...And it was always hilarious as we all came together to have dinner...We were all crunched next to each other, elbow to elbow...My Mom would literally throw all the food down on the table as fast as she could because my Dad had this thing about eating anything cold...We had a lazy suzan in the middle of the table which is like a spinning wheel where all the various entrees could be spun around in every direction...Unfortunately, many times someone would reach out to grab something and tip over their full glass of milk...Ugggh...My Mom would scurry off to grab a towel while my father just would be shaking his head because this would happen so often...As the meal ensued...I usually did my best to not eat anything on my plate...I probably had spent the day eating candy which was my main source of nutrition...I thought I was James Bond who was hiding my peas in my mashed potatoes and pretending to take a bite of meat while sliding it under my plate...hidden safely away...and allowing me to bolt from the table...

...After dinner...the girls would help do the dishes...no dishwashing machines back then...My Mother and Father would settle down in their kitchen chairs next to each other at the table and my Mom would serve up a cup of tea and some Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies...They seemed to enjoy these tasty new treats and there were so many other special desserts they would share together...since my Mom absolutely loved her desserts so, so much...I think both of their favorites were the Dresselers Chocolate Eclairs which absolutely melted in your mouth...

...I would probably be down in the basement by then...watching Hogans Heroes or Dick Van Dyke...and I would jump around bouncing a basketball or wait for my brothers to take out their hockey sticks...and watch with excitement as they went hard at each other...trying to score a goal at either end of the basement...Of course, the tile floor took quite a beating and every weekend one of my sisters would be left with the task of throwing down a layer of liquid MopN'Glo...which glazed over the rough spots and allowed the tile to look brand new...

They were very tranquil, busy times in all of our lives...All of my sisters had boyfriends, of course...And it seemed like they all showed up in 15 intervals apart on every weekend night...to pick them up for the evening and take them out to the various hang-outs...which were so popular for teenagers...My brothers were still at an age where they enjoyed beating each other up...and endlessly trying to beat one another in any type of competiton available...Me...I just kind of wandered about and let it all sink in...I really had no clue that anything was out of the ordinary...We were just a huge family of 10 people and that wasn't uncommon in our neighborhood which was just exploding with kids of all ages...everywhere...

...It was the 1960's...the South-Side of Chicago...in the parish of Saint Thomas More...You really couldn't have found a better slice of middle-class Americana in the houses and streets and alley-ways of this very proud neighborhood...We resided at 2724 West 86th Street...in the newer section of our area...We had only moved 4 blocks away 5 years back to accommodate our growing family...My Dad had bought 2 vehicles for the family...Usually, he'd like to pick out a Buick LeSabre as our luxury vehicle and something along the lines of a Chevy Impala Station Wagon for the family to all pile into for road trips...

...And as you can imagine...by now...the main destination of our road trips was up to our cottage in Knollwood in Lake Geneva...We'd all pile into the station wagon...with all kinds of clothes stuffed into these 2 giant Polish barrels that was thrown into the back where my brothers were seated...looking out at the traffic following us in the back window...They thought they were pretty slick by throwing candy out the back window as we sped along and watch it disintegrate into the fast moving pavement below...My sisters were like living saints all squished together in the back seat...And of course, my Dad was behind the wheel with my Mom beside him with me in her lap...

...The funny thing is that we would get about 5-10 minutes into our 2 hour trip up to Wisconsin and one of the kids would always yell out...Are we there...yet..!!!...My Dad would just try to hold in his temper while my Mom would pat his shoulder and respond to anyone in back that they should just try to relax because we had a long, long way to go...Eventually, we would find our way to the Illinois/Wisconsin border and everyone would roll down their window and breathe in the fresh air...It was somewhat intoxicating...the fresh, smog-free air...filling our lungs and almost making us giddy that we were almost there...As we took the turn at Big Foot Beach on the outskirts of Lake Geneva...some of the girls would break into our Lake Geneva song...

...LAKE GENEVA...HERE WE COME...
...RIGHT BACK...WHERE WE STARTED FROM...
...OPEN UP YOUR GOLDEN GATES...
...LAKE GENEVA...HERE WE COME...

...It was our special little song...for years and years and years...

...As we pulled up to the cottage...a huge sigh was let out by everyone...While my Dad had the pedal to the medal and always got us there in two hours flat...To all of us...it was an endless ride of anticipation where our minds wandered wildly thinking of all the things we would do when we finally got there...

The Knollwood Cottage was such a neat place to escape to...It was deceptively large...and somehow we all just fit perfectly into each room that we had...A neat feature of the cottage were these see-through grates in the floor upstairs that allowed you to peer down into the kitchen below...There were so many cool things about the cottage...There was a big hill that our house sat on and my brothers would ride their wooden skateboards down the hill...hurtling downward at breakneck speeds as they rushed towards the bottom...I was way too scared to try something that crazy which made it all the more fun as each time they tried to make it more and more dangerous...My Dad would go up to Bell's Liquors and pick up several cases of Pepsi bottles and maybe a case of Burley's Orange Soda...Wow...my Dad could chug down a bottle of Pepsi in 3 seconds flat...There were no diet sodas back then and we were always thirsty because it was usually quite hot with our cottage about 3 blocks away from the lakeshore...

...All of my brothers and sisters were very excited because Knollwood was teaming with kids their age and they all had a ball going every which way in the areas surrounding the local beach and parks and everywhere in between...My family had been going up to Knollwood since the mid-1950's...so all of the kids really had a part of Knollwood held special in their hearts...for all of the great special times they had together there...