Thrifty Vintage Thingies - Indian Head Country

.

It's THAT time again!!!! Vintage Thingies Thursday over at Coloradolady and Thrifty Thursday at Bloggeritaville.














Be sure you click on both of the icons or links above to check out what everyone else is posting.

My post today is a vintage salute to Hayward, Wisconsin where I just spent my vacation.

It is thanks to my Aunt Lois, and her thrifty, frugal ways, that I can even MAKE this post. (Some of you remember my Aunt Lois and the aluminum foil queen.) I'm sure my parents had some of these "back in the day" - - - but they would have been thrown away years and years and YEARS ago.

Ah, but Aunt Lois doesn't throw things away if she thinks someone some day will want them. This time I benefited from her frugality when she gave me this:

A 1936 tourist guide to the Hayward Lakes area. Do you see what they CALL that area? Here, let me HELP you see - - -


Wisconsin, Indiana Head Country. Some of you may remember that I explained this term here.


In some ways this looks a lot different than the same tourist booklets would look today - - - like there's not even one color photo.


In other ways it's still the same - - - lakes highlighted, men holding fish, and lists of area attractions.

Ah Ha - - - Lake Court O'Reilles. Just how do you think THAT is pronounced? Put your ideas in the comments and I'll tell you later.

Oh - - - surely every one can pronounce Grindstone, except some of my southern blogger friends probably draw that "a" out rather like "Graaaahndstone."

And now because it fits so well with the vintage brochure, here is a Hayward fish tale from the early 1960's.

This was my elementary school principal, Mr. Peters, and his son Lee, who was my friend. I dedicated my Memorial Day post to Lee.

On the last day of school one spring, Lee and his brother David begged their dad to take them and their small boat down to the Namekagon river so they could go fishing.

Mr. Peters didn't want to do it - - - he thought they'd fish for a little while, get bored, and want him to come right back and bring them home. He said "no." They were broken hearted - - - they really wanted to go.

Pearl, their mom, spoke up in their defense saying, "Why don't you take them, Marv? They have their hearts set on it, and it would get their summer off to a good start."

So the boys won out and they got their little fishing expedition.

I don't know how long they lasted at the fishing that day for it became a moot point. After they'd been fishing for a while, Dave hooked a muskie. Not just ANY muskie - - - a RECORD muskie. In fact, the muskie you see in the above photo. (David isn't in the photo for some reason)

The fish was so big, they didn't even know how to LAND the thing without capsizing the boat. So, while Dave worked the line and the pole trying to get some kind of control of the monster, Lee grabbed the oar and began thrashing the thing on the head to try to stun and subdue it.

By this time, people on the shore had noticed and a crowd was gathering to watch the excitement.

The fish was 62 inches long and had a 39 inch girth.

Hayward is "The Muskie Capitol of the World," and hosts an annual muskie contest. Dave and Lee's Muskie was the biggest one caught in a long time, so they entered it in the contest.

All summer long that muskie held the title until the very last day of the contest when someone turned in a muskie with bigger numbers.

"I don't believe it." Said Pearl as she retold me this story when I last visited her. "I never believed there was another muskie that was bigger. I think they made that up so they wouldn't have to give the prizes to a little 15 year old kid."

I guess we'll never know about that - - - but I do know this: now there's a minimum age you must be in order to even enter the muskie contest. Hmmmmmm - - - do you suppose my friends Dave and Lee are the REASON???

.