Chapter 5

I awoke to the sound of light surf on the beach and the smell of breakfast on the griddle. Pentwater!

I had to look. It was a very familiar green canvas tent with a green canvas floor. Inside pole construction and a Nickel Coleman 220B two mantle lantern with the asbestos tent shield.

God Damn! It looks just like the lantern I found in an abandoned barn in the woods ... I got out of my sleeping bag.

I must have been really tired.

The lantern. Oh Yes ... the lantern. The Coleman Lamp & Stove Co. Wichita Kan, stamped on the bottom of the gas can. Holy shit ... there’s my initials and 1953 I wrote on it. It IS my lantern.

My mind went back...

The first trip to the lake; the 1951 Mercury two door. I was eleven. Charlie was 12 for three more months ... then he’d be 13, a teenager in September. Charlie and I fought so hard in the backseat. I’ll bet daddy yelled at us to shut up a dozen times a mile. Well, maybe not ... but at least that many times an hour.

Daddy blew his stack.

He pulled over on a National Forest side road, and made us get out.

“Okay,” he said. “Have at it.”

“What?” Chuck said.

“Huh?” I said.

“Charles,” mother said.

“Vera ... stay out of this,” Daddy told her. He turned to us and said, “Get with it, try to KILL each other ... may the best man win.”

“Really?” I asked.

“No talking ... more fighting,” Daddy said.

“Charles!” momma exclaimed.

“Shut up, Vera.”

“But...”

“Not another word, Vera. These two honyacks have been going at it in the backseat and I’m sick of it! Let them kill one another. I’m getting the shovel so as to bury the loser.”

There were a lot of Germans in our neighborhood and a few Poles. The Germans called the Poles honyackers ... stupid ignorant factory workers without the sense to farm and make a profit. You could teach a honyack how to do one thing but not two ... or so the Germans said.

The day hadn’t started out friendly. We were going to visit Aunt Jean and Uncle Al. They had a passel of kids near our age ... but their oldest ... already 13 ... was a GIRL ... older than Charley. We both grouched about leaving our friends ... we were going to be gone 14 whole days... 14 days away from the park and tadpoles and frogs and, and, and. Neither of us wanted to go...

“Leave you home?” Mom laughed. “Are you insane? I want to come home to a house.”

Daddy said, “Get in the car ... or cut me a switch.”

We got in the car.

Daddy had a bumper-sticker made by the same company that made MYSTERY SPOT stickers. Daddy’s sticker said, I’m not lost. I’m EXPLORING. because he never drove on main roads if he could help it. The sticker became one of the best stickers in Michigan. Because it was his idea, Daddy got a dime for every one sold.

Finally on the road after going back several times to make sure the doors were locked (they were) and the water was off in the sink (it was) and the upstairs windows were closed (they weren’t) and the coal wasn’t to be delivered (he knew) and the paperboy stopped delivery (he did). Mom did forget to tell the milkman ... but that’s another story.