Cabin Changes During the '80s

Shortly after the Green Cabin was finished, or as finished as it would be, Margaret and Roy started on the Gray Cabin.  Before the paint was barely dry, a tornado blew through, destroying alot of their hard work.  Being of perservering natures, they worked to put back the pieces.  They would then move on to build a duplex next to the Green Cabin, later known as the Brown Cabin.  Around 1982, Margaret and Roy  decided to sell the Brown Cabin to Bill's parents, ending years of staying in the Green Cabin and listening to all the different levels of snoring from tired, alcohol infused bodies at night.  By 1989 Roy had passed on to the big lake in the sky, leaving Margaret older and tired of walking on a slope.  Bill still had fond memories of the Green Cabin and approached her to sell.  Her only way to sell was if he bought the Green Cabin and her cabin, soon to become known as the Gray Cabin.  The next years flew by with Bill's parents doing a major remodel to the Brown Cabin and Bill doing lots of cleaning, building seawalls, etc.  1996 brought about many changes, with the youngest daughter about to graduate from highschool, we put the old house in Versailles up for sale and set about work on a major face lift on Margaret's old home place. She had moved on to Sedalia, Missouri.  The day after graduation we packed up and headed back to the lake!  We had now lived in Laurie, Gravois Mills, Versailles, and now Rocky Mount.  It seemed we had tried to circle the lake in a manner of speaking, actually we were just coming back to the spot where we had shared many great moments in time, ready to share more!

Changing Jobs, Changing Locations, Changing Times



When we first married Bill worked for Chrysler building vans in Fenton, Missouri.  Some hard economic times were rapidly approaching our young family. By the time baby number two was born, Bill had been laid-off from Chrysler and he was doing odd jobs to supplement unemployment. 

A family friend suggested he go to work in line construction and complete lineman training for a card.  So, in the early '70s, he was a groundman rapidly finishing his classes and becoming a lineman. Traveling from job to job, it was hard to say where he would be going for the next job.  Sometimes the job was close enough to drive, sometimes he lived out of the back of a camper and sometimes he lived in old hotels. It was kinda hard for us both, me with a baby and a toddler and him on the road. 

In the summer of '82, he went to work on a job building new lines here at the lake. We were able to stay in the Green Cabin with the girls for weeks.  It was a wonderful summer, the girls played in the lake everyday and when Bill would come home from work we would jump in the boat and go water-skiing.  Bill was incredible on the water, he could salom ski and make it look effortless, he could pull the girls up on his shoulders and water-ski all over. Back then there was no boat traffic and no wave-runners to worry about.

On a rain-out day, Bill drove over to a local RE and applied for a job. Powers to be called the week before I graduated from Jefferson College, and one week later we packed our belongings in our old Ford pickup with cattle racks borrowed from my Uncle Floyd.  We must have looked like a traveling comic show, but we were on top of the world - we were moving to the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks!

Possum Hollow Cove

By 1974, Bill's mother, a third grade teacher who liked her summers off, had rented a little green cabin on the Gravois Arm here at the lake.  She rented from a couple named Margaret and Roy Thompson, also known as Tom Cat and Whipperwill in CB Radio language - used to communicate with others on the other side of the lake in the old days to avoid long distance phone charges.  Margaret and Roy lived in one cabin, rented the green cabin and another cabin that was two levels added renting availability.  Roy was one of the first dock builders to the lake and even engineered a pully cable boat lift system.  They also sold gas for boats on the dock.  They had an old wooden phone you would crank and they would walk down and pump your gas and give the fishing reports.  If they weren't home, there was a box to put your gas money in.  I guess you could say old Margaret and Roy were entrepreneurs of their time, for this all began back in the '50s.

By 1975, we were expecting baby number one and bored out of our goards.  We decided to drive down to the cabin for something different to do.  Word of caution, one probably shouldn't take long drives in the dead of winter to a place that has no phone and before cell phones have been invented - very uncomfortable and scary!

Five Years Later

As I previously stated, five years passed before I saw my future groom again.  We ran into each other at a pool near DeSoto, Missouri where on Friday nights they had parties - it was kinda like a tiny Woodstock.  As the stars sparkled against a black sky, I ran into Bill and he asked me to go for a motorcycle ride; the nerve of this guy. He begged; I relented.  As young girls are inclined to think, I assume we are becoming an item.  One Saturday morning my mom calls me from the shop she worked on Main Street to tell me she sees him ride by with a girl sitting beside him in his car.  Bill has a lot of explaining and chasing to do.  I recall telling him I hate him, but he didn't give up and we began a whirlwind courtship.  Our first trip was to Lake of the Ozarks to his parents summer rental on Indian Creek in the Gravois Arm.  It was the summer of 1973, the first time I met his parents was Christmas eve and by February, Bill convinced me we should marry and we did in March! 

Fishing Buddies

Stinky and a grandie fishing. Below - Green Cabin.




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The Yellow Cabin

How We Came to the Lake

They say all things come full circle and for Bill and I, this is very true.  Let me start at the beginning, "How we met." Bill's dad, Jim, owned a gas station, cafe, liquor store and bodyshop at the end of Flucom Road on Hwy 67.  Bill worked at the gas station, along with his younger brother, Marty.  I worked at the cafe and babysat for my nephew, his dad had the bodyshop.  One day Bill asked me if I would like to go for a ride in his baby blue '63 ford convertible.  Looking dreamily at this handsome older boy, I immediately agreed!  In the car, traveling down the road, Bill began to shift gears when the entire shifter pulled out in his hand and I could see the road below us!  What had I gotten into was my first thought and still the same thought today - it's always interesting - never dull.  The next time I saw Bill pull into the station, he had another girl with him - his girlfriend.  What a turd.  That was the last time I saw Bill for five years.  Tune in again for what happened next!