Our family summer vacations tended to be camping or visiting other family members. We never got much farther than a state away from Chicago. One place I remember distinctly was Pop's Place. It was a small resort in the Wisconsin Dells. Individual cabins sans air conditioning on a small beach. With inflatable inner tubes around our waists Dad would lift us up and throw us in the water or we would go down the big slide into the water.
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| kids all geared up to fight "injuns" |
The late fifties and early sixties were definitely the pre-politically correct era. We would go into the Dells for stores that sold taffy and fudge and where you saw, and of course could buy, all sorts of "Real, Original, Savage Indian Memorabilia". Stores offered feather headdresses, drums, rubber spears and moccasins. We went to shows to see Native Americas in "authentic" full war gear and war paint dance around us in their buckskins. Every little boy wanted a Davey Crockett coonskin cap and even the girls could get a cowboy hat and pair of child size six shooters (cap guns) to pretend we were shooting "Injuns". Wow, that was a time and place far far away.
We also would go to the large Wisconsin Dells garbage dump where from your car you watched the bears fight over the open garbage. That was a thrill not to be missed. My favorite place was "Storybook Land", a park with fairy tale houses and small childrens rides. Pee Wee golf was another favorite as was riding the Wisconsin Ducks, old WWII amphibious vehicles that toured the Wisconsin river and beautiful Dells scenery. That was about the extent of the Dells at the time. The fancy, high tech amusement and hugh water parks did not come to the Wisconsin Dells until much later.
To a city kid, staying at Pop's Place was the big time. Who could ask for anything more?
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| Dad and we kids at Pop's Place in the early 1960's |
