Month: July 1985
Waldenwoods 1985
This was the year of the fishing exposition, where James Grandma went out on a rubber raft and caught a couple huge catfish and a pike, which was very rare in this lake. The fishing expo began at twilight at about 8pm as the rubber raft left the dock with Grandma, James Dad, and Cousin Ron. It was a very relaxing trip and no one really expected to catch anything (we really just wanted to take the boat out at night), but all of a sudden all the lines were being pulled on and everyone was catching something. Fortunately we had a metal fish basket and placed the fish in the basket to get them home. Once we got out of the boat we noticed the pike had tried biting its way out of the metal fish basket which kind of scared us since we were in a rubber boat and that fish could have sunk us had we not had the basket outside the boat. The next day we had fish for lunch and a great time was had by all.
Boblo Island 1985
The Boblo Island event was unlike anything probably anywhere else in the world. First off it was an amusement park that was on an island so you had to take a boat ride to get there and back. Second, it was in Canada so you were actually visiting a foreign country when you came (yes there were custom booths there but I don’t remember them ever questioning anyone either going or coming from Boblo). The Boblo boat ride was in itself an event and so popular that each year before the Michigan/Notre Dame game (when it was in Ann Arbor) there would be a boat race between the two teams using two of the Boblo boats. The amusement park operated from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993. Its amusement rides were sold in 1994. The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, Ontario.
When we arrived at Boblo the entire family would ride the water log ride, after that we were on our own till about 6pm when we would meet back and go on the Pirate ride (which was near the docks) before leaving.
