Reminising on the Porch . . .

Reminiscing on the Porch of the camp this morning.   It was quite, real quite on False River, the lake was like a sheet of glass.  I was drinking my coffee listening to the roar of my Tinnitus and the travel on the highway up above the camp.  I was admiring the stately Cypress trees array across the lot.

Bill Gremillion, my father-in-law, a cagey business man acquired this piece of property by repairing the landownwer's owner's tractor.  The owner did not have the money to pay for the needed repairs and so traded the lake front lot for the needed repairs and maintenance on his tractor.  In those days, or at least the near the end of that era, lake front lots were not considered worth much, they could not be farmed so to speak.  So they did not return value to the land owner.   Bill had the foresight to recognize the future beauty of the place.

He along with his brothers had a camp up Red River behind Marksville.  The area had some shallow lakes  and if R. O. Martin, the lumber Barron had not discover oil, the area will have remained a wilderness.  But oil brought roads, albeit, gravel roads, and electricity to power the pump jacks on the oil wells.  Soon followed the hunters and folks that want to get away from it all.  A large hunting club grew up and the brothers were charter members.

Bill began bringing home Cypress seedlings from the Red River area.  He planted them in rows across the lot on the lake.  They are beginning to be majestic and are now recognized as a landmark along the banks of False River.  There are probably 30 of them on the "lot."

A pier has been added, and now a manufactured house, the camp, and a shed and covered area.  Judie's nephew Mark lived there and improved the place tremendously.  He named it appropriately Cypress - Myrtle.

This morning is was absolutely serene.  Cool, not cold, and a true vista looking out on the lake.  Bill's little house in New Roads has long been sold,  The  tractor business has also been sold but Cypress Myrtle remains a family heir loom.  No, it is not a ring, or a bracelet but it is a jewel to be enjoyed by Bill's heirs. 

Some how I think that was always Bill's objective.