Christmas 1949 By Madelyn Shields I was five so my sister Karen was seven. We lived in a little white box shaped house in a community call Vandercook Lake, just outside of Jackson, Michigan. Daddy called our house a "cracker box" and at five years old I could not quite get the picture...you know...I would go outside and study the house trying to see the "Saltine" cracker box. It just wasn't there. Vandercook Lake was a beautiful lake great for its fishing, both summer and winter. In the summer there would be people out along the shores fishing with cane poles and a bobbin and sinker. We loved the Blue Gill and Bass. We would fish and fight the mosquitoes that were as big as elephants, flying in formation, bombing us as they went. Talk about mosquito bites!!!! In the winter there would be ice fishing shanty's set up out on the ice that also provided a fun sport but we were not allowed to go out on the ic...
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