My Love for Lake Geneva.

FINALLY got up there for the first time this year, on the next to last weekend of the summer before Labor Day. The weather was perfect. Cloudless sky, hot hot, strong breeze. Completely lucked out seeing so many members of the "old crew" who apparently hadn't all been down on the pier at the same time all year. Higgins', Landgraf's, Degnan's and of course Wendt's. We all ended up on the far end just like it always had been. People were sipping beers and reminiscing about past times. The Gaines' family, the Smith's, and Ruthie from the Congress Club (a group of white homes with green trim surrounding the central Clubhouse, build in the late 1800's by families who all had permanent residences in and around Congress Parkway in downtown Chicago) which had been in my back yard.

Much to my dismay, they no longer do the swim meet, or the pot luck dinner/family picnic, due to lack of participation. Super drag. My Mom's infamous taco salad was remembered yesterday – everyone missing it and remarking on how it was such a hit.

I literally cried when I saw the lake as I rolled into town. I really miss it and can't believe how time flies. My dear friend Jed has three children now. I met him when he was 10 years old. I remember his family adopting his brother after years of trying to get him, and bringing the little newborn up for the first time, and how excited we all were. Joe is in college now. Kelly is getting married. I remember when she was born and how I couldn't stop carrying her and her twin brother Brendon around every chance I got, quite possibly annoying the hell out of her mother with my obsessive interest in them, always begging for a chance to feed or change or dress them.

Lots of talk about how we'd walk to town for ice cream, and every kid would be invited along, regardless of age, because just, that's how it was. The big kids were bigger than me at the time, little ones quite young. All of us looking out for one another and just, having the best time being "bored" all summer.

I was so happy to see things unchanged and also sad to see what was so different. Adorable modest summer homes turned into places two or three times their original size.

But it was the smell of it that hadn't changed that got me on the drive in. And then later, it was the water, the damp, the stars, the noise of the crickets and cicadas and the same old faces that hadn't changed all that much. In the end it all felt very obvious, natural and familiar. I felt again like the kid I was back then, even though that's so obviously not the case any more. What a delightful childhood I had without really even realizing it. I love being able to swim off that pier more than any other swimming experience I've had in my life.