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across the bay, with large and small boats crisscrossing the shining waters. This remains true, even to this day. In the late evening one can see roseate clouds in the dis- tance illuminated by the setting sun. We often walk down to the shore in the still of evening to see the setting sun as it paints a broad streak of orange across the bay, throwing dock pilings and boats along our shoreline into dark silhouettes. The timelessness of these views from the cottage unites the generations of family who have seen them and have been captured by the spell they cast.
Improvements to the Cottage
Making improvements of one kind or another was an expected, essential part of every trip to the cottage. The first of many necessary improvements was creating a kitchen. The original cottage had no kitchen, only an oil stove with three burners, which was sited along the back wall of the dining room (photo next page). To the right of the stove were wooden shelves covered with red and white checkered oilcloth. These held dishes and buckets for drinking water hauled from the well on the island; the dispensing ladles hung from the bucket’s or shelf edges. On the other side of the room, under the stairway, was an icebox for keeping food cool along with a set of ice tongs for hauling blocks of ice to the island from the icehouse, which was located at the end of Hossack’s pier in town.
Whether at the time it was built or some time thereafter (I am uncertain), an additional primitive room was tacked on to the back of the cottage. It was a low-ceilinged, shed-like structure, about 8 x 12 feet in size, that func- tioned as a storage room. It had no foundation. The floor consisted of boards resting on the dirt and was about 6-8 inches lower than the floor of the dining room. Along the back wall was a low counter under which firewood was stored; on the counter were buckets for rainwater and tubs for doing washing. This is where clothes could be washed in inclement weather, and sponge baths given in washtubs to small children.
When electricity came to the island sometime in the 1950’s, this shed was converted into a kitchen. An opening was cut in the wall between it and the dining room where the oil stove had been located. An electric stove was installed against the wall under this opening on the shed side, so that cooked items could be easily passed from the kitchen to the dining room and the awkward step avoided. An oil cloth-covered counter set up to the left of the stove for preparing food. Shelving above it held boxes and cans of food. Under the counter were buckets and basins of various kinds along with a waste basket. An old Kelvinator refrigerator was placed against the back wall of the shed. The old oil stove and icebox were carted to the junk pile on the wooded hillside where they were left to rust or rot. An old maple sideboard with a single, large drawer was transported from home and moved into the space in the dining room once occupied by the oil stove for storing utensils and linens.
The new kitchen was a dark, often dank place, illumi- nated by a single, bare 150-watt bulb screwed into a basic, white porcelain ceiling fixture, which was affixed to the 2x4 joists supporting the shed roof. On three sides there were tiny windows that didn’t open. The kitchen room was never well attached to the rest of the cottage; bats would roost in the small cracks and crevices between its sunny south wall and that of the cottage. When we opened the cottage in the summer, the kitchen had a rich aroma of bat and mouse droppings, which we had to clean off the plastic sheeting we used to cover the stove in the winter. Eventually the roof of the shed, which was never properly supported, sagged dangerously, and had to be supported by a 2x4 post in the middle of the room. At the time, we couldn’t afford to fix the roof or rebuild this cooking and washing shed, not that rebuilding it was ever considered a feasible vacation project.
Between the dining room and the shed, there was a make-shift door made of pine boards, always left open, behind which brooms, axes, saws large and small, shovels, and other equipment were hung on nails or stacked against the wall. The door from the shed to the outside was not a standard door either, but rather one con- structed of boards nailed to 2x2’s or 2x4’s. It opened onto a small platform of 2x6’s that rested on rocks. Facing north and, being in the shade at all times, this wooden platform
Volume 74 • Number 1 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN 19