Remembering when hot summer days meant lakeside swims and picnics

DUANESBURG — On a hot muggy morning, July 9, the OMOTM were more than a little pleased to feel the cool air inside Gibby’s Diner. The weather was one of the prime topics of the day; isn’t it always?

It is either too hot, too muggy, too cold, too snowy, too dry, or too rainy, but the good news is there are a few days when the weather is perfect. Today is not one of them. Thank goodness for all the lakes to be found scattered about the Helderbergs.

At one table, the conversation turned to “The Dog Days of Summer!” with the ending comment of “We are there right now.” No argument there.

As is usually the case, the memories of past Dog Days started to stir and the good-time stories would usually start with the phrase, “When we were kids ….”

The places to go to cool down were the Helderberg Mountains and Thompsons Lake & Hotel for a weekend get-away. It made all the difference in the world to be up in the mountains and sit in the shade of the trees with the ability to jump into the lake.

No motorboats in those days, maybe a row boat or canoe, but people driving up to a boat launch with their boat just wasn’t happening for another decade or two.

Remember the OMOTM column from a week or two ago about opening up the summer camps on the various lakes and the issues that the owners faced each year? Well, this past week’s weather is exactly why those folks did what they did.

When you had a great holiday weekend with hot weather and no rain, your extended family would be there for the family get-together, enjoying hamburgers, hot dogs, cold salads, soda for the kids, beer for the old guys, lots of kids running around jumping in the lake (only after our folks made us wait one hour after we ate lunch, remember that?)

Another lake that is close by was Warners Lake. At one time, there were three public beaches on that lake. One was at the north end of the lake at what is now the Maple on the Lake restaurant. Early on, it was a German restaurant called Zwickelbauer’s Hofbrau, and even earlier, the building also housed another restaurant operated by the Mattice family; I am sure several OFs can fill me in on the particulars of that establishment.  

As an interesting sidebar, in 1906, a family called Tompkins ran a boarding house at the north end of the lake called Lake View Cottage. They owned a small, 22-foot long, or so, covered steamboat, or launch, as it was called in those days.

This boat was called the Sarah E., after their daughter. The boat was available for sight-seeing rides around the lake for 10 cents. There are a couple of pictures of it on display at the present-day restaurant called the Maple on the Lake.

The folks at either end of the lake would raise a flag if they had customers who wanted a ride. The Sarah E. would come and pick them up for their ride. Who needs cell phones, anyway? Just raise a flag.

Halfway down the lake’s east side we come upon the second public beach. It started out life being known as Engle’s Fur Trading Post. I think the main claim to fame was that the owner had a pet bear and was known to spin a yarn to two.

About 1940, Mr. and Mrs. Pangburn bought the property and that public beach was born. In 1970, the Osterhouts purchased the property.

Willard Osterhout and his book, “Life Along The Way,” is my main source of information for this section of the OMOTM column.

Another source is an Old Friend, and neighbor, Lee Jones. Lee is one of those guys of whom people often say, “Lee has forgotten more about this or that than we will ever know.” This causes a problem now and again because sometimes he has forgotten more than he has ever known! Think about that; it will grow on you.

To complete the trip from the north end of the lake to the south end, we find the third of the public beaches, and it was also the first. This establishment went through several owners, not the least of which was a family called Roberts.

They had several small cabins at the southwestern end that they rented out, probably to the same people each year, and the whole place was called Roberts’ Pine Grove. My family would drive up from Clarksville to go for a swim and cool off.

That is where I learned how to swim in the late 1940s. By that time, the beach area was owned by the Vunck family in 1946 and then the Cocca family in 1950.

Today there are no longer any public beaches or boat launches on Warners Lake, but ask the OMOTM, they will tell you a few stories about a lot of the lakes in the Hilltowns from the simpler times when inner tubes, with a bunch of patches on them, ruled the waters.

The OMOTM who enjoyed another breakfast together were: Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, Frank Fuss, Kevin McDonald, Duncan Bellinger, Warren Willsey, Russ Pokorny, George Washburn, Wm Lichliter, Josh Buck, Peter Whitbeck, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Ken Parks, Marty Herzog, Jake Herzog, Ted Feurer, Jake Lederman, Wayne Gaul, Lou Schenck, Greg Hawk, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, John Jaz, Paul Guiton, John Dab, Elwood Vanderbilt, Dave Hodgetts, Bob Donnelly, Henry Whipple, Herb Bahrmann, and me.