Lake Cohasset

Margie is frustrated with her lack of short-term memory. She forgot her hearing aids and couldn't hear much, so I just (loudly) asked her some questions I knew she would enjoy answering: tell me about the settlement camp you attended on Lake Cohasset during your childhood, tell me what you remember of the lake itself, tell me about what you did and loved there.

"Ah, Lake Cohasset and Upper Lake Cohasset. The lakes shimmered, changing colors with the weather. Green, gray, blue, green again, slightly brown if you were near the shore. I swam in it. I canoed in it. It had little waves, ripples really, when the wind blew. There was a sound like music, the shushing of wind through the trees. I loved that camp. Camp Mikan, it was called. I think the camp name and the lake name were both Native American words. That was my happy place. I love to remember it. It was before the War with Hitler: must have been 1936, 37, 38. I kept going back and became a camp counselor myself when I got to high school. I still remember my bed, in the cabin. I loved the smell of the place. I loved everything about it, really.

"Those early years, before my brother died, were my happiest time really. It laid the foundation for all my life that was to come. Camp Mikan is why I loved nature, why I loved hiking, swimming, canoeing--why I loved everything that gave me strength, that built my resilience for what was to come."