To the Iron Lake fishing club,
Hey guys, how’s the fishing? Ernie would love it here, since he has only two activities in life: fishing and sitting in the sauna. Here, he could do both at the same time. Humidity is a way of life here, so thick you can SEE it early in the morning. By mid-afternoon you know how those beans feel when you drop them in the hot water! Here’s a local recipe you might like. Butter two slices of bread and cut a nice slab of that Wisconsin cheddar, put them with the cheese inside and the butter outside and just lay the whole thing on the hood of your truck. Flip it when the first side is lightly browned. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. The paint on my old Dodge is perfect for this. Some of the new cars have a clear coat that gives your sandwich a funny taste.
But, back to the sauna. Step outside take a deep breath. Smell Iron Lake? Of course not, it’s ice cold. But, here.........wow. You can smell it all!! the swamp as it is today, things that lived in the swamp twenty years ago, probably dinosour droppings, for all I know. Things get hot here, and everything stays pretty wet, so when the sun comes up and pounds on it for a while the only thing that even comes close is the sauna at the club house. That does bring to mind the day that Eddie came back from the Firemans’ Derby, full of beer and beans.....think back to that day and you may understand my explanation of the smells of the swamp on a hot day. Wow, I really thought we were all goners that time, and Eddie just laughed about it. Nowdays the EPA would come out and shut the club down for the damage he did to the environment. How was the Firemans’ Derby this year? Did you all go? Eddie had extra tickets, you know.
Here’s a news flash. We get mail delivered every day here, except Sunday, of course. Not just on the days that Mel isn’t hunting, fishing, picking deer apples, plowing snow, stuck in the mud or just not carrying the mail if it doesn’t seem like people are getting anything important.
And another thing. The Post Office stays open right through lunch. They never close all day. This is probably because they have more than one person working there. It’s different, too, not being able to walk in, mail a letter, buy some stamps, get a sandwich, a bottle of ketchup and some nitecrawlers. Browns Tavern and Store in Little Lake still has the best Post Office, with Val cutting those tenderloins ten feet from the postal window!
By the way, those stamps you gave me when we hit the road, they all stuck themselves together because of the humidity. There were four layers of them glued up, so I cut each little stack into quarters and taped them onto an envelope. It seemsd like four quarter parts of four stamps was the same as one complete stamp, but the postman didn’t see it that way. the letter came back, which is why you didn’t hear from me last month. I don’t suppose he’ll take an envelope with the money taped on it either like Mel always did. Oh, well. Life in the big city.
That’s all for now. Write and tell me if you don’t get this letter.
Regards, Gershom
Hey guys, how’s the fishing? Ernie would love it here, since he has only two activities in life: fishing and sitting in the sauna. Here, he could do both at the same time. Humidity is a way of life here, so thick you can SEE it early in the morning. By mid-afternoon you know how those beans feel when you drop them in the hot water! Here’s a local recipe you might like. Butter two slices of bread and cut a nice slab of that Wisconsin cheddar, put them with the cheese inside and the butter outside and just lay the whole thing on the hood of your truck. Flip it when the first side is lightly browned. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. The paint on my old Dodge is perfect for this. Some of the new cars have a clear coat that gives your sandwich a funny taste.
But, back to the sauna. Step outside take a deep breath. Smell Iron Lake? Of course not, it’s ice cold. But, here.........wow. You can smell it all!! the swamp as it is today, things that lived in the swamp twenty years ago, probably dinosour droppings, for all I know. Things get hot here, and everything stays pretty wet, so when the sun comes up and pounds on it for a while the only thing that even comes close is the sauna at the club house. That does bring to mind the day that Eddie came back from the Firemans’ Derby, full of beer and beans.....think back to that day and you may understand my explanation of the smells of the swamp on a hot day. Wow, I really thought we were all goners that time, and Eddie just laughed about it. Nowdays the EPA would come out and shut the club down for the damage he did to the environment. How was the Firemans’ Derby this year? Did you all go? Eddie had extra tickets, you know.
Here’s a news flash. We get mail delivered every day here, except Sunday, of course. Not just on the days that Mel isn’t hunting, fishing, picking deer apples, plowing snow, stuck in the mud or just not carrying the mail if it doesn’t seem like people are getting anything important.
And another thing. The Post Office stays open right through lunch. They never close all day. This is probably because they have more than one person working there. It’s different, too, not being able to walk in, mail a letter, buy some stamps, get a sandwich, a bottle of ketchup and some nitecrawlers. Browns Tavern and Store in Little Lake still has the best Post Office, with Val cutting those tenderloins ten feet from the postal window!
By the way, those stamps you gave me when we hit the road, they all stuck themselves together because of the humidity. There were four layers of them glued up, so I cut each little stack into quarters and taped them onto an envelope. It seemsd like four quarter parts of four stamps was the same as one complete stamp, but the postman didn’t see it that way. the letter came back, which is why you didn’t hear from me last month. I don’t suppose he’ll take an envelope with the money taped on it either like Mel always did. Oh, well. Life in the big city.
That’s all for now. Write and tell me if you don’t get this letter.
Regards, Gershom