The Cottage
The cottage life helped shape who I am. Here are some musings about that time of my life. Hopefully you experienced the forest like I did.
As we sped down a southern Ontario Highway, with its small rolling hills, old-world looking farm houses, tiny vintage towns, and fields bordered by enchanted forests, I would stare out of the window of the van, watching it all zoom by. Often times I would look out on the horizon and see the large patches of forests engulfed with the darkest of green trees - you could almost smell the depths of the humid centre of the woods - and imagine what it would be like to magically teleport myself there, right that instant, what I would see and what it would feel like to be put in a place where no humans were bothering it just a moment before.
Our old dog, Wolf, would awake from his slumber and start sniffing and wagging his tail. He knew we were close. As the van slowed down, you could hear the rippled concrete highway speed bumps make their trademark buzzing sound, decreasing in tone as we pulled to a stop and turned onto the old dirt road. Music to my ears.
The City Blues
What is it about the city life that makes us want to leave now and then?
Life in the city can get busy. We’re surrounded by concrete buildings, packed streets, waiting in lines, and frantically moving to and fro amongst an urban clutter.
“We’re heading up north this weekend“
“We’re getting away for a week“
“We have a vacation booked. Can’t wait till the end of the month“
The city life is supposed to be convenient. There’s stores and amenities everywhere and they are located where they’re supposed to be. Convenience is accessible. There’s parking for all the cars there’s stores for all the people. There’s even parks if you want to have a mini getaway for a short period of time, but it’s never the same as a long getaway.
The city is a perfect place to accommodate our consumer habits.
The stop and go of the traffic lights can get irritating. So we replace it by going to a place where we can stop and go whenever we want. We aren’t controlled by the flow of cars but instead the flow of leisure and relaxation.
The Commute. What hasn’t been said over the years about the dreaded commute? We’ve all been there, we’ve all felt the slight onset of car sickness set in on the way home from work. You know the feeling, you’re temperature rises, you start to get hot and sweaty and dizzy, your eyes get shaky, you get a bit of a headache, and your face starts to tingle. You feel like you might puke. So you roll down the window just to get some kind of respite from your little box of horror on wheels.
People want to be free from that vehicular vertigo, and to instead be captured by fields of fresh air.
Humans were created for the real jungle, not the concrete one.
Summers up north were the highlight of my youth. Fishing and swimming in the clear lakes. Going down the water slide that hurt our back, splashing into the murky river. Roaming around and playing War in the deep forest with wooden fake guns that my dad made for us,
I was lucky enough to have a cottage to go to while growing up.
I experienced for the first time…
-Catching a fish
-Doing yard work
-Kissing a gal
-Being mentored by a drum teacher
-The death of a family dog
-Drinking beer
-Smoking pot
Going up to the cottage was essentially a vacation, but also a home away from home. What exactly did we need a vacation from? We all needed a break from city life. Since my parents both worked in education, the busy times of our lives were during the fall and winter semesters, September to December and January until June. The life of a young student in middle school, and high school, can be hectic sometimes. Admittedly, however, I did my best not to be that responsible in school and instead chose to have fun more often than not. But there was still the expectations, the schoolwork was to be completed. That’s just one example of a young persons busy life. Both my parents worked and my brother and I went to school, and when winter break or summer break came along, we were all happy to leave that behind for a bit and enjoy our own private getaway.
The Slow Life
Maybe you had a trailer at a campground. Maybe you had an RV you did road trips in. Maybe you already grew up outside of the city life and grew up near the wilderness. Whatever the case, you knew what is was like to live life a bit slower.
Walking across the farm fields to the secret thimbleberry bush. Sneaking a bunch of homemade smoked salmon and running off to eat it in your secret fort. Making dangerous dirt jumps to ride your bike off of. Running and jumping off of sand dunes. Racing to the front porch when you heard your friends’ mom ring the cowbell, meaning it’s time for lunch.
I felt like I lived a double life. I had friends up at my cottage and I had friends in the city. Summer friends and school friends. I was lucky enough that when I was first going to college, one of my cottage friends came to the city and moved in with one of my school friends. The best of both worlds.
The Cottage shaped me. Part of me was moulded by my adventurers in the forest.
I want to be able to provide a cottage to my family as well. I want my children to grow up there and have access to the cottage life because I had such a wonderful time with it when I was growing up and I want them to experience all the fun and life milestones that I went through as well.
If you had a similar experience please share your memories with us. It’s part of who you are and helps create the story of your life. Let’s hear your story.