Labor Day Weekend will always be Special!
Every Grand Laker has a story
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| Just livin the dream! |
All holiday weekends on Grand Lake are special in many
different ways to many different people, but the 1976 Labor Day weekend was a
life-changer in every possible way for yours truly. As I’ve written on many occasions,
Grand Lake serves as a backdrop for making memories to be recalled for years to
come, and though I had spent many weekends here previously, Labor Day weekend
’76 was mile-marker number one for me on a long winding road with my beloved
pond being the star of the show. You see, it was Labor Day ’76 when I became a
full-fledged Grand Laker with the purchase of a little piece of heaven located
in Grays Hollow.
I had spent most of the summer bumming off my good
friends Rue and Kathy Morgan in Duck Creek, or occasionally actually paying for
a place to stay in one of the upscale cabins, which actually looked more like
storage sheds, at the historic Duck Creek Landing. If it gives you a clue,
those cabins were among the first structures dozed by John Mullen when he
bought the property from Dale and Grace Fowler and founded Thunder Bay Marina.
By August, I had contracted a severe dose of Grand Lake fever and was
feverishly looking for a place to purchase on a data sales manager’s meager
salary at Southwestern Bell.
I had stumbled onto a local realtor, Karol Gregory,
who was affiliated with the legendary and historic Pigeon Riley Real Estate
Company. Pigeon was a GRDA systems operator by day and real estate magnate in
his off hours. I was impressed that Karol elected to transport me by boat from
property-to-property, telling me how we could cover a lot more ground in a
shorter period of time. But in reality, the location of property in my price
range didn’t include much more than goat paths in the way of roads, Actually, I
would suggest to you the four wheelers below the dam enjoy better roadways than
those off the beaten path east of Disney in 1976.
One of the places Karol seemed to think would be a
perfect fit for a single guy like me was located in Grays Hollow…or as I would
later find out was referred to by most as Dripping Springs. The showing
occurred during the week…not a boat in sight, three slip dock, all be it about
to sink, a mobile home with a huge deck out front constructed from rough cut
cedar produced at the local mill on Topsy Road…alias the Topsy Turnpike. The
current owners, the Solemans, even left plans for an “A” frame addition for a
larger living space. The deal was made, financing secured, and a closing date
was set for the Friday of Labor Day weekend 1976 at Pigeon Riley’s office.
After a trip across-the-street following the closing
to the historic Cove Club to celebrate the deal, where three years later I
would propose marriage to the lovely Lynda Fleming, it was off to my new lake
place with its 107’of waterfront and it was all mine. I remember sipping my
drink of choice, looking down at my three-slip cruiser dilapidated dock and
thinking, “How could it get much better than this?”
The next morning, following an early trip to Frosty
& Edna’s for breakfast, I headed out to my spacious deck to enjoy my little
piece of paradise. I had just started on my second cup of coffee when two boats
came idling into my new secluded cove….and they were followed by four more and
they were followed by eight more and by now I was discovering there might have
been some information about Grays Hollow I wasn’t aware of. Back then jet boats
we’re the rage of the lake and when they weren’t capsizing, they were racing.
On this particular day, they were racing from the Dripping Springs bluff, out
to mouth of my secluded cove, circling the “No Wake” buoys and heading back to
the drip. I was 32, single and up for a good time, so it really just didn’t seem
like much of a problem at the time…..and to this day it still doesn’t.
Many times, over the years, I have been asked why I
don’t sell this place, move out of this shantytown and move to the rich side of
my beloved lake, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. In reality, there’s only
about six weekends a year where the traffic is that much of a factor and for
the other 46 weeks, our cove pretty much belongs to us.
We once had a rich broker who ended up buying a place
in our cove and when asked why, he would proudly explain, “I like being with
the little people.” But if diversity is a measure of a cove’s worth, we’ve got
it all. Our little people’s cove, where all the rich kids come to park, is made
up of lawyers, doctors, hospital administrators, commercial sand company
magnates, tool pushers, commercial real estate developers, car wash owners,
retired cops, bar owners, salesman, an aircraft after-market dude, another
broker, not to be identified with the first, an office furniture factory rep,
an aeronautics guy, a has been publisher, a drug rep of the legal variety and
most recently an Okies in reverse deal with some folks from California taking
up residence next door.
Yours truly may not have the net worth of one of the
little people in certain ways, but with immeasurable wealth in other ways. To
have dumped the corporate lifestyle for the Grand Lifestyle was, indeed, a life
changing decision motivated by quality over quantity. We celebrate the passing
of the snowy season and the nesting of the wood ducks in February, the return
of the Purple Martins around the first of March, the Crappie spawn in April,
warmer water temperatures in May, the return of thousands of our closest
friends come Memorial Day weekend and most importantly, we wake up here every
day to beauty not found on any metro-plex cul-de-sac.
The biggest body of water I frequented as a kid was my
dad’s farm pond located South of Oklahoma City between Blanchard and Newcastle.
My friends would join me on fishing outings, shooting bull frogs with our air
rifles and drag our kill or catch home for my mom to deal with. Grand Lake or
any other body of water will always be a pond to me, but with more surface
acres of water and the toys of choice have changed. Celebrating 48 years as a
Grand Laker and I still believe, the best is yet to come, but how could your
glass be less than half full living the Grand Lifestyle?
See Ya’ Around the Pond!!
