Scott's Park

When I was a child, my family rented a cottage every summer for 2 weeks on a lake in Wisconsin. I loved those vacations. We would spend all day on the beach, using the row boat, fishing, and catching turtles. Eventually, my family became more poor then they already were(if you can imagine), and we stopped making our yearly pilgrimage to Wisconsin. So sad.

Some of my favorite memories from such vacations are making my older sister Megan have to go to the hospital after I pushed her in the lake without her earplugs in(she had horrible ear problems as a child), Molly getting in trouble for screaming, "That's my stick you bastards!" in front of the neighbors, and getting my picture taken at Scott Park.

Scott Park was not actually anywhere near our rented cabin. It was a place we passed on our way there. We would normally stop there for lunch. There was a big sign that said Scott Park on it. My parents thought it would be cute to take my picture with that sign. Cute, it wasn't.

I don't remember why, but I was hell bent against having my picture taken with it. Let's just face it, I was a bad child. My parents were already irritated enough. They had been in a car with 8 kids and a dog for countless hours already and family vacations always put them in bad moods. My outburst stating that I was refusing to have my picture taken with the sign put them over the edge.

I don't remember much of what happened, I just remember that when they got me over to the sign, I turned my back so they couldn't take the picture. My mom was trying to take the picture and couldn't get me to turn around, so my dad came over to turn me around. I started to cry as he walked away, and that's the picture my mom took.

I wish I knew where the picture is. It's by far one of the funniest ever taken. Here I am, pudgy and crying in my 80's clothes, standing in front of a sign, with my dad walking out of the shot with a pissed look on his face. Oh, those were the days. I drove by the park with my family a few years back, and it still makes me cringe thinking about that day. My mom jokingly asked if she could take my picture in front of the sign. I didn't even pretend to think it was funny. That day will haunt me for the rest of my life.