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Post by Clipper on Oct 11, 2019 11:05:42 GMT -5
A friend from Whitesboro was reminiscing this morning about Summit Park and the trips there to swim in the 50's and 60's. We used to roll our swim trunks in a towel, tie the roll onto the handlebars of our bikes, and ride from Whitesboro to Oriskany to swim at Summit park. The hardest part of the journey was the hill going up to the park from Rt. 69, but it made for a nice coast down the hill going home. Sometimes we would ride along the highway, and other times we would get onto the Erie Canal towpath by the Rt. 291 bridge and ride along the towpath to Oriskany. Sometimes if we didn't have the money to pay to get into the pool we would slide down the dam in Oriskany into the pool below the dam. I wore the seat out of a pair of trunks one summer sliding on the dam.
Did any of you spend summer afternoons swimming there or having a picnic with family?
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Post by BHU on Oct 11, 2019 19:22:52 GMT -5
Nope never been there. I do remember Power Dam in New Hartford, though. It was quite the gathering place in the 60's & early 70's until the authorities finally closed it down after a few drownings. My own sister at the age of 16 almost drowned in that damn place. No lifeguards, I don't know how the owners got away with it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 19:53:26 GMT -5
I was never there. When I was a kid growing up my parents would bring us up to Old Forge in the summer a lot and I would stay up there a few weeks at a time. One of my Aunts had a home in Old Forge and another Uncle also had a home up there. He lived there year round but the Aunt lived there in spring and summer till winter arrived. My father also rented out a camp up there. He was a huge golfer and I went with him to a place up there that I can't remember anymore. Oddly enough every time I go by Twin Ponds with the Bus I remember following my father around and his buddies as they played the game of golf which I do not like. My brother is a huge golf fan. We also went to Delta Lake, Green Lake and Keuka Lake,Conesus Lake and Canandaigua Lake for swimming and picnics. My father liked fishing also! My sister and brother in law has a camp at Keuka Lake they never have invited me.
You have to remember that I left the area when I turned 18 for Missouri. While there we had our own recreation place about 2 miles from the Monastery that had a huge inground pool along with basketball and tennis courts and a handball court which I liked. The whole place sat on over 1000 acres of land and what I really liked was hiking all the trails in the forest that surrounded the place. We also had our own man made Lake that the early Brothers created. I could believe how large it was. We could take the row boats out and row around but it was also a place for meditation and reflective prayer since it also had several beautiful gardens as well as a fantastic Japanese Garden that was installed by several Brothers well before my time. I helped in taking care of the grounds as well as get the pool ready for the swimming season each March. I volunteered for that for the summer months because after my duties in the morning in the Nursing home I got the afternoons off to go up there and play in the sun. Summers came fast in Southeastern Missouri. I remember one great adventure I had with my two classmates while I was in Monastic Life and that was a vacation the three of us took together. We traveled the Southern route from St Louis to San Diego for a three week trip. What a time that was I will never forget.The three of us took turn driving. When I returned for Grad School the seminarians were invited several times to the Diocesan Camp which I forgot where it was located but there was a huge lake we swam in and we had a few cook outs. It actually was the Bishops Camp and I remember when I asked my vocation director one school year if we could use that camp in the summer for vocational picnics the first response was now that has never been done. Well they asked and permission was granted and the tradition continues to this day.
So I guess I lived and full life and now my enjoyment is a walk downtown or sitting in the various parks or strolling around Walmart waiting for sister death.
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Post by Clipper on Oct 11, 2019 20:46:37 GMT -5
The golf course in the Old Forge area is the Thendara Country Club. It is a championship course and they have held some PGA tournaments there. When I had my carpet cleaning and floor maintenance business I had a contract with them to clean all the carpets in the main dining room, the locker rooms, and the offices. I also took a crew in there one time to do a deep thorough cleaning of their food service and kitchen area when they had discrepancies on a health dept. inspection.
Where was your family's camp on Kayuta Lake? My ex-wife and I had a 3 bedroom raised ranch year-round home on Woods Road, overlooking the bay above Ebert's Bridge, off the O'Brien Rd. It sat on a bluff overlooking the lake. The only thing I didn't like about the house was that there were 70 wooden steps down to the shore line and our boats. We had two boats. I had an aluminum fishing boat and we had a 24 foot pontoon that we bought used so that we could go out to the Island sand bar to swim and cookout on the boat. It was nice being able to come home from a hot day at work and go for a swim and cook on the grill on the boat.
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