A helpful reader and friend suggested I write about the early days at Mileys - that would be 1964. Suits me, its fun to remember. We went with the sisters family. They had gone several years before, and when we wanted to go someplace together, they said, Well, Mileys was really fun - its not fancy, but we liked it. That was an understatement in both areas. Ill never forget our first view from the top of the big hill - my thought was, Oh, no, we have to stay here for a week. We could see all of these little shanties - it was cold and rainy - wed just driven almost 500 miles with 4 kids - 3, 5, 8, and 10. But George showed us our three bedroom cabin right on the lake, we unpacked, and let the fun begin! It was cold and rainy the entire week - we had to go into town for more warm socks - several families chickened out before the week was up - the boys learned to waterski wearing sweat shirts. But did we go back? Yep, for 45 years! In those early years, there were no planned activities other than skiing, no little playground - just a shuffleboard court and a clay tennis court with no line markings to speak of. We found an old hose and laid that down to mark the boundaries! There was popcorn every night by the campfire. No cleaning crew at the end of the week - that was all done by George, Annabelle, Bill, Dorothy, and their kids. You got clean towels every other day. George, Annabelle and their two boys stayed in one of the tiny cabins by the road all summer. George had to leave early to go back to Toledo, where he was a school principal. I dont know exactly how the kids entertained themselves (no tv in the lodge), but they loved it! The boys skiied and swam, our oldest girl (5) and the sisters youngest girl hung around, no doubt bugged the boys who worked there. The highlight for our 3 year old was riding on the back of the wagon to the garbage dump every evening. Speaking of bugging the boys, a few years later when our girls were probably 7 and 9 or so, they were such a nuisance that the workers sat them up on the roof of one of the cabins! So thats how it was for several years - different cooks, some better than others but who cared. When Dorothy Steffan arrived, she cooked for 17 years - the dinner bell would ring and wed all troop up to the dining hall. Gradually there were additions - an activity director, a dance on Wednesday night with a real DJ!, a paved, nice tennis court, Stevies Playground with a slide and swings, and the fun tournaments - tennis, shuffleboard, horseshoes, euchre, ping pong complete with trophies painstakingly made by Annabelle. This got longer than I planned - but how can you condense all of those wonderful years - lifelong friends and one or two weeks that brought families together closer than ever. I think few days go by that somewhere in our conversations, the word Mileys doesnt come up. If you didnt experience it, its impossible to convey what those years meant to every one of us.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:46:42 +0000
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