SANDY POND: PART 11

Family members are
invited to share their
stories and photos.
Contact:

JMajor9863@aol.com

Sandy Pond
websites

sandypondny.com

sandypondresorts.com

sandypondmemories

spcma.homestead.com

pulaskinychamber.com

11. Pine Lodge

The Majors and Smolinskis weren't really part of the Sandy Pond community. Except for three or four owners we contacted over the years to reserve cottages, we didn't know our summer neighbors, except for the Pritchetts, who in the 1950s took over the cottage next to the two places my family rented for several years. The Pritchetts lived in Westvale and their daughter Sara was a classmate of mine at Solvay High School. She also was very attractive and had very attractive friends. So who needed to look further than the cottage next door?

But we couldn't help but notice other cottages that were bigger, fancier or better situated, and naturally we were curious, though not enough to knock on doors and make introductions..

One such place was Pine Lodge. Finally, after all these years, thanks to the miracle of email, I met Hal Johns, who spent many summers at this interesting Sandy Pond cottage:

By Hal Johns

I enjoyed reading your stories and seeing the old photos of Sandy Pond. Your stories and photos brought back many memories.

My three aunts and father had a cottage on the south side of the inlet for about 50 years. Each summer I would spend at least three weeks at the cottage with them.

They owned Pine Lodge, the largest cottage on the pond south of the inlet. Their property included beaches on Lake Ontario.

I have many wonderful memories of Pine Lodge. Also, I have a journal from 1937 and 1938 that my aunts kept for their friends and family to sign. In the journal, each guest at the lodge would write about his or her visit, then sign and date it. The journal has many prominent people (doctors, entertainers) from all over the country.

One aunt (Ninita Johns) was a famous ballerina, dance teacher and choreographer who had a dance studio in Syracuse. She also had dance shows in New York City on Broadway and even one dance show in Los Angeles. Her life is documented in Who's Who of American Women of 1966-67.

Getting back to the journal, my aunt's friends and guests would document in the journal how their short stay at Pine Lodge had changed their lives forever.

I also have music lyrics written years ago at Pine Lodge, possibly by my father who was a composer, or possibly by my Aunt Jackie or Aunt Peg or possibly by one of the guests. The journal was stxarted by my Aunt Jackie on May 27, 1937. She was a very creative woman and a singer. She wrong a beautiful story/poem in the journal about Pine Lodge (above).

An Important Lesson

While growing up at Sandy Pond I learned an important lesson in life from my aunts.

Many mornings my father and I would go fishing. Time and again I would catch the smallest fish. My aunts would tell me that I needed patience and some day my luck would change.

One summer my father invited a business associate to Pine Lodge. I quickly recognized that he was a fisherman from the tackle boxes and poles he carried into the Lodge.

The next night, after dinner, we went fishing in our boat. My father's friend (a big man) caught the biggest fish, my father caught the second largest fish and, as usual, I caught the smallest fish.

When we entered Pine Lodge my fahter held up his fish for my aunts to see. At that moment I cried out to my aunts, "Why do I always catch the smallest fish? How do the fish know who is the largest or oldest fisherman in the boat?"

My aunts laughed and told me to have patience. That night I cried myself to sleep.

A few years later I was fishing from our dock at Pine Lodge. As usual I caught a small sunfish. I decided to leave the sunfish on the hook while I placed the canvas on one of the boats. I put the end of the fishing pole into one of the aluminum rings mounted on the dock to hold the boat.

After a few minutes my pole began to shake violently. I ran over to see what had happened. I picked up my fishing pole and to my surprise the small sunfishwas gone, eaten by a very large fish that was struggling to get free of the hook.

My wooden pole broke in half when I attempted to reel the fish in. I started screaming. My mother and Aunt Jackie came out of Pine Lodge, running towards me. I grabbed the fishing line and started to pull the fish out of the water. About the time I had the fish over the dock the line broke.

My mother arrived first and started screaming. She grabbed two life preservers from out of the boat. Mom and my Aunt Jackie held the fish on the dock between the two life preservers until my father came down.

We could not believe the size of the ugly fish. And given these circumstances, we were all amazed that the fish never made it back into the water. The fish had a hugh mouth and many long tenicles. My father told us it was a large catfish.

Hal Johns with his huge catch.

We loaded the catfish into the boat and drove across the pond to Perry Bartlet's Marina. There Mr. Bartlet weighed and measured it. He said it was the largest catfish he had ever seen or heard of at Sandy Pond. It weighed in around 26 pounds and was over two feet in length.

And that summer at Sandy Pond, I learned an important lesson of life from three aunts - patience.

Perry Bartlet (or Bartlett; I don't recall the correct spelling) had the bait shop on the southeast side of the pond. He was very kind and helpful to me. I used to walk all the way over to his shop to buy worms. He was a big man and always had a big smile on his face. I recall many tmes him using his large hands and fingers to move the black soil in an aluminum tray inside his bait shop to pull out some juicy worms for me. Then he would place them in a white paper cup and hand them to me. All of those juicy worms for only 10 cents and sometimes even free.

To the rear of his shop (on my right) he had many boat motors torn apart to make repairs. On the other side of his building (South direction) there was a boat-dock system. Cars and trucks could park along side those docks to transfer people and stuff into their boats. Many times we used those docks to load or unload people, luggage and supplies.

Our Hal wouldn't do such a thing

I must tell you about the one and only mischievous time I had at Pine Lodge. My parents had left me with my aunts for the entire summer (possibly 1966) when I was about fourteen years old.

I was bored one night. It was pitch black outside except for the white moon, the bright stars and the flickering distant house lights across Sandy Pond. I got the crazy idea to send a secret message to someone – anyone on the other side of the pond.

There was a light switch on the far right side of the front porch that controlled a powerful floodlight which was located on top of my tree fort.

From the front porch of Pine Lodge, I used this light switch to send an SOS message. I repeated the SOS message – three dots, three dashes and three dots – for what seemed like hours. I hardly believed anyone would even understand my message, much less act on it.

To my surprise, a small motorboat appeared in front of Pine Lodge and asked on a loud speaker what was the reason for the SOS message. The voice in the dark asked how he could help us. One of my aunts came to the front porch and told him that no one at the camp was sending an SOS message.

I ran up to my bedroom and hid, but before I did. I heard my aunt say there must be a short in the flood light because her nephew Hal would never do anything like that.