Fond memories of summers past

by Tina Cole Mullins

Summer in Michigan—what joy! This reporter’s childhood summers were  made hotter working in one of the local muck fields with the sun beating down on the carpet of black dirt. But my family and I were often refreshed with a swim in one of the many local lakes or swimming holes.

We would often pile into our station wagon after a hard day and hit a refreshing swimming hole located just outside of Gregory. We called our special haven the Artesian Wells, and we weren’t jumping in alone. Plenty of residents knew of this treasure. 

Lori Williamson, now of Fitchburg, fondly remembers spending her summers at the Wells throughout the ’70s and into ’80s until they closed.

While the Artesian Wells’ location was popular with many, it was far from the only option. Brothers Rick and Doug Howlett not only recall swimming at the Wells, but they also share fond memories of swinging from a rope over water in springs near Hell.

Portage Lake and Pleasant Lake were, and are, popular destinations for those living toward Jackson.

“Forever a Portage Lake rat, right here,” Tammy Adams Schlaff claims with a smile.

Those in Livingston or Washtenaw Counties tend toward the chain of lakes that include Bruin, Patterson, Half Moon, Pickerel and, of course, the popular Silver Lake in the Pinckney Recreation Area.

“Bronze-bathed beauties lying in the sun with their long blonde hair falling–flying– as they run,” local native Bob Seger sang in 1980.

Few beach goers knew then that Seger’s Fire Lake was actually written about our very own Silver Lake–a fact he revealed in a 2011 interview in the Toledo Free Press.

“It was written about Silver Lake in Dexter, about being in the Pinckney-Hell-Dexter area,” Bob Seger told the paper. Today Silver Lake is still a popular destination, brimming with bronze-bathed beauties.

No matter where a person comes from, thoughts of summers past can bring happy memories.

Photo by Patterson Lake by Tommy Davis