12/31/2023
THE RED DIAMOND CAMP...THE
RED/WHITE DIAMOND COTTAGE OF MY CHILDHOOD! with the best fireworks displays in Lake George!
***** MY LIFE AS A CHILD IN THE ADIRONDACKS WITH MY FAMILY! *****
Please take a moment to share a very beautiful, carefree, and precious time in my life as I reflect on a time period in my childhood just as I remember it from today’s perspective…
Going to Lake Luzerne is not the same as it used to be. I have been spending some or all of my summers in the Adirondack village of Lake Luzerne since 1970 to about 1990. Many drastic changes have taken place over the years.
Ever since I was two months old, I have been going to a red and white cottage called the RED DIAMOND CAMP owned by my Great-Aunt Lil. I loved everything about the camp; especially being with my Grandmother, Great-Aunt Lil, Great-Aunt Sylvia and Great-Uncle Irv, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Stu, and my dad, mom and two brothers. I would enjoy spending most of my time with my brothers Eric and Jason. I can still remember sitting around the red picnic table just outside the screened-in porch with my whole family together. We would drink A and W Root Beer and birch beer soda pop while chewing on barbequed chicken. I remember the single cent red gummy Swedish fish candy and reading the latest edition of Laugh Olympics comic book that I had purchased with my hard-earned money from my job at the Hill Top grocery store down the road from the camp.
My family would rake up pine needles every year and bag them up or dump them over the steep bank behind the Red Diamond Camp. I could always find something to do and there was never a boring moment. I could always play baseball with the local boys, go swimming (lake was just down the road), or take a hike on any of the numerous Indian trails around the lake. I also would go sailing, canoeing and rowing. Many times I would hike up the mountain just above the lake, but most of all I enjoyed riding the Koss dirt bike that I had won selling popcorn for my Little League baseball team.
During the evening I would cuddle up to a nice, warm crackling fireplace and relax with my family. I can clearly remember playing “go fish” on the green card table in the screened-in porch with my Grandmother, and my Great-Aunt Lil interrupting by asking if I would like to go the Brass Bucket for a hot dog with the works. They served the best hot dogs and hamburgers I had ever eaten in my entire life. They had a special meat sauce with bacon and cheese that tasted out of this world.
Those summer days were special to me. I was so young that I seemed to notice more of the important, lovely, and mysterious things of life. The air was never fresher and I would be amazed as I pondered the gigantic sunrises in the early morning hours and later the colossal evening orangish skyline sunsets. The moon was full and I would try to count the endless stars in the infinitely dark sky. I remember thinking the fish were unlimited, while fishing off the dock just on the Indian path. Life was good, excellent, and full. I felt great. I had some of the best moments of my life as a child at Lake Luzerne.
As an adult, I went back to Lake Luzerne during the summer. Many things had changed. First of all my Grandmother, Great-Aunt Lil, Great-Aunt Sylvia and Great-Uncle Irv are no longer alive. The Red Diamond Camp is no longer owned by my family and was sold just after my Grandmother Kaufman died and before my Great-Aunt Lil had died, both of cancer.
It has never been the same. I miss the old times I spent with them in my old summer camp. My favorite food place, the Brass Bucket, has closed down. I am never going to be able to enjoy a meal with my whole family again. The Hill Top grocery store has closed down. The old movie theater was closed in Glens Falls. This still brings back memories of the premiers of the movies: “Star Wars”, “E.T.”, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark (an Indiana Jones adventure)”. The beach, lake, and my old secret Indian mountain trails are the same and still there, even though I am not the same.
I felt strange as I walked through the village I knew so well as a child. The town of Lake Luzerne was the same, yet it seemed so much different. I am older, my family and my friends were no longer there to keep me company. I felt so different that it was so hard to believe I was actually in the place I once knew so well as a child. My heart hoped to see the familiar faces of the past, only to be disappointed as I watched strangers walk on by. Driving by the Red Diamond Camp, I felt an eerie, awkward feeling at the bottom of my stomach. I then understood and realized that chapter of my life is over forever.
Now when I thankfully reflect upon the summers in Lake Luzerne, time stands still; my heart will forever cherish the precious moments of my life that God has blessed me with spent at a little Adirondack cottage called the Red Diamond Camp.
By Aaron D. Slocum (Written during a Composition Class at SUNY Oneonta in the early 1990's)
I dedicate this paper to my loving Mom -Diane. Who I love more than she may ever know.
