August Vacations By Abraham Lincoln

The National Cash Register Company, where I worked after getting out of the US Army in 1957, shut down for vacations in August. The NCR complex remained open but most of the offices thinned-out and some factory departments closed for 2 weeks. Nearly every one had been employed there long enough to get two weeks of fully paid vacation each year and when I left, years later, I was getting 3 weeks.

There was a great exodus from Dayton and vicinity to places like Michigan and Canada. Long before drugstores stocked over-the-counter Benadryl a lot of families headed north for some relief from the Miami Valley Drip. Once you crossed the Sault Ste Marie International Bridge into Ontario, sinusitis disappeared. My father in law liked going to the fish at Blind River for walleye and always brought home an ice chest or two packed with them.

Patty and I went past their spot on Blind River and ended up fishing in Kagawong Lake. An immigrant family, from England, owned the camp. Eager to please, they made our stay there a real pleasure. It was a primitive site with an outhouse or privy, and the water you bathed in or drank came straight out of the lake.

I never caught any walleye fish but then I only fished for something I could catch and eat right away and that was perch. I do remember taking my father in law out to my favorite fishing spot in the lake, beside an island and pointed out to him the monumental boulders you could see just a few feet below the surface. The water was crystal clear.

Minds do not work alike I am told but when I think about vacations my mind is flooded with memories of vacations and none so vivid as one to Lake of the Woods, Ontario. I went in a brand new 1958 Pontiac accompanied by a friend from work, Howard Benner, who was a technician in our department. We met at State Route 40 and 49 in the wee hours of the morning and Howard transferred his goods into the cavernous trunk of my new Pontiac and off we went.

We found a place in Canada where we could stay and get the use of a boat. The mosquitoes were horrible and forced us to move and camp out on an island in the lake — a breeze kept the mosquitoes away. It was a nice place to fish and we caught enough to eat each day.

My wife and I had only been married since 1955 and I was overseas until 1957 so I was just getting to know my wife again when this fishing trip came up I suddenly missed her more than I was enjoyed fishing so I promptly announced I was going home the next morning. My companion, who had caught more fish than I did, was disappointed but we came home after being gone one night and two days.