I Believe In Divine Intervention…

  After our wild trip to Hayward, we came home somewhat revitalized…well, sort of.  Of course our grass needed major mowing.  And I did have a little surprise in the fact that the Wren who was trying to talk us down on our birdhouse rental price appeared to have moved in…beak, bride, and hopefully eggs soon.

Looks like he is checking with “mama”…There is no shortage of flying critters here for them to feed on, but the one on the right is bigger than that Wren!..If he could only drag it inside the nest, they would have an “all you can eat’ buffet for days!  My flowers are beginning to love this stretch of hot weather after a week of almost steady rain…

The purple smoke bush, left, had a heavy dew showing up in the mornings…and the Clematis on the right is beginning to take over our back deck…

Speaking of flowers, we took Aunt Jeanette up to see Uncle Clarence today and I could NOT get over the beautiful flowers on her garden…

On both sides of their driveway there was a colorful bed of beautiful flowers..Jeanette has tended this garden for 50 years , but this year she cannot manage it.  Those flowers seemed to sense it and they randomly grew everywhere, which made her very happy. She has always had a green thumb, something I am sadly lacking.

I spoke briefly of finding my grandma and grandpa’s cabin in Hayward…Let me preface this by saying the last time I was there was 55 years ago.  It belonged to my maternal grandparents, and when grandpa died in 1950, our family , who lived in Elgin, IL at that time, began going up every summer for 3 weeks vacation in Hayward, WI.. The last few times MacGyver and I have been to Hayward, we have driven around all over the place, trying to get a feeling of where it was..I only knew that it was in an area called North Woods Beach.  For those of you who have been to the North woods, you will appreciate the fact that it could have been anywhere within a couple hundred square miles. I only had visual memories and remembered the fact that is was somewhere between Lake Courte Oreilles and Grindstone Lake…

We decided to try our luck again last Tuesday…in the pouring rain…and not sure where the Heck we were …After floundering around for 1/2 hour, I told Dennis to give it up, and we headed into the town of Hayward, about 12 miles down Rt. 27…On the way, suddenly Dennis spotted a sign on a side road saying “North Woods Beach 3 miles”, with an arrow..We almost missed it, but Dennis backed up and away we went. After getting to the main “drag”, I only knew that our cabin was down one of about 20 side roads almost to Grindstone Lake…I told Den to take any road, just get closer to the lake…We just took a wild chance and turned down Evergreen St.…Nope, the name didn’t ring any bells…and it was still pouring.  We kept going and I told Dennis if by any chance we were on the right road, ( which I was SURE was zip, zero, zilch), the cabin would be on the left…I saw a clearing in the woods ahead and got this overwhelming feeling we were close and told Den slow down….Sure enough, coming up to that clearing I saw .. and remembered…I still tear up thinking about it. My grandparent’s cabin…albeit somewhat different after 50 some years, I recognized it immediately…

Left, what it looked like in the 1940’s..Right is today…The screen porch has been replaced with a windowed room…

Left is the old outhouse that Grampa built and on the right is the fish cleaning house …They are still there.   There was a sign over the outhouse that said “The Potio” (pottyio, get it?) , and Grampa soldered a nickel to the outhouse floor…he had a great sense of humor…The fish house wasn’t built until the 1950’s..and I think my Dad built that to clean his crappie…(No, I didn’t say his crappy…Crappie is a FISH!)

 

 

The picture on the left was taken in the 50’s.  My Dad is in the middle…and there is a sign on the tree to his right reading “Sleepy Pines”..that’s what we named the cabin.  I have no idea who those other guys are but I am REALLY glad Dad didn’t sport that same speedo THEY are wearing .

 

Maybe someone smarter on old cars than I am can give me an approximate year for those old beauties (the cars, not the men)

 

 

 

 

Above is my Grandma Fry and my Dad, taken looking toward the road in front of the cabin…Speaking of that road…

Left is what it looked like in the Winter…this pic was taken when Grandpa was still alive and I wasn’t.  I know this because on the back of the photo was written “Grandpa’s dog named Lead”..makes me wonder if Grandpa had a dog sled somewhere..The picture on the right is the one I took as Dennis and I drove down that same road,  unbeknown to us that we were  heading in exactly the right direction…

 

To make things even spookier, when we finally had enough photos and drove back up to the main road (my Dad called that road The Boulevard), I spotted this empty building and the memories came flooding back..This was the restaurant/bar that we used to go to…My Dad made friends with a gentleman who played the organ there on Saturday nights.  His name was Tommy Fairclough…and Tommy was the one who talked Dad into managing his roller skating rink in a town called Sandwich, IL…And NOW you know how we came to move to Sandwich..It all started up in Hayward ,Wisconsin…

I am still reeling from all of this nostalgia overload…I will NOT forget where this cabin is located.  I even took a picture of the street sign so in case my  forgetful twin,“Dementia Donna”  showed up, I would have some help.  What a freaky and mind boggling thing this experience was!!!!…Someone’s hand was guiding me that day, I believe it as sure as I believe in Karma….There was some serious Karma working for sure!!!!!

OK, this went on longer than I expected and I need an adult beverage to calm me down.  By sitting down and writing about this, I know now, more than ever, that what happened that day was of no doing of mine….Divine intervention of some kind….THANKS, FAMILY!!!!!

"The wisdom of the ages teaches that each individual, whether believer or not, good or bad, old or young, sick or well, rich or poor, has a personal guardian angel with him or her at every moment of life's journey." ~ Janice T. Connell