Stony Lake Channel Beach sits at the point where Stony Lake flows into Lake Michigan. It’s a great spot for swimming and fishing, and where you ditch the tube you’ve ridden from Stony Lake to the Big Lake. It’s late summer, and my Welshie, Snack, and I are the only ones here. We hike the short distance from the parking lot over the dune and sit facing Lake Michigan. The water shimmers and glistens in the mid-afternoon sun. I’m surrounded by water, blue sky, dunes, waterbirds and plants. Unspoiled, pristine, it’s a place set apart - one of my favorite destinations. I feel peaceful here, rooted, connected, “at home.”
Just as the setting of a story affects its characters and plot, we, too, are influenced, consciously, or subconsciously, by our surroundings – our homes, workplaces, recreational venues, vacation spots and places we shop, dine out and visit.
One of the clearest examples of the importance of setting in story is Alice in Wonderland. When Alice falls down a rabbit hole, she enters a bizarre dreamlike place that includes a beautiful yet inaccessible garden, a pool formed by her own tears, and a magical mushroom with the power to alter her size. Alice wonders if she has fallen to the center of the earth or found Antipodes. “I wonder which way I ought to go?” she queries. “That depends on where you want to go,” chides the Cheshire Cat. “I don’t much care as long as I get somewhere,” she replies. Author Lewis Carroll and Alice made up the word “jabberwocky” just to describe this surreal whimsical “somewhere,” where geography and logic are turned upside down. “Some say to survive here, you need to be mad as a hatter, which, luckily, I am,” says the Mad Hatter. What would Alice in Wonderland be without the “wonder” land?
My life would not be the same without this place. My bond with Stony Lake Channel goes back to my childhood, when my mother would take me and my sisters to the big lake and channel for a few hours of respite from her daily chores on the farm (site of present-day Country Dairy). This is where we had family picnics and outings; where we viewed amazing sunsets.
Many years later, Stony Lake Channel was the final stop for weekly summer outings with my four grandboys. Starting the day at Country Dairy, they’d enjoy a bottomless cup of chocolate milk, frolic at the playground, visit the calves, climb hay bales, and if they were lucky, spot a Tom. Next was a stop at Lewis Farm Market, where they’d feed the goats, pet the animals and visit the many farm attractions. Then on to Stony Lake Channel, where we’d set up camp for the rest of the day.
Nostalgia washes over me as I remember. Kairos moments - having lunch, building sand castles, finding rocks and crabs, playing King of the Mountain with innertubes and taking a dip in the big lake. As the sun began its western descent, we’d pack up, tired and sandy, and head for the car and home.
These are memories I’ll cherish forever. I think they will too. In a card, written after high school graduation, my oldest grandson thanked me for our weekly outings, which, he said, meant so much to him, growing up.
A tug on Snack’s leash brings me back to the present – Chronos time. Snack is ready for a walk on the beach. Then we’ll head home. but, we’ll be back because Stony Lake Channel is a place where I feel “at home.”
