Chester Chatter: A Cole Pond camp in the woods

By Ruthie Douglas
©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC

For more than 50 years, my family enjoyed the cabin on Cole Pond in Jamaica. It was our gathering place, the cabin in the great woods, our retreat from a busy world.

It was built by the unskilled labor of family members, put together with hand tools, without blueprints but with lots of love and laughs. Our cabin was the very first on the pond.

Before it was completed, we slept in tents. At night, we could hear the bears hoot, the fish jump in the path of moonlight on the water and other animals rustling about on the forest floor. We had a cabin by summer’s end, just in time for deer season. To reach our camp, we used an old logging road off the railway line that once went to Brattleboro. Oftentimes, however, we had to walk into camp because of the mud.

In just a couple of years time, people from Massachusetts built a log cabin. When we could no longer use the road because of the building of Ball Mountain Dam, these folks talked their friend, a young senator from their state, into helping us get a new road. His name was John F. Kennedy.

Oh the changes on the lake. Our humble, simple camp became surrounded by elegant homes and, with the development of the nearby Stratton Mountain ski area, nearby land values changed and so did our lives. The old folks passed away, the kids grew up. It came down to the keepers of the cabin. My sister and I made a try at maintaining the property. It was not easy.

Years passed. And a few years ago, we sold it. But we kept the good time, the laughs and the memories.

Out and about

Jeff and Debbie Holden held their annual pig roast on a recent Saturday. Friends and family gathered under the big tent for a feast of homemade foods and roast pork. It was a beautiful summer day.

Carl Davison of Melbourne, Fla., has been visiting his parents, Carl and Linda, and getting together with former classmates.

Andy Stowell and Sue Kibbe had a good time visiting relatives in New Jersey. They went to the beach, attended a concert and visited with family.

Bill and Nancy Lindsey have enjoyed a visit with Nancy’s broth David Adams of Kentucky.

Save the date: The American Legion Unit 67 Auxiliary will be holding a carpet remnants sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 at Knockout Carpet on 647 Main St. in Chester.

The world’s prayers were answered with the safe rescue of the youth soccer team and coach trapped in the cave in Thailand.

• This week’s trivia question: What Chester couple owned the Belmont Drive-in?
  
• Answer to last week’s trivia question: The Moon Dog was incorporated in early 2004.
  

Street Talk

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