Lake Of The Sky

I think about Lake Tahoe almost every day.

People, if you have been there you know what I am talking about. The place is captivating.

I have so many memories tied to the place. I went every summer for 25 years (my dad for 50 years and my grandma even longer). The lake is like a member of the family. The littlest thing can set off a memory and remind me of Tahoe. Most of the time I don't even know how I started thinking about it. I don't know how one thought eventually takes my mind to Tahoe dreaming. I can be at work checking patients' eye pressure and I start thinking about Meeks Bay. Swimming, water, and the smell of pine are obvious triggers, but even anything that reminds me of one particular perfume from a magazine that was in the upstairs bathroom of the cabin. I'm probably the only person who thinks that swimming pool water could be a little cooler, because I grew up swimming in the 50˚ F water (it can warm up to a nice 65˚ F).

Going to Tahoe with my family every summer was a blessing.

This is one person I have to thank for it: Walter Clyde Hall.

I never met him.

Actually, I did if this counts:
I am the baby. With my dad, my Grandma Sue and Great Grandpa Walter.

He passed away 6 months after I was born. (14 Jan. 1899--1 Dec. 1986). He built the cabin that three have generations enjoyed.

Walter graduated from Stanford and pursued a career in teaching. Being a school teacher is the best, because it leaves your summers free. I know what a good deal it is growing up with a dad with that schedule. Summer vacations every year until the ultimate summer vacation--retirement! Anyway, Walter had summers off. And each summer he took his family up the mountain to Lake Tahoe. They would camp at Kings Beach, at the south of the Lake. My Grandma, his youngest and only daughter, remembers sleeping on the picnic tables and benches one summer while they waited for their camping supplies to arrive. (The supplies were taken separately, rather than with the family in their vehicle.)

Meadow Park

In 1945 he started leasing a little store near Meeks Bay, "Meadow Park".  Campers and summer visitors bought food and other needs from him. This really started the summer tradition of Tahoe. Right after school would end the family would pack up and be at the Lake until Labor day. They lived above the store. My grandma's room was the one with the out-popping window on the roof.

The Kelemen/Hall Cabin. The trimmings were usually painted in green. Here they are red.

A few years later, they bought land and started building a cabin of their own--the very cabin I grew up going to. Years later, when my dad was growing up, they added the deck. The cabin itself is a vault of memories: the children's yearly heights marked on the wall; the building of the deck and loft; the little circular window my dad installed; the birth of "Spaghetti Man"; playing Mexican train, Scrabble, and Hearts after dinner; sending Tom down a 90˚ angle rubble hill on roller-blades; all the kids sleeping in the big front room together; raking huge piles of pine needles to avoid fire code violations. The list goes on: huge black ants, creepy craw dads, trying to capture geese with towels, scanning the beach at night for "treasures", bottle cap collecting, floating down the Truckee River (even if the water is only barely to your knees), the bottle of beer under the pier (has anyone checked to see if it is still there?), riding the bike off the pier (sorry Grandma. I think that is one of the only times I saw her get a little upset), Mark's Tripple Thousand Club, the circle of trust, Crisco Bay, swimming from the beach to the pier, our long chains of floating devises (a ridiculously inefficient way to travel). For some of you, this is just an arbitrary list, but each item is PACKED with memories: hiking, the stories of John Salzman getting lost on his hike, cutting Olivia's cast off her arm, and draining Tom's leg boil... 

The rock at the pier. Besides swimming to it and climbing on it,
it  helped us indicate the water level each year. This is June 2011.

We will keep adding to the memories and legacy. When trying to choose a baby name the other day, Garrett said, "I am trying to imagine which name I would call to our son when he is with little James at Tahoe." We have only been married two years and Garrett has only been to Tahoe once (on our honeymoon), but he is hooked. He is already planning Tahoe vacations. 

Thank you Great Grandpa Walter Clyde Hall for passing on something so wonderful.