The Travels of "Fruition": Where It All Began

On the way to the islands, we pass Cedar Point in Sandusky.
That day, we didn't need their roller coasters, because
we were rolling in the 3' broadside swells

We’ve been at Middle Bass for almost a week now, and the place is just filled with memories. We’ve visited most of the old haunts, and most of the relatives and friends who are still in the area. Been back & forth several times to Put-in-Bay to see my cousins & to go up Perry’s Monument to see some beautiful scenery.

It's important to have current navigation
charts! I guess this 1952 edition that my
Dad kept, is kinda old

But even on our chartplotter, loaded with the current
navigation charts, the two docks still say
"Keummel Fish Co", which was my grandfather's
business, and which ended in the 1970's

The famous (or infamous) Lonz Winery at the main dock
on Middle Bass, along with the Miller ferry boat

Several of the highlights of our visit so far:

The Kuemmel mini-reunion

We had a mini-reunion of the Kuemmel Krewe from Put-in-Bay and my sister Carol from Michigan, when a distant relative brought her son & family to PIB and MB to meet our side of the Kuemmels. Marilyn’s grandfather Kuemmel was the first of our ancestors to emigrate from Germany to Lake Erie, and then sent word back to Germany to MY grandfather that “the streets are paved with gold” and he needs help with his businesses. And, of course, we tried to fill in more leaves on the family tree.

With our Kuemmel relative, who is avidly following our blog

My grandparents grave sites at the island cemetery

The restored one-room school house, where my father
attended grade school in the 1920's, and where my aunt was later
the school teacher

Glacial grooves cut into the limestone rock on the island

Several weeks ago when I had made marina reservations to stay at MB this week, I just picked some dates. Then I found out that the Perseid Meteor shower was this week. Thinking back to that week of 1966 (yes, 49 years ago) when Sue & I first met at Middle Bass, it was also the week of the Perseid Meteor shower. Then the coup de grace for this week is finding that the Barbershop Quartets are coming to the island to perform this Saturday. Would you believe that the week we met during 1966 ended with the Barbershop Quartets singing that Saturday? Guess where we’re going to be this Saturday night?

We’re meeting up tonight with a couple who owns a cottage here, originally from Strongsville OH, and whose parents grew up with Sue’s parents in Strongsville. I already stopped to visit with another islander who, as a child, was babysat by my mother the summer that my mother met my father on this island.

It’s amazing how many memories can be crammed onto such a small island!