My older brother is, and was, a solemn type of guy, unable, or unwilling, to get uniquely excited about anything. This is why in, or around, 1988 I told him that a northern pike ate a frog near the pier at our summer vacation spot in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. It didn’t happen, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted him to be excited about something, and so I lied. There weren’t many frogs in Williams Bay in those days, or at least not near our home, so frogs in those northwoods were part of our summer experience. The issue was my older brother, having heard the news about the frog being eaten by a large fish, decided to catch a frog and thread a hook through it. He cast it out beyond the pier and waited. I was on the shore, nervous and guilty. He never caught a fish and even though I carefully unhooked the frog and let it “swim” away, I knew then that I had killed that frog. The grief was overwhelming, and I spent the rest of my life intentionally avoiding the murdering of any more frogs, which isn’t as easy as you might think.
My property has a large lawn, and in an attempt to simultaneously force myself to excercise, retain some humility, and continue a tradition that has found me mowing lawns every summer week of what is at this point the vast majority of my life, I mow that lawn myself. My walk-behind lawn mower forces the exercise, and even though my grotesque and nearly crippling phone checking habit continues throughout the mowing, I enjoy a little bit of mental down-time while I stripe that lawn back and forth. The issue is my lawn is overrun with small frogs, and the combination of thick grass, lots of frogs, and 50″ of whirling blades has forced my affection for frogs and my pledge to not harm them very much into the fore.
When I first discovered these lawn frogs, I would make a concerted effort to avoid them with the mower. I would see one hopping and would then stop the mower and usher that frog to the safety of the adjacent woods. After some time of this, it became an arduous task, as the lawn is large and time consuming even before accounting for stopping constantly to allow the small frogs to find safety. And so last night I did the previously unthinkable. I just mowed. I paused to let the frogs that I could see flee my blades, but I didn’t make any unique effort to avoid the rest. I just mowed and mowed, back and forth, my mind saddened by thoughts of the innocent amphibians that I was methodically murdering. Worst yet, my blind, bald, deaf, diabetic dog likes to chew on grass clumps left behind by my mower and it only now dawned on me that the real reason she eats the grass is because there are ground up frogs in it, which adds to the horror of this entire situation. I look forward now to fall and to winter, when I get to forget about the frogs for a while, and I’m sure the survivors look forward to this seasonal reprieve as well.
I have no idea how I found your blog, but I found it was very intriguing. I have know LG my whole life (which began in 1947). My family lived in Rockford, Illinois. My great uncle David Nyberg was the first in the family to purchase property on Lake Geneva; it was the first house on the lake at the east end of Williams Bay, and there was a church camp (Camp Augustana, I believe) across the road from the lake in Williams Bay. My great-aunt Emma Nyberg used to cook at that camp which was associated with the First Evangelical Free Church in Rockford. Her husband David Nyberg bought a cottage across from the camp. It was the first house on the lakeshore at the east end of Williams Bay. In 1957 or thereabouts, David Nyberg decided to sell his cottage to his nephew Bernard C. Klint. Mr. Nyberg bought three lake front lots over on Lackey Lane on the south shore. Mr. Nyberg sold one of those lots to my father Ragnar Klint, built a lovely, little brick cottage called the Little Red Stuga on the middle lot and sold the third lot(the furthest east lot) to someone from Beloit (an architect I believe). Lackey Lane had about 8 lakefront lots and each owner was a part owner of 80 acres of woods behind those lots. The wooden acres kept these 8 lake front properties private and quiet (and made for great walks when bored with the lake front). In the 1960s or 70s, my dad Ragnar Klint bought the parcels of woods belonging to the lake front owners, so now he owned one lakefront lot and 80 wooded acres behind those lots. In 1981, he built a small home on the lakefront parcel (pier #663), and his uncle David Nyberg owned lakefront pier #664 while his brother still owned the lakefront cottage in Williams Bay. The south shore did have the most magnificent sunsets; many evenings were spent watching those sunsets as the lake stilled to a sweet calm. Winters were gorgeous as well (the wooden pier piled up on the lawn was a small blight on the view, but the many visiting deer were always a real delight. As time passed, the lakefront houses changed hands, but the beautiful 80 acre woods protected the lakefront homes with privacy. Eventually, my father gave 40 of the 80 acres to my brother, Dr. Robert Klint who built a house which had lake views from the property. He kept the other 40 acres wooded. In 2013, my mother died and the lakefront cottage was quickly bought with the cottage as a tear-down. Eventually, the 40 acres of woods sold to (I believe) the Melgus family who owned a sailboat building company not far from the lake in Zenda, Wisconsin. Although beautiful Lake Geneva has changed greatly in my lifetime, it holds amazing and very beautiful memories from catching frogs and turtles from a creek about 5 lots east of our property. A Senator Bidwell (I do not know from what state he sat in as a Senator) was a few lots to the east and had a lovely log home. Someone by the name of Schwimmer had the first lot on Lackey Lane. The last I knew, his property was purchased by a person from Chicago who owned a number of McDonald’s there.
Lake Geneva has such a very special and important history. I very large mansion sat almost directly across from our property on the north shore, but I cannot recall who owned it. A number of houses west of that large house was a property owned by Harold Nodell who owned a car dealership in Milwaukee. So many fascinating people and history.
I hope to fond and read more of your knowledge and experiences of Lake Geneva; the personages and properties have so many events. It would make for a wonderful television series!
Thank you for your comment. I love the family history here! Thanks for reading along, I appreciate your support.