Lake Meade

So, the lake, 40 years later, by now, I don’t know anyone that lives there. I’ve been gone too long. I had property there at one time, before I was married. After marrying and being in Minnesota, I sold it to my parents, for just what I had in it. My Mother’s idea was to build a house there and retire from the farm. Ha, Ha, that was HER idea, but not my Dad’s idea. He went ahead and built a house there, thinking it was silly to have a small piece of land just sitting there. My Mother could not convince Daddy to move to the house. His idea was to build a house there and sell it. My Dad was stubborn, and no matter how persuasive Mom was, it was no go for Dad. Soon after the house was built and Dad wouldn’t go back there, one of my brothers got married. They then rented from my parents. This was during the time our daughter was young. We would go back to the lake then and use the swimming pool when we were visiting. From the entrance you could see the lake, it was beautiful. Years later, my brother bought their own place, and Mom and Dad sold the house. After that, I never visited the lake when I went home.

On this visit, my brother in law knows someone who has a beautiful lake front home on the lake, and he offered him the use of his pontoon boat to take a ride on the lake when I was there. Wow, going into the entrance looking from the top of the hill, after 40 years, I could not see the lake anymore, all I saw was trees and houses. I then noticed that those that had lake front property, after 30 – 40 years, did indeed have an advantage. There are very few lots there now that do not have a house on. They are their own community and even have their own fire department.

We took a nice quiet ride all around all parts of the lake. It was beautiful. The access areas actually had boats docked, the marina had boats, there were beautiful homes everywhere. Of course the waterfront homes were the most elaborate, but there were modest homes away from the lake also. The trees, which were non-existent 40 years ago, were 40 years old and mature. The old farm house that housed our office was long gone; they even replaced the restaurant and swimming pool with a new swimming complex and community center. It was neat too, to ride by the dam and know that I watched the dam being built that was holding all the water. Just think, I was there before that whole community existed… I remember the farms, and the people who lived on those farms.

40 years… gee … so many changes in 40 years. None of us back in 1966 would have imagined the lake would look as it does today.