Friday, Jan 27, 1978: (Paul) The Lake House proves itself against the bitter winter winds! I came up from Princeton with some fellow students and sufferers (Dexter Frye, Howard Treen, Dave Roberson, Flo SiStefone). Howard drove his station wagon on an uneventful trip up from NJ. Hope the drive back is uneventful. The hike down the grade with loaded packs was greatly improved by some uneven but gratefully appreciated snowmobile. If we had had to wade through the three feet of loose powder that covered the driveway for the whole length of the grade we might not have made it. Lots of snow—that was our basic impression. 3 feet or more everywhere. We shoveled off quite a lot from the roof, and tried walking around a bit, but discovered it akin to wading through hip deep mud. It is all too typical of Shunk, the day after we arrived, Wednesday, it rained all day. It then got colder and snowed two more inches leaving a thin crust under two inches of powder. We’ve been quite cozy with the electric heat and a fire going continuously in the fireplace. It took a while to heat up the living room to a comfortable temperature from the 25°F at which we found it, especially since we couldn’t find all the thermostats until Pop Pop came by the next day. Last night Ann, Mary & Mary’s roommate rode in on snowmobiles and we sat around the fireplace making s’mores and sampling Dexter’s Dutch gin (awful stuff).
We ended up melting all our drinking water from snow (as well as toilet flushing water). It turned out to be much less a bother than we thought and we had a plentiful supply all the time.
Dave and I, getting annoyed at being unable to hike through the snow with any ease, constructed makeshift snowshoes from forked branches and stray bits of string. We used the sleeping bag straps from our packs as bindings. There were a few design flaws as we discovered on a full length hike this morning. Poor workmanship on my left snowshoe caused it to fall apart after about an hour’s use. Using the nylon lace attached to my knife and my belt and by putting the snowshoe on backwards and upside down I managed to hobble back. Nevertheless, they were definitely great successes, even when falling apart, backwards and upside down the improved immeasurably our mobility. It was a little frightening to contemplate being stranded in those drifts without some reasonable fascimile of a snowshoe. We parked the car at the Eby’s and walked out there this afternoon to carry out the first load of our stuff, and to start the car to make sure it was still in running condition for tomorrow’s departure. We discovered the car up to its hubcaps in ice (from the rain & thaw Wednesday). With a pick and some hard pulling with the Eby’s tractor we finally managed to extract the car, though the car resisted mightily.
Flo reminds me to mention that we played an awful lot of bridge, which game eventually disintegrated to five hand solitaire.
So ends our great escape into the backwoods of Pennsylvania as we prepare to head back for the start of a new semester. – Paul
and Daniel … DURHAM NC 27705
Shunk: A minute of life in the middle of an existence. Howard Turin – Westport, Conn
Rife is lough – Dexter Frye, Northbridge CA
Florence … DiStefani, Centereach, N.Y. 11720
Summer Arrivals
6/2: Caroline (from Exeter)
6/10: Ken, Joanne, Adam, Jason, Lucas (from Socorro, Shelby, Washinton D.C.)
6/11: Nina (from Dartmouth)
I spent two parts of two days here by myself before anyone came. I played most of the piano rolls and cleaned and vacuumed the whole house, and did a little typing and daydreaming – just enjoyed myself. – Caroline
6/17 – 18: Venkatesh came from Rochester with his sweet wife Vijaya and his brother-in-law Krishna. Grandpa Baumunk wants to call me Venklatesh & Bankladesh. He was such a sport. He calls my wife VJ and very much wants to go to India with us. We will take him when we go to India for a visit.
Vijaya’s brother Krishnapriyan also came and liked the place the instant he saw Mommy. Everytime I come here the family grows by one member.
The fiftieth anniversary was a grand thing to remember. The great Baumunks have set an example for the young ones. We all had a very nice time and enjoyed every bit of it.
Ate lots of good food. Mommy took good care of us as ever and better. Played Boggle with Ken, VJ, Krishna. Ken won!! Ken took us sailing and rescued us from getting aground. We have to leave now; although reluctant. We will be back soon.
Venkatesh (Venku)
Vijaya (VJ)
I came, I saw, I was conquered. Krishna
Tues. June 20, 1978: The family prepares to leave after several days of celebration of Gramma & Pop Pop’s 50th wedding anniversary. “I just want to look at all of you” — a joyful, emotional, & thankful L.L.B.
Nina donned Gramma’s wedding dress and shoes for the Sat. evening dinner and dance. Hundreds of friends and relatives gathered for feasting, dancing, talking, drinking, and sharing in the celebration. “With family and friends like these, we are surely blessed.” – C.L.B.
Tomorrow, 6 of us leave: Ken, Joanne, Nina, Caroline, Jason, + Lucas —> Socorro, N.M. Adam remains behind with Dale + Lucy for the summer. (Joanne)
June 20: A ten day summer in Shunk is a little too short. Arrived via Greyhound from Hanover, Boston and Cambridge. Only one good day of swimming but a little sailing, kayaking, postcard writing and the usual poker, solitaire, Boggle and Scrabble games. can’t forget the usual anthropomorphis lethargicus that sets in when one comes to the lake—a welcome lack of energy to do anything. Except the daily two-mile jog down the grade and back which was initiated for middle aged college professors and their daughters. Now off to Socorro tomorrow (minus a brother) to enter the ranks of the job hunters (yeah!). Nina
August 12: Party at Baumunk’s Lake and what a party it was. Lots of drink and merrymaking. What a great time, you should of been there. I would list the guest names but I forgot their names. That OK they are all real nice. Boy the music is getting loud but now I’ll will go change it. Bye for now I’ll miss you!!
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