Once More To The Lake Summary

A Summary of “Once More to the Lake”

Jason Mraz
Eng 101
Essay#1- Revision
In his essay "Once More to the Lake", E.B. White shares the story of reliving his childhood memories of going to a lake in Maine. As an adult, E.B. White lives by the ocean and has a love for the salt water, but every so often he get the urge to revisit the lake he knew as a child. One day that desire was strong enough to motivate him to take his son to the same place his father had taken him so many times before. Upon arriving to the lake, White anticipates the changes that may have taken place since his last visit many years ago. During his vacation White notices that although the arrival to the lake was different, as well as
the boats which were on the lake, the lake itself had not changed at all. The commute to the lake had changed from what E.B. White had originally experienced as a child. The trip to the lake was now a completely new experience. Originally, getting to the lake was a long, highly anticipated journey, starting with the train station and loading luggage onto horse buggies which would take them on a ten mile trip leading to the lake. The anticipation would grow as the carriage got closer to the lake. Coming over the last hill to see the lake and other campers cheering for your arrival was full of excitement. Now, there was no train station and there was no carriage ride. The excitement had been diminished by the newer paved road which led to within one half mile of the lake. The road now was the cause of campers to pull right up to their camp and unload in a quick amount of time and without being detected by fellow campers. Another change which had transpired was the updates of the camp itself.
The path to the lake was not the only one that had changed through the years. Walking to dinner on a path leading by the tennis courts White notices there were no longer three tracks in the road, but two. There used to be a middle track that was made by the horses pulling the carriages of people to dinner at the restaurant. Now, the path no longer was one for horses. Also, the store’s parking lot used to be dirt and gravel, but is now paved for customers driving their cars to buy “manufactured drinks” rather than the root beer and birch beer White would buy when he was a child. Change was expected by E.B. White, but the one change he did not enjoy was the motor boats cruising across the water of the lake. Their newer designs with the outboard motors were unsettling to White and disturbed the peacefulness of the lake. The older boats had an inboard motor which was a much softer, relaxing sound which aided in the relaxation of a summer vacation. Even the way the boats were operated had changed as well. The older boats were not equipped with reverse, so landing the boat at the dock required a more sense of confidence, so you didn 't crash into the dock with a speedy
approach. Though there were many changes, one thing had not changed and that is the lake itself. Through all the changes E.B. White still managed to grasp the feeling that time had not really passed by because the lake remained the same to him. It is the one thing that kept people returning. The smells of the lake, the activities done by people on the lake, the fish that swam in its water, the people and the people too all had remained as White once knew it. He is fishing with his son at one point and a dragonfly lands on the end of his fishing pole and he describes that moment as if no time had passed since he went fishing with his own dad as a boy. Even the paddle boat they were fishing from was the same color and had the same details as he remembered as if it were the exact boat he paddled in before. One of the afternoons of their week-long stay a thunderstorm came and sent everyone returning to their camp. There White watched the storm come in just as he had before. It was a fascinating spectacle for him to see the lightning, hear the thunder, and watch the rain fall on the lake as the storm moved on. As the storm left, people would come back out to the lake in their swimsuits to swim in the rain. It was as it always had been. In conclusion, E.B. White realizes that many things have changed and some things have not. White relives many memories from his childhood, but at the same time he realizes that he has grown older. When White sees his son put on the wet, cold bathing suit he realizes that he has no interest in doing the same, thus concluding he is no longer a child, but an adult.

Works Cited
White, E.B. “Once More to the Lake.” The Mcgraw Hill Reader. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 11th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2011. 298-303. Print.