Those places

[Alan Gage]

Still no sign of spring in site here so all I've been able to do is dream about warm weather. Was just going through some old pictures and came across this one from last year. As soon as I saw it I was transported back to where I took it. I could feel, hear, see, and smell everything I love about summer in NW Iowa. It's not a great picture but it works for me.



It was taken at Ingham Lake, very close to my hometown and which I nearly grew up on. My dad used to take me on walks through the woods when I was little, carrying me on his shoulders. As I got older we'd take the boat out fishing there together, then I started taking the boat out myself, then I got my own boat. Now it's where I go to canoe/kayak and take my dog, Rudy, for walks. It's a beautiful area and thankfully the state owns almost all the land around it. It's nearly surrounded by a thin band of oak dominated woods. The houses that have been built are just normal houses and are confined to one shoreline. No mansions or resorts.

Right now it's covered with at least 2 feet of ice and 2 feet of snow, except for the small aerated patch in the middle to keep all the fish from dying during hard winters. When I was a kid ice out on Ingham Lake was one of my most looked forward to days of the year. This one is no different.

It's small and it's muddy but I feel like it's my very own and I love it. I usually go there on weekdays and have the entire place to myself.

What's your place?

Alan

[radiophoto]

Back in my hometown of Pekin, Illinois (formerly home of the "Chinks", believe it or not, now the home of the "Dragons" for 30 years, thank the gods), there's a park in the center of town called "Mineral Springs Park", although everybody who lives there just calls it "Pekin Park".  In that park is a man-made lagoon upon which you can rent a two-seat paddleboat, or a canoe, and paddle around; or in the winter you can skate on its frozen surface.  Alongside that lagoon is a pavilion (known as The Pavilion), where in the summer one can buy ice cream, and where they hold shows or exhibits.

When I was a kid this park was a 15-minute bike-ride away.  Families would hold picnics, kids would play for hours in the playgrounds, young lust could flourish in several secluded areas (not that I know this personally, but I think I read about it somewhere), and carnivals would come and go several times every summer.

When I was home for my grandmother's funeral in 2008, I visited the park with my cousin, who, strangely enough, left Illinois for Texas herself many years ago, but lives in Austin.  I brought my Ansco Speedex and got this picture of the favorite spot of my youth:

[Alan Gage]

Nice looking place, Pete. I've always thought highly of towns that had areas like that.

BTW, my town is home of the "Mighty Midgets."

Every few years there's talk of changing the name but so far, thankfully, that movement hasn't gotten much momentum.

Alan

[jake]

I have now uprooted and moved myself so frequently in the last 28 years (never in any house for more than 2 years until this house where we have been for 4,) my mother is dead, my father moved and remarried, my sister married and moved multiple times and now in NC, I don't really have a hometown place as much as I have the memory of a time in a place. And that time would be lunch and the place would be Prague between 2001 and 2004

Every week day at 12PM, whether we needed it or not, we (me, my friend David, and a varying bunch of photojournalists and reporters) met to shoot the sh%t and solve the world's problems over things edible and inedible. Best three years of lunch in my life.



Prague has now changed entirely. Most of those people are elsewhere. And Prague is just Europe.

I guess I need to go find a pond.

[radiophoto]

Nice looking place, Pete. I've always thought highly of towns that had areas like that.

BTW, my town is home of the "Mighty Midgets."

Every few years there's talk of changing the name but so far, thankfully, that movement hasn't gotten much momentum.

Alan

Thanks, Alan -- I forgot to mention that when I was a kid, one of the funniest signs I ever read were the ones around the lagoon (btw, known as The Lagoon) that said "Please Do Not Molest the Waterfowl".  I dunno, the wording just seemed funny to me.

[Greg M]

  Sweet topic and good photos.  Wish I had some photos of the Eastern Montana Yellowstone River Valley in the 1950's where I grew up.  As I heard quoted,I believe in the book "a river run through it", and which I could be mangling, "You could smell the dew of creation". 

[Alan Gage]

I have now uprooted and moved myself so frequently in the last 28 years (never in any house for more than 2 years until this house where we have been for 4,) my mother is dead, my father moved and remarried, my sister married and moved multiple times and now in NC, I don't really have a hometown place as much as I have the memory of a time in a place. And that time would be lunch and the place would be Prague between 2001 and 2004

I think it would be very strange to be so far from family. We don't actually do much together, other than work, but there's just something about having them around. Just dropping by for a few minutes or going to grab a bite to eat. No one you have to try and impress or worry about offending. Every time I think of moving somewhere permanently it's the lack of that that holds me back.

Your every day lunch in Prague sounds like a great time. It wold be fun to have group of people like that to get together, a difficult thing to find I'm sure.

Alan

[radiophoto]

I think it would be very strange to be so far from family. We don't actually do much together, other than work, but there's just something about having them around. Just dropping by for a few minutes or going to grab a bite to eat. No one you have to try and impress or worry about offending. Every time I think of moving somewhere permanently it's the lack of that that holds me back.

Alan, you're lucky to have such a good family dynamic.  One of the reasons I stayed away from home was because it was too easy to offend (and be offended by) members of my family.  My brothers are without exception crude, callous and uncaring of others' feelings (although I will give them credit for treating strangers better than they treat family), but at the same time quick to take offense by the slightest remark.

In my case, distance is better for me.  I'm going back to Illinois later this month and dreading it, although it will be good to see my parents.  It's the first time all of us are going there in three years, although I went back by myself for a couple of funerals.

[jake]

I would like to have a place I went as a kid, and I do have some, but none of them are the same as they were then. Most are gone to development, but some are better places, environmentally at least, though that actually means I can't go there any more as they are off-limits to people or have much more restricted access. But I do have a deep appreciation of the out-of-doors, and that is inextricably linked to the places my dad took me throughout my childhood. My last book I wrote was dedicated to my dad for that very reason. However, now that I've had a bit more time to think about it based on the interesting comments here, I don't think I would have been as comfortable living as far away from family as I have if my parents hadn't somehow conveyed to me a secure sense of some place in the world. It just isn't locatable on Google maps.

[Dennis Gallus]

Alan,

This is an excellent topic, and you've put some very nice thoughts into words.  So have the rest of the contributors.  The picture I choose to add here is of the pond at the Izaak Walton League here in Loudoun County, VA.  From the time my son Will was about 6 until he was early teen-age, we would go to the IW property a couple of times per week.  Usually, we'd shoot the .22 rifles, or perhaps wet a line and see if we could catch a bass.   But on weekends in late Summer and Fall, we'd pitch a tent and build a fire and camp overnight.  Sometimes we'd invite my bride to join us for the supper we'd prepare, almost always a complete meal, but after dinner it was just the two of us, father and son, watching the fire, listening to the fish jump, and talking.

Will is now 23 and a National Park Service ranger.  Today he heads out to White Sands NM to fill a ranger slot there.  I think that one reason he chose that career is that he learned to love the out-of-doors with me.  The Izaak Walton property was one place where he learned the required outdoor skills.   

Little boys grow up and leave their homes and parents.  But if you have put them on the right path, you don't feel so bad when they leave, and you know that they will return.  Alan, it sounds like your dad put you on the right path; you know what I mean.

Best regards,
Dennis