Eggerts 6. Partying at the Resort

Beginning in 1923, and for at least 20 years thereafter, my great-great grandfather, Ed Eggert and his second wife, Billie, owned and operated a resort on Big Spider Lake in Hayward, Wisconsin.  Aside from fishing and hunting, here we join them playing at the resort.

Drawing water

Drinking Game

Looks like some serious drinking going on in the north woods of Wisconsin. 

Here’s looking at you, from the dock.

Cops and Robbers, apparently not just a game for children.

The last blog showed you pictures at the Chippewa Reservation.  It seems they wanted to role play when they got back to the resort.  

Squaws

Playing Cowboy

Playing Indian

Cowboys and Indians.  Note the Indian is being robbed by the Cowboys.

Attack

Scalping

Eggerts 5. Chippewa Native Americans at the Resort

Eggerts 5.  Chippewa Native Americans at the Resort

My great-great grandfather, Ed Eggert, owned a resort on Big Spider Lake near Hayward, Wisconsin starting in 1923.  Here he is with some of the Native Americans, who I believe were Chippewa.  I wonder if they still dressed like this all the time or if this was an exhibition.

Mingling with resort guests

ODE TO THE CANADIAN SUMMER

            Floridians pay very little attention to weather.  A Canadian friend came to Fort Lauderdale for a visit in February.  It was his first time in Florida.  He was in his forties.  I took the afternoon off to meet him for lunch.  As we left the restaurant he exclaimed, “How can you work when it is so beautiful?”  His question, and my answer, showed the vast difference between us.  I work all the time.  Unless there is a hurricane, the weather is meaningless.

            Almost every day in February in Fort Lauderdale is perfect, January and March too.  Sometimes it can get a little chilly, like a cool Canadian Summer day.  It’s rare to see a Floridian in a swimming pool in January, but Canadians jump right in.  The January weather is perfect for them.

            Come July and August, there is no better place than Canada because Canadians lap up summer like a Labrador retriever drinks after a long game of Frisbee.  A sunny day brings with it pure pleasure pervading down Front Street, hovering over Market Square, spilling all the way to the lake.  With only a few short months of summer, maximum time is spent swimming, boating, rowing, sailing, fishing, sun-tanning, wakeboarding, or for those who don’t want to work so hard, tubing.  Even the dogs bound into the lake for refreshment.  Canadians summer at the lake where they sleep in a cottage, trailer or tent.  Everyone heeds the call of the great outdoors.

            Canadian summer is celebrated in food.  Berries of all kinds are sold at the farmer’s markets and roadside.  Butter drips down your chin while eating corn on the cob.  Children sport ice cream mustaches.  Dinner is frequently outside and is barbecued, followed by fresh pie.

            Children watch with baited breath as the fair rolls into town, setting up its large, fast, mechanical rides.  When will it open?  Can we go?  They want to spin like crazy, win a stuffed toy and celebrate by eating fried delights.

            One day I was watching a parade down Front Street when I overheard one man tell another he had been trying to contact him.  He had extra work.  His friend responded he did not want extra work.  The weather was too beautiful and he was spending time with his children.  A Fort Lauderdalian would rarely admit taking time from work to spend with children.  If we are not always working we must always appear to be working, to maintain that competitive edge.

            The Canadian summer sun shines early in the morning urging everyone out of bed to rejoice in this brilliant very short season.  It remains shining late into the night.  Canadian summer blossoms with new life everywhere, baby birds, bunnies, deer and ducklings.  If you live on the lake the ducklings are counted and kept track of, to see how many the mother was able to keep.

            People move to Florida for year-round summer, but after awhile it becomes blasé.  Living in perpetual summer means you can enjoy the weather whenever you want, and the result is you rarely enjoy it at all.  Its very sameness diminishes the excitement.

            There was an arcade in Belleville, Ontario that my daughter loved.  An older lady worked there.  One day she and I were talking.  She told me that she could tell by my voice that I was not from Belleville.   She didn’t ask where I was from, I don’t think she cared.  She proudly told me she was a life long resident of Belleville where they had the best weather in the world.  Summers were beautiful and they had “just about the mildest winters in Canada.”  I don’t know enough about Canadian winters to know if she was right, but she believed every word she said.  I walked away from that conversation thinking she was daft.  I live in Fort Lauderdale and she was telling me the best weather in the world was in Belleville, Ontario!  I thought she was so small minded.  I have grown to see the wisdom in her words, particularly as they apply to summers.

Eggerts 4. Fishing at the Resort

The Eggerts owned their resort on Spider Lake near Hayward, Wisconsin for decades beginning in 1923.  Fishing was a big draw.

This man is preparing his rod.

Two boats

My great-great grandfather, Ed Eggert, who owned the resort, along with his wife, Billie, is shown here with two big fish.

Woman with stringer as an envious cat looks on.

Does the musky make the man? 

Or the woman.  This is my Grandma.

Or is it the quantity?

Was this picture taken for its comedic effect?

Two big fish make for one happy man.

Mrs. Hankerson is one happy woman.

I’m glad Mr. Hankerson got one too.

Uninhabited lake meant lots of fish.  This lake is no longer uninhabited.

When you own the resort does it become passe?

Ed’s wife, Billie, with her musky.

Getting ready for that picture.

It’s always fun to pose with the guests.

The musky keep them in business.

What a fish!

Did they both catch it?

Ed with his brother, Jesse, and a fish.

Ed’s son, Larry (my great-grandfather) with a stringer.

Ed with two men.

Larry with a musky.  Larry looked just like his mom.

Larry’s wife, Rossie, my great-grandmother, with a musky.

A man with his wife and a fish.

Musky man and dog.

Many years later, in 1987, my first husband and I went to Eggert’s Resort which was, at that time, called Hahn’s Roost Resort.  My husband was lucky enough to catch a musky.  There were men who said they had been going there their whole lives and had never caught a musky.  We went back in 1991 but this was the only musky he ever caught.  He released it.  It was an inch or so under the legal limit, but he would have released it either way.