Before I was born my parents built a home on the Coosa River in the central part of Alabama. A few years later the property became waterfront when Alabama Power Company completed building the Logan Martin Dam. After I was born we would spend summers and weekends at the lake. I loved playing in the boat house. From inside the boat house, you could see the bream and small fish swimming in the warm water. It was like looking into my own private aquarium.

We used to swim by the rock retaining wall that my parents built by hand using rocks found on the property.  That wall has since been covered with concrete and no longer can you see the character of the rocks.  The large water oak trees by the boat house were small saplings planted when I was a kid in the 1960’s.

My parents have passed away and the home has belonged to another family for many years now. I did get to see the old place when I used to visit my aunt and uncle who owned the home next door. Just looking at the boat house it still looks perfect to me. It does need some TLC since it’s more than 55 years old now.

Rules and regulations on the lake prevent any true maintenance except minor repairs and paint. To make any structural changes or even to replace wood or tin the change has to be approved by the power company authority and rarely gets approved. Plus enclosed boat houses are no longer allowed, but our old one is grandfathered in. No longer can you have doors or close them up completely to protect your boat and gear. New boat houses have to be open, with open windows and no doors. I sure do miss looking into my private aquarium.

I do miss the weekends we spent on the lake. It was a slower time way before the internet, cable television, or cellular phones. We fished, swam, played tag, built tree forts, worked on the cabin, and contemplated what were those little fish doing in my private aquarium.

RDP – Memory