Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features a boat tied up
along a canal wall. I am not a “boat person” per se because, unlike Goose and
Maverick, I do not have a need for speed. However, my first ride on a gentle
and slow-moving pontoon boat changed my life. In 2011 we bought a vacation home
at Smith Mountain Lake in the southwestern part of Virginia. A pontoon came
with it!
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| Sister and Moi on the pontoon 2016 |
When the lake opened in 1969, its main purpose was to
generate electricity and to serve as a recreational facility for weekenders. For
$1000 a family could buy a lot where they could set up a tent or bring a
camper. Folks fished from the bank or from a canoe or john boat, maybe even
from a small run-about.
Plans for neighborhoods and condo communities were years
away. While today there are many million-dollar homes, there are just as many small
cabins, A-frames, rag-tag mobile homes and trailer parks.
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| Tanglewood Trailer Park |
Probably years of immersion in family history and studying
old photos has drawn me to the original homes and docks of Smith Mountain Lake. I took photos of some of them to use as artwork in a guest room.
No longer can anyone build a home out over the water. Such homes are
grandfathered, but if they fall in, that’s IT - bye bye.
Nobody builds boat garages anymore. I certainly wouldn’t
want to. They look like havens for snakes and spiders.
Homeowners with deep water and deep pockets enjoy party
docks like these.
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| From Charity Home Tour 2019 |
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| From Charity Home Tour 2019 |
No, that is not ours. Ours is modest.
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| Our girls and their guys 2013 Our dock in the background |
See who is docked at Sepia Saturday.
Wendy
© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
How lovely, enjoy your time there.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a lovely area for a vacation home!
ReplyDeletebetty
My first ride on a pontoon (that I recall) was several years ago on a big lake formed by a dam across a river that used to misbehave with heavy rains. The ride we took included looking at the old hotel where the movie "Dirty Dancing" was filmed. They were talking about a remake, but I haven't checked it out. Lake Lure, North Carolina. I enjoyed seeing your collection of lake houses!
ReplyDeletePontoon boats are so much fun. A friend of mine has one -- so relaxing. My family had a lot on a lake in Pennsylvania when I was growing up, and it was much as you described. Next door was a large home that could be lived in year-around. On our lot we had a lean-to my dad built and a (our one luxury) an indoor toilet that you flushed with a pail of lake water! But for us kids it was great -- swimming, boating, water-skiing, what more could you want?
ReplyDeleteWe tried having a speed boat but I was not a fan. A pontoon boat would have been my choice.
ReplyDeleteThe picture of the older home and water garage seem a bit dangerous. It'd be a nice place to visit but I'm not so sure about living over the water.
ReplyDeletePontoon boats are fun and are very versatile. If your engine's big enough, you can pull skiers with one. Otherwise they're great for meandering around a waterway while you sip wine and whatever else! We belonged to a sailing club when we lived in Pine Mountain Lake, but some of the members (who could afford to own two boats!) got hooked on pontoon boats as well.
ReplyDeleteSweet!!! A lake house and a pontoon for sipping and sitting and leisure time. Great pictures of past and present lake houses. I miss having a lake place even if ours was an old camper with an add on porch with a rock wall that kept us from falling into the lake. I'm back to blog land...on a limited schedule...as explained in my post today.
ReplyDeleteI can see the attraction. Freshwater lakes are so much smoother than thanked lumpy saltwater ocean waves. And taste better too. Just not so good for floating.
ReplyDeleteYou are making me crave boating season! I love looking at the older style docks and homes on the lake.
ReplyDelete