Thursday, October 29, 2009

Spirit Lake's Fireside Lodge in '48 Recalled


Mom, who is 95 years young, remembers summers at Spirit Lake Idaho and Fireside Lodge in 1948.
Fireside Lodge was probably at Settllemeyers resort on Spirit Lake and was basically a beer hall in 1948. I have fond memories of that time, going with my cousins to the beer hall on the resort and playing music on the jukebox. Later my Aunt Dora (shown in downtown Spirit Lake) and family stayed at nearby Conklin's resort which had a convenience "grocery" store where we shopped. We could walk between the two resorts and there was a burnt out cabin along the path which was quite spooky for little kids.
The July 4 hydroplane races were a huge event at the Lake and we watched. This attracted a lot of out of town beer drinkers as I recall. I stepped on a broken beer bottle in the lake and had to be taken to town where the doctor stitched me up and gave me a tetanus shot. Still have the scar on my foot.
We would go to the downtown movie theater (Auntie Dora standing in front of theater) where they showed "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" which Mom wouldn't let us see. The theater was quite primitive with folding chairs instead of theater seats. But that was before TV in post war times. There was a cafe in t own and no doubt a grocery store.
Spirit Lake is a short distance from Twin Lakes where we went by school bus for swimming lessons. Twin Lakes was more swimmer friendly with sandy beaches and a very gradual drop off.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I lived in Spirit Lake Idaho in the early 1950's. My parents Ed and Cleo Reinhardt managed Fireside Lodge for about a year. It was and could have been idealic but the owners didn't know what they were doing and we eventually had to move back to the State of Washington. From the pictures I have seen it has really changed in 50 years.