I’m staying on the Island until July 14th, so I thought while I was away, I’d give you an idea of what it looks like and how it has changed over the 70 years it has been our Special Place.
The Cook Cabin was originally a one-car garage, which my father (Lad) and his friends bought on the mainland and transported to the Island. Here it is with a tarp suspended over the picnic table where all meals were served.
Here, the garage door is open and propped up for an eating area. This was a Cub Scout Troop outing about 1956. The next step was enclosing this area with screens, which we used as a sitting area for many years. We continued to eat at a picnic table on the same side where the platform was built.
This is the platform that was built for an addition to the Cook Cabin, a planned enclosed porch/dining area.
The addition took quite a few years, but here it is complete with screens.
"Greatest Generation" Life Lessons 
Mrts. P. – So true, so true. :)
How fun!
Mrs. P. – We don’t have lots of money and we do most of the work ourselves, so it takes quite a while for an improvement, but it eventually gets done.
My grandfather once bought vacation land in Maryland for back taxes He and another gentleman went 50/50 on the purchase. Then grandpa got a contractor to give him the model house that had been used as an office when they were building a track housing community. The development had been completed and the house had been vacant. Both families, kids and all…took that house apart board by board and transferred it to that vacation property. For pennies and lots of sweat and labor they built a very nice beach house. My grandfather eventually sold his half to the other partner and bought the current beach house we have in southern Maryland.
Mrs. P. – The “Greatest Generation” was always quite resourceful, weren’t they? It sounds like the same principle was applied in both acquisitions.
Yes, resourceful. Growing up during a time when people had to make do with what they had and even get creative when they didn’t have…character building stuff. Wish the modern generation had more of this.
Rick and I were just talking about all the work that children did back then. Now I know labor laws were implemented to protect abuses in labor but like many things, we have taken it too far. Too many children today lack the skill, responsibility and pride that come from working and contributing to the family.