Memories of #7 Belvedere Back to Book 3
My brother, John MacCarthy and I would come visit our
grandmother Dorothy Lund Leland and my grandfather Pete Leland. My grandfather’s
sister Florence Gardener and her husband Joe Gardener lived a few cottages away
at 21 Wordsworth. It was a blue cottage and we could ride our bikes just to
their cottage and back. Leland Ingham would sometimes be at her grandparents’
cottage when we were visiting ours.
In the summer, my grandmother would bring her help from home
– Bee and Lillian, and later Bernice. They lived and hung out in the back of
the cottage and cooked all our meals. My brother and grandfather loved to fish
and the cooks would prepare a lovely fish dinner. I however did not like fish
and was not always happy when leftover fish became fish pancakes for breakfast.
Susan Reese was right next door at #6, and she always was cooking something
chocolate – brownies or chocolate chip cookies.
John and I went to gang. Melissa Chamberlain Bozesky and
Susie Reese LeRoy would always welcome me as part of the group. I did not stay
at the Belvedere in the summer as long as they did. If you swore at gang they
would wash your mouth out with soap – I remember this happening to one of the
Alexanders in big gang… We were pretty free to visit other cottages when we
were in Big Gang, but we always had to be home by the 9:30 siren which still
sounds today.
We did not have teenage gang and did not come as much as
teenagers. I did come when I was sixteen to “ Chaperone” my grandmother and her
boyfriend Bob Follansbee. We would leave each other notes by the cookie jar in
the cottage. It was a great visit and they got married in 1979.
In 1985 I got engaged to Henry Payne and we came up to visit
Dodie, my grandmother, and Bob. It rained all weekend but we had a great time
playing cards and doing puzzles. Board games and puzzles are still an Up North
activities when the kids aren’t on their laptops.
When we were 31, Henry Payne and I returned with our
children Henry ( 3) and Sam (1). Mom and Dad rented a cottage. John and Katie
and their daughter Annie (1) also came. This was the summer before my
grandmother died so it was very special to all be together.
The next summer, 1994, mom and dad took over #7. This
cottage became, and still is, a central meeting place for us living in
Bloomfield Hills, MI, John and Katie living in Chicago, and Mom and Dad living
in St. Louis. Meals moved from the formal dining room to the front porch. Mom
and Dad rented another cottage for John and Katie’s expanding family. With
their four children, Annie, Jack, Peter and Clare we had outgrown number 7. The
kids learned everything at gang, tennis with Erik Lundteigen, golf, sailing,
swimming, and overnights. Cookouts at the beach – smores and the Jordan River
Canoe trips are still favorites. A visit to Mackinaw Island was always the last
week of gang.
Mom and Dad bought number 23 is 2005. Now there is more room
as our family expands. When John’s family arrives we spend a lot of time
boating. We have dock number 21,and the MacCarthys rent a boat. We have
advanced from tubing to water skiing to wake boarding. Sometimes it is just
nice to cruise down over to the Landing for lunch or to Boyne and hope it
doesn’t get rough on the return trip.
Sam Payne married Erica in 2018. We hope our children will
continue to gather here in the summers to write the next chapter of life at the
Belvedere Club.
1993
1999 
