Doing Like the Indians Do.

[oneighty]

Don was 'warshing' his clothes like the Indians do. He would dip his dingy yellow undershirt into Lake Erie which in those days was clean and clear. He would then lay his dingy yellow undershirt on the gray slate common on our shores and with a stone he would beat upon the shirt to drive the dingy yellow out.

When Don finished 'warshing' his undershirt like the Indians do it was still dingy yellow but it had a lot of holes in it. "Don" I tell him "I think you are supposed to beat the clothes against the stones not with the stones."

About that time our attention was distracted by a large fish splashing helplessly around just a few yards from shore. We captured the dying fish with our bare hands. We figured it to be dying due to the large circular bloody wound near his tail fin.

Back at our camp in the woods next to the N.Y. Central Railroad tracks we dressed out our unfortunate fish and baked him on a rock next to our camp fire. He was delicious.

I drove past that place on the Lake a little while ago and also by the haunted house where I grew up. At night sometimes a little boy is heard crying in the darkness. But that is a different story.

180

[whistle]

1. If you were warshing the undershirt you must have been doing that...

...on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. Thanks for the story.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. in the south

we"warsh" things

at least my granny did

[oneighty]

4. Yes Jitterbug

and it was George Warshington..first pres-i-dent.

180

[oneighty]

3. Hey whistle

When I was a little boy growing up on the lake it was visibly clean. (Our village poured sewerage directly into the creeks though and on into the lake)

Often one could stand on the cliff edge and see the giant sturgeon swimming past.

180

[whistle]

5. I grew up right on the St Clair River and during the summer....

...months would spend many days on Lake Huron. Commercial fishing boats would often bring their catches by where we swam and show off the sturgeon they netted. Some were as tall as the fishermen holding them up. I think Lake Huron has remained relatively clean and crossing into Canada over the Blue-water Bridge from Port Huron MI to Sarnia Ont. is still a rewarding sight to see! Man, I can still taste the fresh French fries they made along the shore under the bridge.

As for Lake Erie, well when I was real young, under 9, our family used to drive to Port Stanley a resort town with broad sandy beaches on the Ontario Canada side. This was back in the 1950's, but things were already starting to deteriorate in the lake at that point. Sad, very sad.