Whispers of Nature
Whispers of Nature
By Amanda Jackson
ENG 1001
The year was 1995, a year I will never forget, the year I first heard nature speak to me. Every August we had our annual family reunion at a park in Milwaukee. Our reunions were always lots of fun, there would be games, swimming, and tons of food to eat. We would always celebrate the August birthdays at those reunions in Greenfield Park, too. The reunion was just one day long, but what a day it was! This year though Grandpa was too sick to travel from the cancer that was ravaging his body which he had been diagnosed with six years earlier. My Mom told us kids “Your Grandpa isn’t feeling himself lately and won’t be able to make the trip to Milwaukee, so we are going to take our annual family reunion to him in Post Lake for a three day weekend this year. The reunion will be in the end of July instead of August.” Now for the first time that I could ever remember we were going to have a long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Post Lake. How exciting!
This reunion was going to be very different from past reunions, yet at the same time it was still going to be the same in many ways. We would still be able to swim but instead of in a pool with tons of other kids, restricted by life guards if our swimming wasn’t the best that day; the swimming would be in the channel leading from Upper Post Lake to Lower Post Lake. The reunion would have games, some old and some new and instead of just celebrating the August birthdays we were going to celebrate all of the summer birthdays. There would be fishing and bon fires with roasted marshmallows, so as usual plenty of food, also we would be able to play lawn darts; which were “too dangerous” for the public park we usually had our reunions at. My Uncles set up the volleyball net that also served as our badminton net, and then we set up croquet which we had never been able to play in the past.
Once we got to Post Lake that July it was amazingly beautiful. The trees were
By Amanda Jackson
ENG 1001
The year was 1995, a year I will never forget, the year I first heard nature speak to me. Every August we had our annual family reunion at a park in Milwaukee. Our reunions were always lots of fun, there would be games, swimming, and tons of food to eat. We would always celebrate the August birthdays at those reunions in Greenfield Park, too. The reunion was just one day long, but what a day it was! This year though Grandpa was too sick to travel from the cancer that was ravaging his body which he had been diagnosed with six years earlier. My Mom told us kids “Your Grandpa isn’t feeling himself lately and won’t be able to make the trip to Milwaukee, so we are going to take our annual family reunion to him in Post Lake for a three day weekend this year. The reunion will be in the end of July instead of August.” Now for the first time that I could ever remember we were going to have a long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Post Lake. How exciting!
This reunion was going to be very different from past reunions, yet at the same time it was still going to be the same in many ways. We would still be able to swim but instead of in a pool with tons of other kids, restricted by life guards if our swimming wasn’t the best that day; the swimming would be in the channel leading from Upper Post Lake to Lower Post Lake. The reunion would have games, some old and some new and instead of just celebrating the August birthdays we were going to celebrate all of the summer birthdays. There would be fishing and bon fires with roasted marshmallows, so as usual plenty of food, also we would be able to play lawn darts; which were “too dangerous” for the public park we usually had our reunions at. My Uncles set up the volleyball net that also served as our badminton net, and then we set up croquet which we had never been able to play in the past.
Once we got to Post Lake that July it was amazingly beautiful. The trees were