evening (I still think the deck was stacked). Jumbo perch fishing with dad at the oars and a cane pole over each side. We would fill a fish basket and then all 11 of us would eat them all for supper. I learned to filet fish at an early age. Fishing with a sinker, spinner and a minnow, and learning how to tell how deep you were by watching the angle of the line. Before the advent of The Green Box, Pa would take a piece of mason twine and attach a weight and drop it in as we approached a spot. He would line up the shoreline markers...."That big pine tree has to be on the right edge of that guys house, and that flagpole has to split the windows over there".....as the angle of the twine changed, we knew we were coming up on the bar and he would systematically hold us at that depth at the base of the break better than anybody with a trolling motor could. Driving around the lake to go to the beach to swim, because Lord help us if one of the girls would step on a weed.
The only time that we went to "town" was for groceries and to do laundry. Eagle River was off limits, much like a carnival with it's barkers, we didn't have the funds to pee away on trinkets.
2 weeks every year, until the tribe started getting older and the biggest ones opted to stay home. I went because they couldn't trust me to stay at home. I lettered in baseball for 3 summers, and never made the team picture because we were always "Up North." |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | Good stuff everyone. Nice thread Theedz.
Kevin |
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Growing up on a dairy farm, we didn't take many vacations. In the 1950's when we went up north it was usually to visit my grandpa & grandma Warner for a weekend. On the trip up we always stopped at a bar in Cadott (I think it was Cadott) on the right hand side of the road- they had the best tasting hot beef sandwich's ever. My dad was a connoisseur of great Wisconsin bar food. Even today my wife & I take weekend road trips just to stop at some of the places he liked. (Zach's Avenue Bar on E. Washington in Madison is one such place).
My grand parents lived in a two bedroom log cabin with a loft on the east side of Holcombe Flowage. Grandpa was a butcher/logger by trade. Us kids had to sleep in the loft- it was an adventure crawling up the wooden ladder & snuggling into grandma's handmade comforters. We usually woke up to the smell of frying bacon & eggs coming from Grandma's wood cookstove. Grandpa had an old car (Ford model T)and a steel wheeled tractor out back where we spent many hours playing & using our imaginations.
My mom taught me to swim at the ripe old age of 3 (she loved to swim)- she just tossed me into the flowage and dad said I came up sputtering & clawing water- but I made it back to the shore.
Of course no TV back then, but there were grandpa's stories about muskie fishing & hunting. Including how my dad & uncle took grandpa's 12 gauge shotgun w/ double OO buckshot & went muskie hunting on the "Jump". My dad stood on the rapids above the pool while my uncle went swimming from the downstream side of the pool. You can guess what happened when the muskies took off up through the rapids. Of course this was in the 1930's and those fish were food for the table.
My grandpa also told us about the time he took my dad & uncle deer hunting up along the Jump in a big tamarack swamp. Grandma was low on "meat", meaning there was no meat and grandpa had to solve that problem. My dad had just worked all summer harvesting marsh/meadow hay for a guy in trade for like new Winchester 32-20. Grandpa was very big on not wasting shells/money, he prefered single shot rifles, shotguns, & 22's. He said you became a better hunter. Well seeing my dad had the only multi-shot gun between them, Grandpa put dad up on a big blowdown where several big trails lead out of the swamp. He told my dad to shoot anything that came out. Grandpa & my uncle then circled around the big swamp and pushed it through. Grandpa said he heard my dad shooting & was counting the shot's, at the end of the drive about two hours later dad was up to 14 shot's & grandpa was getting pretty displeased with my dad & his new rifle. Well when he got out to where my dad was up on the stand- he started asking my dad what the H3ll all the shooting was about? Dad replied he was shooting deer. Grandpa then thought a moment & asked how many deer? Dad replied 14 deer. Fortunately it was late October & cool- My uncle & dad had to gut & drag all 14 deer home, while grandpa started butchering them. I guess grandma was pretty busy canning venision and being the 1930's some went to other family members and neighbors.
Yup, lot's of other good memories and stories about up north! The VFW Post in Jump River is named after my great uncle "Hugh Warner".
Have fun!
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 9/9/2006 2:23 PM
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Again, nothern memories from Minnesota. Gawd, I loved those fringe Davy Crockett pants.
This was back in the day when you kept and consumed what you caught, Clearwater Lake was very very good to us! m
Edited by mikie 9/10/2006 9:15 AM
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | none for me.. all my vacations were spent at webster lake in Indiana.... so memories are of there... walking down to adventureland... seeing my dad get a ride in a Amphicar... going turtle and snake hunting along the shore of echo bay long before any condos were ever there... riding the Dixie Boat...... fishing on Backwater only early in the day before some of the drunks that lived back there would get up and start shooting 22's across the water skipping them near boats that were back there fishing... floating out to the big isalnd from epworth forest on tubes and rafts and spending the day on that catching tree frogs(scary thought about floating across that lake in a tube nowadays with all the boat traffic there).. going to the hatchery in syracuse.... doing all sorts of stuff in the tri-county area, fishing, turtle hunting.. snakes..etc..... going to the pizza place/bar under the square in syracuse... riding skateboards donw the run off gutters along the hill in epworth forest and "trying" to stop before we shot into the water..lol... |
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | Great pic from Itasca, Mikie! Still looks the same as it did back then. Been up there almost every year since I was 10 only the military kept me away from the Northern MN Vacation. |
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Posts: 723
| Growing up in lake tomahawk and minocqua area on every summer weekend has left many many memories with me. I think just about anywhere I went, there was a fishing pole in my hand, which prolly most of the time had my parents worried while looking for me on Rainbow flowage.
Had my first encounters with a musky at 6 years old when my dad popped a 42" off our dock, we came in from walleye\perch fishing, and my drunk uncle kept saying hes been watching a huge fish boiling off shore all morning long. My dad was like "yeah right!" and just then, kaplush! my dad grabs his rod and a bucktail, first cast! GET THE NET! thats when I started getting interested in the big fellas.
It wasnt until I started going to carrol lake that I really got to see much of anything, I remember watching my uncle blow countless fish on topwater, I mean several in a day, it was hilarious as my cousin and I would laugh when he threw a temper tantrum after losing one after the other, Now I realise just how he feels! 
Things were so much simpler back then, no responsiblities, throw caution to the wind, grab a rod, its time to fish, and the best part about it was; there was always a fish fry going on! Now being more dedicated to muskies, I dont eat as much fish as I used to, I still go out around home here in the spring for the walley run, or in the dog days of August for perch, but, for the most part, I am always swinging the big stick now.
Im sure that will all change now though, My daughter has a few years to go before I can get her into fishing, but, I look forward to giving her the same memories that I had growing up, panfish one after another, and eventually, her first encounter with daddies addiction.
look out muskie world, theres a new girl on the block! |
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