{"id":10169,"date":"2015-09-19T09:13:30","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T14:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/?p=10169"},"modified":"2015-09-19T09:24:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T14:24:27","slug":"back-in-the-day-when-i-was-a-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/?p=10169","title":{"rendered":"Back in the day\u2026 when I was a boy\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026my Dad would take us, me, my sister and a couple friends, to the Lion’s Den. A mysterious place. No one was ever there but us. Had to walk a long way from the road, down through a deep gorge, that cut through the 100 to 150 foot high bluffs; on the Western shore of the Great Lake Michigan; about 20 miles North of Milwaukee. As kids; as the bluffs rose and swallowed us up; then, suddenly, opened to that glorious\u00a0great lake\u00a0horizon; we pretty much thought we had hiked to a very wild, and special place. And I thought only my<\/strong><\/em> Dad knew about this magical place.<\/p>\n

As the years passed into decades\u00a0I no longer knew\u00a0how to even\u00a0find “the Lion’s Den.” I never visited the place as an adult. A\u00a0couple years ago I shared my memories of this place with\u00a0my daughter, Tanya, and couple other people. And\u00a0discovered that the Lion’s Den\u00a0had become “known” and civilized; with walking paths; and board walks; and stairs from the top of the bluffs to the beach. I suggested\u00a0to Tanya, “We should go have a look some time.”<\/p>\n

A week or so ago\u00a0Tanya texted, “How about we do waffles and the Lion’s Den on your birthday?” The waffles came up because a year ago I bought a turn of the century cast iron Griswald waffle iron for the ridiculous price of $15. It needed some tender loving care but was solid and fine under the rust and grime. It sat in my garage during the move. At some point Tanya, a consummate collector,\u00a0connoisseur, and cast iron gourmet cook,\u00a0and I decided it would be better\u00a0refurbished and used by her, than sitting in the garage. She did a marvelous\u00a0job of reconditioning, seasoning, and loved using it. Then a couple weeks ago she called from a flea market and said, “I found a number 9.” So now we have two and mine was returned on my birthday yesterday; when we made waffles on this 100 year old iron and hiked the Lion’s Den. A very fine day. To be sure.<\/p>\n

(click photographs for larger view)<\/p>\n

\"L1191224\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1191225\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1191226\"<\/a><\/p>\n

above: M Monochrom, 50 mm Summilux Asph<\/p>\n

\"L1001440\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001441\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001442\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001443\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001444\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001445\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001446\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001447\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001449\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001451\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And of course the ashes of Mom and Dad
\nare very much a part of this Great Lake<\/p>\n

\"L1001452\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001454\"<\/a>
\n<\/a> \"L1001455\"<\/a>
\n\"L1001456\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001457\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L1001458\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The message, “I will love you every step of the way”
\n(and there are a lot of steps)<\/p>\n

\"L1001459\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

above: M, 28 mm Summicron Asph<\/p>\n

\"L1190711\"<\/a><\/p>\n

above: M8, 40 mm Summicron w\/B+W 093 IR filter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026my Dad would take us, me, my sister and a couple friends, to the Lion’s Den. A mysterious place. No one was ever there but us. Had to walk a long way from the road, down through a deep gorge, that cut through the 100 to 150 foot high bluffs; on the Western shore of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-thoughts","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10169"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10206,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10169\/revisions\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.imagist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}