Traverse City: Water Fun

Isn't this a great picture? Bro 1 and I look a bit squinty and scowly. "Can't we just go? You said we'd leave when we had our life jackets on. No fair!" All the Cincinnati cousins came this year, so the Bro's had one more boy-person on their side.
Aunt Sonia (“Tootsie”) looks on as Cousin Henry & I prepare to depart on a great paddle board adventure. Why, just look at those treacherous white caps! Yeah, the nearest wave was probably... in the Pacific Ocean.
Uncle Joe demonstrates yet another form of paddle board exercise: the head balance. Bro 2 and I are eager to try out our new water toy: sit inside the styrofoam ring, squeeze a hidden bulb and squirt water from the gator's nose at whoever was within range. The water was very shallow for a long ways out and on most days, as still as glass. My Cincinnati uncles, Joe and Sid, were both very funny guys and kept us laughing all week.
Aunt Rhea with Bro 2, Cousin 3, and meself back there in the chair. "Nuclear family" lines were erased as every aunt and uncle parented, cuddled, fed and disciplined every kid. None of the cabins had televisions, but I seem to remember the men bringing transistor radios (back then, the size of a shoebox) to listen to critical baseball games.

Our childhoods were so much simpler and less complicated than what kids experience today. Of course, no computers. And no calculators, not even adding machines. No videogames. Board games were Sorry!, Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, and Scrabble. We were mostly to small to play Twister competitively but that didn't stop us, and every game ended up in a heap of hysterical giggles. We played pretend a lot, with nothing much but our own imaginations.