“Bought a lot.” “Gained a lot.”
That’s Dad and Mom above, at the top of a page of our cousins’ guest book. The Kruzshaks bought a cabin on nearby Broad Bay a few years before we did.
Over the long Labor Day weekend, after a summer of visits and sightseeing and deliberation, Dad memorialized their purchase and Mom left a mystery in the ledger. Did she gain some vacation weight or did she gain a family?
Every guestbook at Kalm Waters since was handed over with her instruction, “No thank yous; leave only memories.” The first book was a firetruck red and the second a brown velvet the color of the cabin’s Cabot stain.
Writing is a pain on the last day of your visit when rushed to pack and sad to leave, but everyone comes to understand: if you don’t put an entry in the book right then and there, you will never recall your cabin time as fully.
You only have to fail once, return the next year, and feel that memory loss to get in the habit every year thereafter. These entries—the effort of so many to preserve their experiences for so long—they are better recommendations than any five-star review.
Thank you good neighbors, cherished relatives, and boon companions, for sharing your days off with us.
Here’s to a half century of love, laughs, and testimony.