DUCKS, DOGS, AND PENNY CANDY

My grandmother had a cottage on Lake Erie, where I spent lots of time every summer with my Mom and Dad....and two gigantic German Shepherds. I spent my days there on the beach playing in the sand, or riding my tricycle up and down the sidewalk which was shaded by enormous poplar trees whose leaves would rustle in the breeze and put me to sleep at night when the lake was calm. Other nights I 'd listen to the waves...wondering sometimes if they were really as big and ferocious as they sounded.

My friend in the cottage next door had a duck...and even with my steel trap memory, I can't remember which one of them was named Margaret. We played together every day, ate grilled cheese sandwiches, fed her duck, and made sand castles with the two dogs who liked to dig in the sand.

One of the highlights of those summer days was the penny candy that they sold in the tiny grocery store that served the three rows of cottages. We spent lots of time there...loaded with a few dimes and nickels, and ate our sugar watermelon slices and red fish on our way back home. The lady who worked in the store was named Nellie, and she came north every summer from Biloxi Mississippi just to work at the store. Nellie was a big lady, always patient , and always huffing and puffing when she had to stoop almost to the floor to add our selections to the little brown paper bag. I think Margaret ( unless that was the duck's name ) was kinda indecisive...because Nellie would keep asking her "what else"...Sometimes we'd leave there and go into the attached area that we called the "shack". They had a juke box there, and a dance floor and a soda fountain. We'd climb up on a stool, and pretty soon Nellie would appear behind the counter...she worked the counter there too. If we were going to be big spenders that day we'd have a chocolate coke. My friend Carol still drinks them...I never heard of anyone else who did.

Years ago I discovered an old clock in our attic...turns out it was the one with the Westminster chime that sat on the mantle in my Grandmother's cottage for as long as I can remember...it used to keep people awake when they visited, but it chimed away every summer. Now it sits on my mantle, and I wind it every Tuesday, and sometimes late at night I'll her it chime the hour...and I'm right back on the warm sidewalk...heading for a the penny candy, with no more to think about than how many peanut butter bars I wanted, or where the duck could have gone, or if my dad had gotten the inner tube blown up.