Extra Animals

We had a cabin in Waupaca, Wisconsin that my dad built when I was a baby. We kept a few coloring books there and a Royal Dansk butter cookie tin full of crayons. There was also a gallon ice cream bucket full of small plastic animals. Most of them were farm animals along with  a rhinoceros based on Durer’s drawing rather than a real one. It looked like it was wearing armor. The  animals were not from one set or brand. The scale was somewhat inconsistent. We called them “extra animals.” They were kept in a trunk with flip flops, sand toys, and beach towels.

Daddy longlegs were everywhere and you could often hear whip-poor-wills, but I never learned what they look like. Sometimes we got to pick out candy when getting gas on the way there. I always chose Necco wafers. What a flavorless candy for such an appealing color scheme and packaging! 

I’m not sure how we filled all the hours up there. We didn’t have a tv. We went to a beach some days. Lee and I explored the woods and picked wild blueberries. There wasn’t a dishwasher, so we filled the sink and spent time washing. We made campfires and burned a lot of marshmallows for s’mores. One time Lee dug a huge hole and we sat in it.