My Sandy Pond - The Secret Paradise of Home

This is one of my favorite photos. It brings me back to my youth, enjoying a place called Sandy Pond. This would have been a quiet evening, perhaps 80 degrees outside. You're sitting at the end of the dock with your friends. The fresh sunburn on your back itched a little as you closed your eyes and listened to the long drone of an outboard motor - somebody's out for a sunset ride...

I lived my first 25 years at Sandy Pond. It's located on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. It is a resort community with a population of thousands in the summer and a few hundred in the winter.

You knew your neighbors...

THIS IS AN AERIAL PHOTO OF THE CHANNEL AND SAND DUNES THAT SEPERATE SANDY POND FROM LAKE ONTARIO. THAT'S THE ISLAND IN THE POND. SOME CALLED IT SNAKE ISLAND, SOME CALLED IT SAWYER'S ISLAND. GREENE POINT IS TO THE RIGHT.
THESE DAYS THE SAND DUNES ARE PRETTY MUCH OFF-LIMITS AS A PRESERVE.

BACK IN THE DAY WE WOULD PLAY IN THE DUNES, AND SNOWMOBILE ALL OVER THE AREA. WE DID A LOT OF DUCK HUNTING IN THIS AREA - BUT NEVER GOT TOO MANY DUCKS.

Two teenagers, Tom Snow who's family lived in Potsdam NY and had a camp near the Elms Golf Course and his buddy Mike McGuane who's Mom owned a store on Route 3 near the "4-Corners", drowned tragically near that island while duck hunting one fall. Their shallow duck-boat overturned in bad weather. A third boy - my friend Danny Lapham, survived.

Being a "native" of Sandy Pond is much different than vacationing there. It's not better or worse - just different.

You endured the climate. The winters were cold and windy with abundant snow and ice. I remember the ice getting as thick as 3 feet. The springs were chilly and sunny, the fall seemed cloudy and damp. But the summers were perfect...

We attended Sandy Creek Central School. Kindergarten through 12th grade at one location. There were 62 people in my graduating class. After 13 years in the same class, we knew everybody. You just don't get that kind of schooling everywhere and I cherish it.


Growing up, exploring the world, we were blessed with the massive playground called Sandy Pond, 24/7, a permanent vacation of sorts, it was like a dream you did not want to awake from.



This web log is for memories of this place I used to call home...





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SOME FAMILY HISTORY

My Dad first visited Sandy Pond in his youth during the 1930's. Dad and his good friend Don Dix would visit often, having youthful fun at this little resort. Dad (in the middle) with friends at Sandy Island Beach, Sandy Pond Circa 1933.

After World War II, Dad, a veteran and a State Trooper, married Mom, a Nurse, in 1948.

Dad on his Harley Police Special

Mom

They bought about a half-acre of land on Ackerman Tract on the south shore of Sandy Pond. It was originally called Ackerman's Grove.
They cleared the land, Mom contracting a wicked case of poison ivy when she was wafted by the smoke of the burning brush.


They built a small house (with a nice fireplace) out of cinder blocks and wood. I don't know why Dad used cinder blocks - perhaps he liked the security they offered. He was a policeman and veteran, and it was the atomic age with the Soviet menace armed with nuclear ICBMs. Or maybe he just liked to do masonry work. In any case he did a good job and their home still stands firm 55 years later.
Mom started having babies in 1953. They had 4 children and I was the 2nd born.

Pete, the youngest, hadn't been born yet when this photo was taken.

Brother Kip, Me, Brother Pete, Sister Amy, Halloween 1963 - (3 weeks before president John Kennedy was assassinated...)

Dad built on to the original house doubling it's size and adding a basement (which they called a "cellar") and attached garage. It was all cinder block of course - and grey. Some visitors would chuckle and say it resembled a bunker. We called it home.
After a few years Dad walled off the garage and built two more bedrooms... This photo shows the part of the house Dad added as their family grew. I have not yet found a photo of the entire house.
The old garage of course is at the head of the driveway - the 2 side-by-side windows in front of the mini-van were installed at the header of the old garage door. That's bro. Kip getting the winter salt off his car...