Used to Live Here

Illustration for a blog post .

About the time the Army shipped me to Vietnam my parents purchased a pair summer cottages--part of a retired resort--at Wall Lake. While the cottages weren't on the water, you could see the lake in two directions, and we had docking privileges at the end of the road. 'Twas a pleasant place to summer. This was the larger cottage. A few years back the little cottage was still standing, but it's now gone. (But the photos I took in 2005 are just awful. Last February 17 I did better.) Mom & Dad sold the Kalamazoo house in 1972, so for a time this was our primary residence. Neither cottage was properly winterized--in fact, the small cottage only had a space heater--so we were glad to move back into Kalamazoo when they bought a Winchell-neighborhood home in early December. My parents sold the Wall Lake place in '73. Living in two locations turned out to be a lot of work. So we never returned to First Street, except to inspect, clean up, and visit friends. Frankly I'm surprised that any of the resort cottages remain. The base of Wall Lake's point had mostly cabins when we lived there; now there are many substantial homes. Four decades will do that. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366/2012 project discussion here .

Ah, memories.... ========== See the 5035 First Street photo for some discussion of what Wall Lake means to me. Eventually you grow weary of always shooting pictures in the neighborhood. I delivered the Nero Wolfe books to my sister last February 17, and found a chance to photograph something different. On my way to Kalamazoo I stopped in Delton, where we'd lived for a time in the seventies, to photograph the cottages my parents had owned. Turns out that only one is still standing. I also took a few pix of the area, and wished we still owned the property. I got off the highways for the return trip from Kalamazoo, since I had the time and knew the roads. The Christle barn photo I posted to 366 Snaps was an opportunity shot; it happens to be another Delton address, but near Fair Lake. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 10 Title of " roll :" Kalamazoo Outing Other photos taken on 2/17/2012: none.

Delta Township, just west of Lansing. Used to live in the second-floor apartment on the left and park my car about where the white one is. Three decades ago, now. 'Twas a good place. The complex probably could make a neat logo to go with that name, but they've not done so.

Village Green I lived for a year in one of those third floor apartments; it's on Mall Drive, behind Lansing Mall. But the building was a different color in 1982....