The Blue Dock
"The Blue Dock" is one of those places that holds a lot of fond memories of my childhood and teenage years. When I was very young, this is a place my parents would take me on a hot summer day to go swimming and to play in the white sand along the shoreline. As I got older, this place became a hangout spot for friends. As I got even older, this is a place I would go with a folding chair, gas lantern, a cooler, and a fishing rod to sit between midnight and dawn waiting for the elusive big catfish. The baby blue paint that has been used to cover this dock over the years is the source of the location's name, even though it is formally known as the Lakeland Park Beach Club. When I was in high school, all you had to do was utter the words "Blue Dock" and everyone knew where to go. It was not entirely uncommon for the police to run us off the dock late at night because of complaints from neighbors across the street. I'm sure we weren't always quiet down there at night.
Growing up in this neighborhood, it wasn't unusual to spend a Saturday afternoon here with 10 or 20 other kids. My dog was another faithful companion to the blue dock, even though he didn't care much for the water. He enjoyed playing in the sand. On certain occasions, we would toss him in the lake and he would swim to the shore, go under the dock, and not come back out for a while. On other occasions, we would call him out to the end of the dock. He would come running, and if the dock was wet he would slide right off the end into the water, once again causing a retreat to the shore and pouting session underneath the dock again. One of the only times I can recall him willfully getting in the water on his own was when a duck came a little too close to the shore. He jumped in the water and chased the duck half way across the lake. This was also the only time I ever feared for his life at the lake. I thought he was going to tire out and drown before he made it back to the shore.
I thought this photo would be a good addition to my "My Town" series...