Back in the Summer of ‘87, my dad took me and my brother to a resort in Wisconsin for a week’s vacation. I was just a 13-year-old kid and wasn’t really looking forward to missing sandlot baseball games in favor of fishing at 6 am, but I didn’t have a choice.

The drive was over four hours from our suburban Chicago home and back then we didn’t have any electronic devices to pass the time and it was boring. Kids today will just never know that depth of true boredom.

To pass the time, my dad came up with a thing where he would count down 3-2-1 and then we’d all turn our heads and look at the people in the car next to us at the same time with a shocked expression on our faces. It was silly, but that was dad.

My dad didn’t even have a good tape selection in the car. Enya, Duran Duran, Dire Straits, and The Traveling Wilbury’s were played on rotation when we couldn’t get a good radio station. Looking back, all of those are legendary artists. It’s funny how time changes perception.

The resort was basically a motel with an attached lodge on the lakefront with a few cabins. They had those old aluminum boats that you could rent to fish on or you could swim and fish off of the dock.

The good thing was that the water was crystal clear.

The owner was an old friend of my dad’s and he lived up there with his family in the summer. When we checked in, I saw a girl about my age playing the jukebox in the small bar they had.

Above the jukebox was a big wood carved sign that announced you were in The Bear’s Paw Lodge. It was that kind that had the charred lettering. It was very rustic looking and fit the old place nicely.

It was a cool old jukebox that played old 45’s, but it seemed to be broken. It only played one song at a time. The girl sat there and fed it a quarter after each song ended.

I got up my courage and walked over to say hi after getting some quarters off of my old man.

“Hi, I’m Jeff,” I said. “Can I play a song or two?”

“Nope,” she said. “You can give me your quarters and I’ll play the songs though.”

I laughed and said, “Nope. You keep paying. You’re doing just fine.”

She gave me a sneer and since she didn’t seem interested in talking, I went back to my dad who was ready to go to our room.

My dad’s friend, Gus, handed him the key and shouted, “Hey, Vicki, show them to room 4.”

That wasn’t really necessary. It was a four room motel and all of the rooms were sequential, but I think he just wanted her to do something.

It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me was playing and she complained, “Aw, Dad! After my song please.”

“Nope. Right now young lady,” Gus said.

“Fine. Let’s go,” she said walking out the door without waiting for us.

We walked the 50 yards to the room and she said in the most bored tone possible, “Here’s your room. If you need anything, let us know. Welcome to The Bear’s Paw Lodge. Enjoy your stay.”

She ran back to the lodge, no doubt hoping to hear the rest of her song.

The first few days were filled with swimming and fishing. Gus had two younger boys that were fun to hang around with and they seemed desperate for our attention. I thought that maybe it was more of an old men fishing type of place than a kid-friendly place and they were starved for some other kids to play with. All there really was to do in the lodge was play Pac-Man or play on the lone pool table.

On the 3rd day, it rained - all day. I camped out in the lodge while my brother and the two other boys went looking for worms in the rain.

After a couple of hours, my dad stopped feeding me quarters so I had to read the old fishing magazines that were laying around.

I was so bored I had almost decided to go look for worms when Vicki walked in. She walked over to me and asked, “Got any money for the jukebox?”

“Nope, sorry,” I said.

She grabbed my arm and said, “Come on.”

She took me out back to a covered carport that was about 100 yards from the main building. There were a couple of chairs set up with a small tray table.

She said, “Let’s play Truth or Dare.”

I figured, “Why not,” and played along with the reclusive girl that seemed to want to avoid me as much as possible.

“Truth or dare,” she asked.

“Truth,” I answered.

“Do you think I’m pretty?” She asked.

I almost laughed, but I took a moment to look her over and she was cute. She had brown curly hair that was cut short. She had a small nose and some freckles under her brown eyes. She was also very thin.

I said, “Yes. You’re pretty.”

She smiled and blushed.

“Truth or dare,” I asked before she could comment on my answer.

“Truth.”

“Why do you mope around here avoiding everyone?”

She looked at me sadly and said, “I hate it here. Dad bought this dump 3 years ago and ever since then my whole summer is always wasted. Instead of having a summer vacation, I have to work here cleaning rooms.”

I felt bad for her. When you’re a kid the only thing better than Summer vacation is Christmas and she’d lost hers.

She snapped out of her malaise and said, T or D?

“Dare,” I said, wondering what there was to do.

“Kiss me.”

“Huh?” I squeaked.

“Kiss me. You’ve kissed a girl right?”

“Uh, sure,” I lied.

I leaned over and gave her a peck on the lips. She grabbed my head and pulled me back in for more. An amazing first kiss.

After that, we spent the rest of my time there sneaking away as often as possible to make out with each other or just hang out and play pool and the jukebox.

She must have played that old Billy Joel song 50 times. I never got sick of it either. She’d dance all over the room singing along with a huge smile on her face. Using a pool cue as a microphone was a cute touch.

I did find out that she lived and went to school back home about a half-hour away from me, but being so young, it may as well have been on the moon.

We got along so well that it was strange. I’d known her for only a few days, but it felt like she was my girlfriend. If we walked together, we always held hands. The making out part wasn’t bad either. My dad even brought her out to dinner with us a few times.

But then, like everything, our time came to an end. Neither of us, that week, would speak about what would happen after I left. We wanted to enjoy every moment we had without dwelling on the sadness to come.

On our last day, I was putting our bags in the car and I was sad that I hadn’t seen her all morning. She knew it was my last day and I wanted to say goodbye and give her my contact information. I figured that we could talk on the phone or at least write to each other. She never showed. Her mom said that she wasn’t feeling well and was in bed.

Her brothers and parents said goodbye to us and as we were about to leave her little brother handed me a note.

He said, “She said to wait until you were in the car to give it to you.” Then he ran into the lodge.

As we were driving away I looked back at the lodge and saw her standing by the door watching us drive away.

The note read:

Jeff,

Thank you for giving me some summer fun. I hope you come up next Summer. I’ll miss you.

Vicki

We didn’t go back for 5 years.

You have to remember that there was no email, no google, people had unlisted numbers, long-distance phone calls were really expensive, and people didn’t have pocket computers back then.

My dad had given me her local address and phone number so I waited until fall and tried to call her. The phone number was no longer in service, so I had sent her a letter with my contact info. I was disappointed that she never responded.

A couple of years later, I was hoping to connect with her once I got my license and could make the drive to her town, but that never happened either. When I went to her address, I was told that she had moved.

After begging my dad to take us back every Summer since that year, he finally took us the year I graduated high school.

My 18th birthday was in June and he handed me a card. He said, “I think you’re going to like this birthday present the best, Son.”

I opened the yellow envelope and inside was a card that had some old lady in a cartoon on it. I didn’t think it was funny, but it was from my dad so that was to be expected.

Inside the card was a shock. It was from Vicki.

Her note said, Your reservation is confirmed for July 26th through 31st in the Chicago Bears cabin. Can’t wait to see you! xoxo

I was over the moon. I would finally get to see her again and she remembered me.

I shouted, “Yes!” gave my dad a hug and said, “Thank you.”

He smiled and said, “Easy, killer. You’ve got a couple of weeks to wait.”

And what a painful wait it was.

The drive up seemed to take hours longer than it should have. My anticipation level was through the roof. All I thought about for that last month was, Vicki. What would she look like? Would she like me? Would we pick up where we left off? Did she have a boyfriend?

By then I had a Nintendo Game Boy, so at least I had something to do on the drive up and the new van had a CD player. I was able to control the music and my dad tried to be a cool dad by suffering through all of my choices.

When we pulled onto the mile-long road leading up to The Bear’s Paw Lodge, I saw that nothing had really changed. There were paddle boats, which I didn’t remember from before, but everything else looked the same.

As I walked through the lodge door, with my dad and brother, I looked around the room. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw the same lone pool table and the same old jukebox.

I walked over dropped a quarter and looked over the songs. The labels were more faded, but the selections were the same.

I remembered the number of the song without finding it and pressed B-17. The old machine moaned through its mechanical movements and after a moment the song blared out.

“What’s the matter with the clothes I’m wearing?” Sang Billy Joel.

I was grabbed and spun around and was looking into the most beautiful brown eyes I’d ever seen. Her smile was ear to ear and she pulled me into a hug.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” she said.

“I’ve missed you so much, Vicki. You can’t even imagine.”

“Yeah, I think I can,” she said laughing.

She grabbed my hand and led me out the front door past my dad checking in.

“We’ll be on the dock,” Vicki said to her mother who was talking with my dad.

My dad just laughed and waved us on.

She was already barefoot and sat down putting her feet in the water without letting go of my hand. I kicked off my sandals and sat down hip to hip with her.

She snuggled into my shoulder as I let go of her hand and put my arm around her.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” She asked.

“No, do you?”

“Nope,” she said, “and no boyfriend either.”

She giggled at herself and then said, “I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye last time. I was too sad.”

“I understand. I was depressed for a while and missed you. My dad got your address for me and I wrote to you, but I didn’t hear back.”

“I never got it. I tried to 411 your phone number but you’re unlisted.”

“Ugh! Such wasted time. I thought that we could have gotten together after our time here.”

“No, it couldn’t have happened. We moved up here year-round at the end of that Summer. It sucks here. I can’t wait to go to college and get out of here.”

“Where are you going to school?” I asked.

“Carthage down south. Still in Wisconsin, but closer to a city. I hate it out here in the sticks. Where are you going to school?”

“Southern Illinois University. All the way at the bottom of the state.”

She frowned. I guess she was hoping we could be closer. I know I had hoped it.

“So,” she said, “have you practiced your kissing, loverboy?”

“I’ve kissed some, but none of them were you.”

She smiled and I leaned over to kiss her. Soft and tentative at first but becoming more passionate as the moments passed. She spread my lips with her tongue and I opened to let her in.