Chapter 20

As you already know, we sisters shared everything, from our clothes to our thoughts. So it was not out of the realm of possibility that we would also share a friend.

Besides buying the Sykora Farm for us, Grandad Mares had purchased some beachfront property on Maple Lake just across a neighbor’s field from our house. He had built himself a cabin there. We used it as a bathhouse to change into our swimsuits when we went swimming in the lake. On the lot next to his, he had built another cabin to sell.

One hot summer day, a car drove into our driveway and a tall blond man got out. He said his name was Jim Armstrong and he had bought the new cabin next to Grandad’s. He had been told to pick up the key from Mother. In the car were his three kids, who all got out after seeing all the puppies and kittens coming to greet them.

The kids included two girls – one just a little younger than us – and a boy about Dale’s age. The oldest girl – also named Linda – was, well, just adorable. We were intrigued. They got the key and were on their way.

Curious, we walked through the field of budding corn and down to Grandad’s cabin that afternoon to check them out “on the sly” as it were.

Linda saw us and immediately came over to make friends. It didn’t take long for all of us to don our swimsuits and head into the water, We played that entire afternoon with our new friend. It was the beginning of a great, and lifelong, friendship

For the first time, we really welcomed someone to our exclusive planet.

At the time, we were 12, 11 and Linda A, as we’ll call her, was 10, almost 11. We spent the next five summers inseparable and wrote to each other during the school years.

We learned things from our “city girl” friend and she learned things from us. She taught us the song, “A You’re Adorable:” and we’d sing it loudly as we paddled around on our inner tubes in the lake. She taught us a song called “Wee Baby Moon” which, later in life, we sang to our own children. She showed us how to make S’mores (we never did the Scout thing).

What amazed us most was her dad. Jim was a big kid at heart and actually played with his kids.

We’d never seen a dad do that!

There were many, many long days spent swimming, fishing from Grandad’s row boat, canoeing and attempting to sail. Their canoe had a sail attachment and we obviously didn’t know how to use it properly. We sank the canoe, had to swim ashore, walk back and tell her dad. He didn’t get mad, just got out the motor boat and went out to haul it back up to the surface (the top of the sail was still exposed.

While all this was going on, Linda A’s mom, Edith, was usually reading a book. She didn’t care if the lunch dishes were done right away or the floor was swept of the sand we tracked in as long as she had a good book to read. Moms could DO that? It was alien to us.

One of our many water adventures included the day the three of us and Linda’s friend from school, Mary Cavanaugh, packed snacks and rowed the boat down the shore of Maple Lake, across Salerno Bay, through a channel cut through a swampy area of tall cattails and reeds and onto Little Maple, as it was called. Having fun, we were completely heedless of the dark clouds building up on the horizon. After lunch, we headed back. Imagine our surprise when we came out of the sheltered canal to encounter a howling wind, a black sky full of boiling clouds, and huge white caps on the lake. Uh-oh.

We had no choice. We started rowing, taking turns. Every time we switched rowers; we lost a little ground. It was a nightmare.

To top it all off, across the bay we could see two women standing on the shore, waving and hollering. It was Linda’s mom and our own Mother (who NEVER came down to the lake after us. As in NEVER.) It probably didn’t take us hours, but it certainly felt like it. The storm just kept getting worse, pelting us with rain and blasts of wind, and our attempts to pull this heavy rowboat through the water seemed fruitless. We (obviously) made it. But that night, having tucked Linda A. safely in bed, her mom heard this banging sound. She got up and went into Linda’s room, and there was our dear friend, sound asleep, sitting up in bed, and rowing like mad.

We loved the water and found myriad ways to make up games we could play in it. One of our favorite games was holding our breath underwater while one of us sang a song. Then we’d pop up and try to guess what song they had been singing. There was a lot of laughter involved.
Linda A would often come up to our house to spend the day with us because we had horses, and woods, and a lot of unsupervised play time.

Also, Linda A didn’t have a TV at her cabin on the lake, so she liked to come up on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons with us. Followed by some old Westerns. In one such show, a cowboy being chased by bad guys climbed dup a tree and whistled for his horse, who came running. The horse ran under the tree, the cowboy jumped out of the tree onto his back, and away they went.

“Cool!” Linda A said.

We sisters looked at each other. Great minds think alike. And our prankster mode kicked in.

“We can do that,” we said. “We do it all the time.”

“Really?” Linda A said, impressed. “Can you show me how to do it?”

She was so trusting … and a little gullible. City girl, you know.

That afternoon the three of us found nice, handy branch that hung across the trail the horses would take as they made their way around the pasture each day. The horses: Terry, Mick and Trigger were grazing near that tree.

We got Linda A up into the tree and out on the branch, crouched and waiting, while we led the horses to the trail and gave them a slap on the rump. One always followed the other.

Whenever we climbed on the horses out in the pasture Cindy always rode Mick, the big zebra dun, Linda rode Trigger, the feisty Arabian, and we put Linda A on Terry, the gentle palomino Quarter Horse mare. It just so happened that Terry was in the front of the line, so naturally Linda A picked her for the test.

As Terry sauntered beneath the branch, we’re cheering her on: “Jump, Linda! Jump!” And, much to our surprise, she did. She missed Terry’s back and landed more on her neck. Well, if you are a horse just walking through the woods, minding your own business, and something big leaps out of a tree onto your neck, what would you do? Terry bucked, dumped Linda A on the ground, and all the horses took off. totally spooked. Whoa! Of course, we ran to help Linda A. I am sure we were concerned, but it was hard to tell given all of the laughing.

Later, Linda A said when she came to her senses, she noticed a big rock a few inches from her head. She could have been seriously hurt. But it was funny in the moment – to us, anyway! After she recovered from the fall, Linda A said, “I guess I did it wrong. You guys better show me how you do it.” We looked at each other and then at her and confessed: “Oh, we’ve never done it. We just thought about it.”

Cindy’s Addendum

She was a good sport, our adorable Linda A. Not to mention adorable.

Which is probably why we welcomed her to our little planet.