July 13: If one of the goals of parenting is to provide a continuation of the past, then watching Cole watch Monty Python in the bunk bed of a trailer on Lake Superior, I feel like I’ve succeeded. We’re in the same spot that I spent many summers of my life, looking through the same break in the trees out on the sunset. My parents gifted me these pastoral vacations, and now I pass the tradition on.
I also have renewed respect for the difficulties of trailer life that my folks managed. I’m engaged in a never-ending battle against sand in the beds and on the floor. I struggle to conserve our limited water resources and not fill the septic tank — how do you control that?!
Cole has inherited my blissful unawareness. Eager to have no break in the fishing, swimming, kayaking, fireworks, BB gun shooting, etc., he thinks Bud and I are party poopers for needing to go to town for supplies. I well remember that feeling of freedom, of hazardless beach and friendly woods, of days that didn’t begin to end until the sun set at 9:30.
Populism 