1973 LAKE WALDENA FLORIDA

 1973 LAKE WALDENA FLORIDA

I rode my bike through the woods to find a small country store.  

It was the Summer of 1973.  My mom and my siblings and I altogether at camp Lake Waldena.  

We were moving away from my childhood home in Florida.  We would camp at the lake for the entire Summer.  Unlike the other families that spent their vacation time at the lake for a few days or a few weeks, we were actually living there until our Mom found a place to live in the town of Ocala.

We only had the red bike that we shared.  Since it was my bike , I rode it the most.

The only place to buy groceries was at a little country store about three miles away from the camp down a dirt road in the woods.

I could have gotten lost if I left the road.  The trees were very tall in the sky and there were many of them surrounding me.

I was eleven years old and unaware of dangers like animals, fires or the boogie man.  I loved riding down the dirt road always careful of bumps and large rocks and holes.  The forest was endless and a bit scary.

I finally found the store.  It was like Ike's store on the Walton's.

It had most of the groceries that I needed.   I carried them home in the basket that was attached to the front of the handlebars.

Living at the campsite in one tent altogether is not fun. We had sleeping bags and cots and it was very cramped.  There were seven of us total.  Six kids and our mom.

The lake was okay for swimming and my sister liked fishing more than swimming.  She caught some fish that we could cook and eat.  Back home, where we used to live, we never had any kind of fish other than fish sticks.  So actually cooking fish for the first time was a messy struggle to learn how to cook  and a new experience. 

Thunderstorms came and went often.  they were more scarier since our shelter was only mode of cloth and a zipper for a door.  Thunder and lightning hit very hard and loud for several days.

We were running out of food and we had to wait for the storms to pass then we could ride the bike down to the country store again.  My sister and brother went with me this time.  My sister rode the bike and my brother and I walked.

Our other siblings chose to stay at the camp with mom all the time to play and swim.  

When the rain stopped the weather was warm.  The ground dried quickly and the dirt road was muddy in some areas and hard and dry in other areas.

We couldn't  stay at the campsite longer than they allowed.  

School would start soon and we had to find a home to live in and it had to be big enough for the seven of us.

Our time at the camp was unique in a way that other families could not understand.  It was our survival when we needed it.  Visitors wondered why we were there so long.  My mom simply said we loved camping and wanted to enjoy the summer. 

We knew the real reason and I knew that mentioning the real reason would not be understandable and very complicate to explain or be believable.

In the next year and a half I would ride that same bike down an actual highway to the only 7-Eleven that I had heard of for the first time in my life, near the next tiny town we moved to.