Growing up in northwestern Montana with my three brothers, our one highlight of each summer was visiting my grandparents and other extended family in Minnesota. We had a few favorite adventures during each of those visits: visiting Valleyfair, swimming in the lake, and most of all, going "Up North."
Not growing up in Minnesota, we didn't fully understand the lore of Up North and the Minnesota mystique of going to the cabin. You see, we thought everybody who went to the cabin had a real log cabin to go to like we did.
My maternal grandparents, great-grandfather, and young uncle built ours near Blackduck by hand in the early 1950s. My grandpa actually cut down the cedar trees himself and floated them across the lake. They painstakingly prepared the logs and built the one-room cabin with love. Until I was a teenager, there was no electricity. There still is an outhouse and no running water.
During those childhood years, we would fish for sunfish with cane poles from the dock, eat Grandpa's special-recipe pancakes made on the wood-burning stove, get water in a bucket from the lake for washing, and explore the woods as young children do.
One summer, my brothers and I had just bought an inexpensive metal detector out of our hard-earned allowance and wanted to use it to explore the original homestead site, with the house now completely gone. We got a hit and soon found a few treasures, including antique irons and several scraps of metal. We then got a strong hit and were very excited. My grandpa and older brothers dug and dug, checking with the metal detector that they were still on track. After digging for a long time, with mosquitoes biting us in the still and humid summer heat, they finally hit pay dirt! The treasured item? It was a piece off an old stove, with the remnants of the stove name clearly visible. It spelled out the word "Surprise." We still laugh about the practical joke that seemed to be played on us.
We spent countless hours playing poker for peanuts (literally), fishing, and listening to Grandpa's World War II stories and stories of our grandparents' youth. I now live in Minnesota and fully understand the lore of Up North. The cabin still is in our family, and hopefully memories will be made at the cabin for years to come.
delisa whiting, mound
