One summer my family decided to take a vacation up at Avril Lake in Vermont at a resort my mother had gone to when she was a child. My aunt, uncle, brothers and parents and I stayed in a couple quaint cabins of that bordered a small lake. There were a couple dozen of these cabins filled with families vacationing and a main house where everyone gathered and ate. There were activities for kids and two lakes where one could boat or swim. I was a teenager and my brothers were in college. Vacations were rare for our family and this was particularly special as my aunt and uncle were able to join us from California.

A few days in to the vacation my mother and I went out on the smaller lake. I took a canoe and my mother took a rowboat. It was cloudy as we started out, and conditions deteriorated as we crossed the lake. As we decided to turn back my mother thought she heard thunder. She insisted we stay on the other side of the lake until the storm passed. However, I didn’t hear thunder and didn’t think sitting in a canoe during a storm was really the wisest option so I started paddling back to the dock. My mother was yelling at me to come back, but it was too late. By the time I to the dock there was no thunder, but it was pouring rain and I was soaking wet. I headed back to the cabin to let my father know that my mother was on the other side of the lake. When I got back my aunt and uncle were on the couch reading and my father was sitting in a chair near the fireplace. I explained how it started to rain, Mum thought she heard thunder, stayed on the other side of the lake, and I paddled back. He said okay, but everyone looked either somewhat stunned or annoyed. I went and changed into dry clothes. As I came back my brother Greg was suiting up to go out and I asked,
“Where are you going?”
“Well, somebody has to go get her.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t just leave her on the other side of lake.”
“She has a boat!” And with that it dawned on me that they thought we paddled out in the same boat and I took off with her standing on the shore. “I didn’t push her out of the boat or anything. I was in a canoe and she was in a rowboat. I went. She stayed.”

Realizing the rescue was off, instead everyone got ready for dinner. Normally we would walk to the main house, but with the pouring rain the six of us quietly squeezed into the car instead. At which my brother Jeff piped up, “It’s all right, she wouldn’t have fit in here anyways.” Everyone started to chuckle, then laugh, and comments started flying and by the time we got to the main house everyone but my father was doubled over with laughter.

When inside the dining room, in a futile attempt to be appropriate and catch our breath, the laughing would die down slightly only for someone to bring up the image of my mother in a rowboat to start it up again. It didn’t appear that many of the other vacationers were as amused, as we weren’t too successful at being appropriate. As the meal was ending and other families were starting to leave, we started to calm down. Then Jeff pointed out the window and said, “Look!” Out of the rain and fog came my mother rowing for her life. “It’s the Morton Salt Lady.”

A dead ringer for the girl on the box of salt my mother paddled in rain soaked slicker and hat. My father who had been the only one throughout this to stay at all composed announced, “I’ll go out and tie her up.” Which started another roar of laughter. “No I didn’t mean it like that. The boat, I’ll tie up the boat.”

Fortunately the excessive laughter and the fact that there had been no other ‘thunder’ saved me from getting into too much trouble. My mother finally came in and dried out, while the rest of us finally stifled ourselves.

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