Cottage 404 – Varina Buntin - Back to Book3

The summers rolled by at 404 full of laughter and good times. There were tennis tournaments to be won and lost. Golf every afternoon for the men. Children’s dances where they actually learned dances, dressed up in nice clothes and were made to dance with each other. I remember Jeffrey jr. doing the Virginia reel with Anna Loughlin and we have a picture on our wall of Frank Crump and Varina fox trotting around age 12. Talent night was a big deal and parents spent hours and hours creating elaborate costumes. Our family had several highlights. The year Frazer, with the help of babysitters, appeared in Em’s leotard in which she did her daily morning Jane Fonda exercises, her pink hair curlers and Lee Press On Nails. When the  laughter died down he was given first prize. Or the year Varina and Frazer went as meticulously reproduced Coke and New Coke cans. Everyone in the club, everyone, not just parents and grandparents, attended both of the events.

Most of the husbands were still working and would fly up for a couple of weeks at a time.

That left a lot of opportunity for the women to get together for cocktails, dinners and picnics.  Tory Tower (Folliard) and Frances McDonald would often appear at the door at some point in the night and beckon us out for to gather on somebody’s porch and share stories and laughter. Frances was always ready for a Bell’s Bay picnic with the kids and be the first to jump off the dunes.

George Crook became President for a second time in 1988 and had the brilliant idea of adding a deck to the casino. Jeffrey followed him as President and then John McDougall. “Nashville Newcomer Mafia”.

Sudi Alexander and I chaired the Gang Committee for about four years. This was back before our fabulous Pete Scholten. With help from the office we had amazing gang leaders. A mix of kids from town and kids from the Belvedere... Amy Ware, Mimi Orr, Shelley Reese, Dorothy Britt, Dan and Marie Buday and Jeff Trimper. We met with them every week to plan the activities and to remind them of their huge responsibility for the safety of these precious children. Marie Buday  became our “coordinator” coming up with ideas for special activities and serving as our eyes and ears on the ground. It was a busy time for young families on the Belvedere and we had weeks of upwards of 100 gangsters. Up to this point gang had just crammed kids in cars borrowed from parents and taken them off the pick cherries, canoe the Jordan, go on overnights. The idea of seat belts and safety was just beginning to be discussed. We took our concern to Gordon Ware who was President at the time. He went to the school board and reminded them that we pay taxes and never use their schools. He then asked for and got use of a school bus during our gang season. That was an amazing coup! I think someone may have had to get a special license. Sudi? One of the boys?

Through the summers and years we had a lot of dinner parties, crowding as many as we could around our dining room table. I learned to turn the placemats long ways and bring in smaller chairs to gather more friends together. There was always laughter and often something crazy happened. One of the epic dinner parties started when Harcourt Kemp, visiting Sally and John McDougall, began to take the plates back and scrape them into the sink. Normally I don’t let guests do that but Harcourt doesn’t drink and no doubt needed a break from our craziness as we were sticking shish kebob skewers into Eddie Mannion’s hair. Unfortunately, the disposal got stuck. Sheila Tomkinson jumped in to solve the problem with a broom stick while Eddie, ever helpful, brought a leaf blower into the kitchen. I know you are now thinking we are all totally crazy but the best part is next. When we bought 404 we inherited some unusual things. In a closet over the garage there was a 1940ies style hair dryer chair. The kind with the very big metal helmet that came down over a lady’s head. While we were busy with the broom and the disposal Eddie appeared with the hair dryer. How he got it down the stairs I will never know but he proceeded to sit under it with Margie on his lap. One thing just leads to another when you are having fun.

The finale of the summer was Cabaret in August . Barbie Claggett and Ann Leakas Dennison always wrote it. Ginny Million rallied all who could sew to make the costumes. Each Cabaret was elaborate. Always with a theme that had something to do with what had happened during the summer. There were skits and songs and appearances by gang. There were bridge players spoofs and tap dancing. There were ladies dressed as flamingos and men dressed as ladies. Always, always the best was Susan Reese doing her cleaning woman impersonation. In later years Jeffrey joined Ann and Barbie and they produced “Christmas in July” and “The Ironton Fairy.” It is very sad that the schools changed their schedules to start in August and robbed us of our August season and Cabaret.

As the years rolled by our children had friends come visit and then girlfriends and boyfriends. One time when both Jeffrey and Frazer had girls visiting we planned an overnight on The Summertime to Oyster Bay with Sally and John McDougall. The young were going to sleep up top and the adults in the beds down below. All was well until it started raining. Eight of us crammed together down below in a space to sleep four. Only one of those girlfriends went on to become a wife. Another such memory involved going on Rick Tomkinson’s boat, the Dolphin, to dinner in Boyne City. The group was Rick and Sheila, Sally and John McDougall, Jeffrey and me, Jeffrey, Frazer and Varina with their current girlfriends and boyfriends. A great night was had by all with many margueritas. On our way back there was a lot of cigar smoking until somehow we managed to run aground!  We quickly came up a solution. That was for the three boys to strip to their underwear, jump in and push us off. I remember thinking “I hope they all have on underwear.”

 Now our children stay at 404 and most of my memories center around 217.  But I have to write about a memory that involved both cottages but mostly 404. It was the most just sheer fun night of my life. Literally.

It was 2013. My 70ieth birthday. Our children decided to celebrate it late when they were all in Charlevoix for Venetian. They had told me we would have our annual kick ball competition at 217 but that they would fix dinner and we would eat at 404. Unusual for Charlevoix it was an overcast, kind of drippy afternoon. They all arrived at 217...Jeffrey and Kemp, Frazer and Tiffany, Varina and Walker, Gaits, James, Rush, Mary Varina, Pierson and Anne Barnett. First they handed me a rhyming scavenger hunt. All the women and children piled in Liz Teasdale’s yellow stretch golf cart which was the newest things in golf carts and which she had so graciously told our children we could use. Off we went to collect the clues. Each grandchild got to go with me to find one clue. We went all over the Belvedere as they were hidden in such places as under the troll bridge, down at the Casino, out on the pier, by the tennis courts. Seven in all. The last mentioning swim suits and something about getting wet. I didn’t spend much time wondering about the meaning. Having found them all we tumbled back to 217 for a short kick ball game and then it was announced we were to drive, not walk, to 404. I jumped in the back of a Suburban with all the granddaughters. As we pulled up to 404 I saw a big clear plastic thing at the end of the driveway. It took me about five seconds to realize it was a dunking machine! I don’t know why but I love dunking machines! I had never been in one but always thought, and still think, they are the most fun ever. I don’t know how my children knew but I bolted out of the car in delight and changed into my bathing suit which Varina had surreptitiously brought along. (Ah, the final clue!) I had to wait my turn as our grandsons, who could hardly contain themselves in excitement, took the first dunkings. Then I got in, taunting Jeffrey to dunk me first, which he did quite quickly. Each grandchild got to dunk me. I can tell you, no matter how many times you get dunked it’s always a surprise. I remember Em’s grandchildren, Wills, David and Anna Clare, coming over wide eyed and rushing back across the street to put on their bathing suits and get in the tank. At some point Frazer appeared from the cottage in a very small wet suit and some alien head that had been won at the Venetian carnival the day before. The fun and gaiety went on through dinner and beyond. Every year since, Eric, who was across the street and witnessed it all, talks about my dunking machine birthday. Just the memory of it makes me smile and want to do it all over again!

404 is a wonderful cottage full of laughter, good times, good friends, great memories and the love of family.