Memories of Skeleton Lake by Paul Temple

We were always welcome around the cottage, even though they had
no teenagersthey had two little children whom they called Sonny and
Sister.
Sonny is now known as Art , has a cottage on the lake, and is an
active supporter of it. Sorry, young Art, in spite of being an expert
water skier and a good tennis player, you will always be Sonny to
me, because thats how you were introduced to me when you were
about a year old. The teens hung around their cottage because they
understood our humor. They would tolerate the occasional dirty
joke, but would not tolerate any under age drinking or smoking. I
remember Mary had the biggest outboard engine on the lake—a forty
horsepower Johnson four cylinder—no electric starter—one pulled a
rope wound around the flywheel, and it may start if you had the
strength to pull it. One day Mary said she wanted to take Ma for a
ride, and would I go with them and start the motor. (Art and Mr.
Insley were at work near Orillia.) Of course, I agreed, and pulled that
rope until I was exhausted, then Mary gave it one pull and it started
immediately. She knew a bit about motors, so I was just used to
prime the motor for her. She turned it up to full power, It scared me
to death because the boat was small, but Mrs. Insley just sat there
enjoying the scenery. Later, they had the Marina building built, and
did much of the work themselves. The marina was strongly built
so there was no doubt that it would support a dance hall above—
Insleys Marina, snack bar and bakery were opened and they built
several rental cottages.
As I recall Mrs. Insley was from Birminghan, England, and proud
of her Cockney accent. She was a Story Teller of the old school, and
many would visit the snack bar to buy the best fish and chips in
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