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-> Vacation and Traveling
the world's best mom
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 Wed, Jun 25 2014, 6:11 pm
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I think I might know who you are. I remember those training swings. From when I was around 3. Remember the old sandbox with the metal roof? That was fun, except I usually managed to step in a snake hole on the way through that overgrown field. That part wasn't as much fun.
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exacterredactor
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Wed, Jun 25 2014, 11:07 pm
You probably do. (The North side was definitely the best.)
Yes, for years there was an abandoned, um, plumbing fixture in that shed, which was almost irresistible to the little daycampers we'd bring to play in the sandbox there. The snake holes were almost always near the evidence of geese.
For some years there were rowboats by the lake; I think we had to get the oars from Mr. Ganz or Jay in order to use them, but it was quite the adventure to get out to the island. Or just walk around the lake picking blueberries.
It really was the most scenic spot; there was a field nearby, farther down Divine Corners Rd--I don't think it was part of the colony but we'd go in once in a while--that looked to our young eyes just like the opening shot of the Sound of Music (the Alps, the Catskills, what's the difference?) and at night if you looked up from the hill leading to the lake, or even from the big parking lot, you really could see the curve of the sky in a way you never can in the city.
Once or twice some of us climbed up to the second floor of the other 2-story bungalow on the North side, before they boarded it up. (Lots of bedrooms and a communal kitchen, I think.) It didn't seem structurally to be in any worse condition than any other bungalow, but then, after a couple of years there, we might not have been the best judges of architectural character.
OOh. Now the faint hope of returning that I've secretly been nurturing is really lost. I don't want to tell my mother.
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amother
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Wed, Jun 25 2014, 11:13 pm
| exacterredactor wrote: | You probably do. (The North side was definitely the best.)
Yes, for years there was an abandoned, um, plumbing fixture in that shed, which was almost irresistible to the little daycampers we'd bring to play in the sandbox there. The snake holes were almost always near the evidence of geese.
For some years there were rowboats by the lake; I think we had to get the oars from Mr. Ganz or Jay in order to use them, but it was quite the adventure to get out to the island. Or just walk around the lake picking blueberries.
It really was the most scenic spot; there was a field nearby, farther down Divine Corners Rd--I don't think it was part of the colony but we'd go in once in a while--that looked to our young eyes just like the opening shot of the Sound of Music (the Alps, the Catskills, what's the difference?) and at night if you looked up from the hill leading to the lake, or even from the big parking lot, you really could see the curve of the sky in a way you never can in the city.
Once or twice some of us climbed up to the second floor of the other 2-story bungalow on the North side, before they boarded it up. (Lots of bedrooms and a communal kitchen, I think.) It didn't seem structurally to be in any worse condition than any other bungalow, but then, after a couple of years there, we might not have been the best judges of architectural character.
OOh. Now the faint hope of returning that I've secretly been nurturing is really lost. I don't want to tell my mother. |
LOL! I remember the rowboats but was too young to go on them before they retired. Shame, I love boating, and it was such a nice little lake.
I think you can see the same sky elsewhere, at least... the rest I don't think can be duplicated anywhere, ever.
I climbed to the 2nd story of the house after it was boarded up (don't remember any before) it was quite run down. I think the bathroom floor was nonexistent. Other than that not bad, it was being used for storage. The other 2-story bungalow eventually met the same fate (re. the bathroom floor)
I'm guessing who you are just because how many people have been there continuously since 1972? My parents and yours, I reckon. Or maybe just yours, mine might have been a year or two later.
Can we have a July 4 reunion picnic at Ganz? Please? Thursday night or friday; I need to be back in the city by Sunday night.
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exacterredactor
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Wed, Jun 25 2014, 11:42 pm
When we were young it was a nice BIG lake.
Ok, yeah, it is the same sky but I remember looking up and thinking, wow, the world really is round! the sky just looked so flat in the city. (Bear in mind that I was a very impressionable kid and must have been reading something about Columbus or the flat earth society at the time.)
I thought there were a few more candidates for longest-continuous-attendance?
I would love to have a reunion! but I can't get away then.
My sons are going to camp (B"H!!!) in Liberty so I guess we'll be going up on visiting day; maybe I can make a detour on the way home.
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amother
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Wed, Jun 25 2014, 11:51 pm
I remember the lake being bigger. It had a couple of bigger years recently too, actually.
You can't get that kind of sky in the city, but I meant just find any empty field in the country and you can do that. I think.
I can think of one other family there since the 70's, but you said your folks stopped a few years ago, and the other didn't. Everybody else is either newer or gone longer or still there (until now)
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the world's best mom
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Thu, Jun 26 2014, 12:09 am
The only rowboat I remember belonged to A.B. who was in N1 (attached to the store) with his dog and his family. At least I thought it belonged to him.
I went to Jay's house on Sunday and we were reminiscing. He said to come back to visit. (His house is on the most gorgeous piece of land in the area- and there ore other gorgeous pieces of land. Just walk down Bower's Road for some great views.)
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exacterredactor
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Thu, Jun 26 2014, 1:36 am
No, the boats were there even before the b's had that bungalow (the family in it then had a cat--no mouse problem there!) He just might have used it a lot.
Does Jay's house look as nice inside as outside? I was so pleasantly surprised the first time I saw it, it is so appropriate for its surroundings. Not like that disgusting horrible strip mall at the corner that sacrificed all those trees for nothing.
On our Shabbos walks we used to admire the different styles of houses, particularly the ones that looked very "country". Some were basically trailers, though, and not just in foxcroft village.
amother, You're right, but memory is not bound by realism.
I know one other family was still there two years after my parents stopped going, and think some other regulars were too but I'm not sure who.
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willow
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Thu, Jun 26 2014, 10:39 am
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I never went to this bungalow colony but it was so nice reading all your pleasant memories,
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BrachaVHatzlocha
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Wed, Jul 02 2014, 9:47 pm
exact, who are you? obviously a bit older than me..I don't remember rowboats, or the 2nd floor being open...but I was on that bottom floor!! my parents went from 1980 til...not sure...I was a teen...I started going a few years ago with my own little ones... There is still a chance they will reopen next year...
worldsbestmom, did you ask jay about that?
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the world's best mom
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Wed, Jul 02 2014, 10:29 pm
Yes. He said that in order to reopen he would have to spend thousands of dollars to pay an electrician to rewire the bungalows. Plus, I heard the Shule needs thousands of dollars worth of work. He said he can't see charging that much to his customers, so he decided to not open.
Where are you this summer? Did you get another bungalow somewhere?
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BrachaVHatzlocha
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Sat, Aug 16 2014, 11:20 pm
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we are I"YH going for 10 days to victory at the end of the month...it's not ganz but at least we're getting away a little
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the world's best mom
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Sat, Aug 16 2014, 11:34 pm
That's nice. A lot of Ganz people ended up there. Most of them are happy. I'm sure your family will have a great time. Bring warm clothes- it's cold here, especially at night.
B"H I'm having a great summer. My ds who was very difficult here last summer has grown up a lot over the last year KA"H. He has friends and plays nicely a lot of the time. The ducks that he loves were only here for a couple of days until one of them was injured so they were taken back to the farm. He was very good and didn't touch them without permission. He goes to day camp and hasn't been kicked out like last summer.
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amother
Plum
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Sun, Jul 05 2015, 4:26 am
I am SO not over this. We spent a few days here and there in a different colony last year and it was very pleasant, my kids enjoyed, there was country air, the bungalow had some aesthetic edge over Ganz, but it was still not the same (a bunch of the older Ganz crowd was there, too, so there was even a bit of the old chevra so that was nice. but it STILL was not the same. Proof being that we weren't compelled enough to go back this year.)
I was just thinking about going back to visit and to retrieve some mementos and it just made me so sad, thinking about walking through my old bungalow and never being able to go back to live there again. I might be crying, it's hard to tell at this hour (had some late-night work going on.)
I loved my bed. It was big and soft and had its own window with the best foliage right outside. Falling asleep to the breeze and rustle of the leaves, and waking up to sunlight so gently filtered through. I just want to spend a good month or so falling asleep that way every night and waking up that way every morning. Vacation anywhere else just doesn't feel *quite* that restful. Unless maybe one day I'll move to a country home with trees up against the window and I'll let you know if it works, but it ain't happening now and bungalow season is.
So I was thinking of going back to take some of the stuff I left behind. I was a saver, there are probably diaries and letters I wrote when I was 8 years old still there somewhere. I would be a little embarrassed for anyone else to find them. Then I thought what it would be like for someone in the future to stumble upon the place and find artifacts from summer people a zillion years ago. Pretty interesting, no? Maybe we shouldn't strip them down. But on the other hand, what are the odds those bungalows are going to be left to rot until they're dug up? Some developer one of these days is going to strip them down. That land is too good. It is an amazing location. You think every country mountain is the same but then you get out and see them and they're really not. This area is relatively level, on high ground (rainstorms drain out well. Some colonies are swamps half the summer), already cleared in the middle but with nice trees surrounding, isolated but not too far from anything. How long is Jay going to hold out already?
Sigh. I just can't believe it's over. It's over, isn't it?
Dang.
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bookie
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Sun, Jul 05 2015, 8:51 am
| amother wrote: | I am SO not over this. We spent a few days here and there in a different colony last year and it was very pleasant, my kids enjoyed, there was country air, the bungalow had some aesthetic edge over Ganz, but it was still not the same (a bunch of the older Ganz crowd was there, too, so there was even a bit of the old chevra so that was nice. but it STILL was not the same. Proof being that we weren't compelled enough to go back this year.)
I was just thinking about going back to visit and to retrieve some mementos and it just made me so sad, thinking about walking through my old bungalow and never being able to go back to live there again. I might be crying, it's hard to tell at this hour (had some late-night work going on.)
I loved my bed. It was big and soft and had its own window with the best foliage right outside. Falling asleep to the breeze and rustle of the leaves, and waking up to sunlight so gently filtered through. I just want to spend a good month or so falling asleep that way every night and waking up that way every morning. Vacation anywhere else just doesn't feel *quite* that restful. Unless maybe one day I'll move to a country home with trees up against the window and I'll let you know if it works, but it ain't happening now and bungalow season is.
So I was thinking of going back to take some of the stuff I left behind. I was a saver, there are probably diaries and letters I wrote when I was 8 years old still there somewhere. I would be a little embarrassed for anyone else to find them. Then I thought what it would be like for someone in the future to stumble upon the place and find artifacts from summer people a zillion years ago. Pretty interesting, no? Maybe we shouldn't strip them down. But on the other hand, what are the odds those bungalows are going to be left to rot until they're dug up? Some developer one of these days is going to strip them down. That land is too good. It is an amazing location. You think every country mountain is the same but then you get out and see them and they're really not. This area is relatively level, on high ground (rainstorms drain out well. Some colonies are swamps half the summer), already cleared in the middle but with nice trees surrounding, isolated but not too far from anything. How long is Jay going to hold out already?
Sigh. I just can't believe it's over. It's over, isn't it?
Dang. |
it's over. My parents went to Ganz in the seventies and for a few years in the nineties. They are in a different bungalow colony this summer that has about eight people from Ganz there. My father was in the shul and found sefarim that people brought from Ganz shul. They were dedicated in memory of one of the ganz members that passed away middle age. It's sad everyone has such good memories from there.
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the world's best mom
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Sun, Jul 05 2015, 6:01 pm
Funny that you bumped up this thread today. Today, I am wondering why anyone thought my new bungalow colony is so much better than Ganz. The overcrowded cluster of bungalows around a little patch of grass cannot compare to Ganz's gorgeous open fields, and I seem to have luck with these bungalows being just as dumpy. I have a hole in my kitchen floor, right in front of the sink. That makes serving supper and washing dishes just a little complicated.
I can't ask the owner to fix it right now because he's busy fixing our hot water tank that almost went up in flames today. We do need showers, so I kind of need him to finish that first. The hole in the floor is not quite broken all the way through yet, but whatever is left is rotten and caving in. It's big enough for part of my foot to fit in, and I'm sure ds's whole foot can fit through.
In case anyone is putting two and two together here, yes we tend to have holes in our floors. Nobody in my family weighs enough to be blamed for that though- I'm really not THAT fat, I promise. We just got lucky with our porch in Ganz and our kitchen here. And it was a different bungalow that we were in two years ago that had a major flood during the night onto dd's bed.
I wouldn't mind a nice Ganz bungalow right now, as long as there are no holes in the floors or fires in the hot water tank.
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amother
Seafoam
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Mon, Jul 04 2016, 9:02 am
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I am not from n the US and in was just trying to find out what a bungalow colony is (was) and now I know. This is a very interesting thread. Bumping for the summer.
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amother
Yellow
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Mon, Jul 04 2016, 10:07 am
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I'm a former Ganzer too. I went there for about 15 years. There's no place like Ganz. Period. I still miss that place even though it's been decades since I was there last. I feel like it's such a big part of me. Nothing like the carefree atmosphere and the relaxing summers in Ganz. No other colony comes close.
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BrachaVHatzlocha
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Thu, Jul 01 2021, 9:24 am
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time to revive this thread as the summer starts and I am stuck in the city once again (going up for 2 wks in august iyh)!! we have driven past ganz a couple of times when upstate in the last couple of years. overgrown, deserted, looks like it needs some love. wonder if jay has done anything to do in the past 2 years. anyone in touch with them? sigh. I still miss ganz!!
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the world's best mom
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Thu, Jul 01 2021, 10:48 am
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I miss it too! I haven't been there to visit in a couple of years. I go elsewhere now, but the bungalows are only in slightly better condition and a little bit better kept up, but the outdoors is not nearly as pretty as Ganz was. I miss the beautiful views and the cute bungalows there.
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BrachaVHatzlocha
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Fri, Jul 02 2021, 1:09 pm
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I feel like our childhood ganz friends are really like an extended family. Even if we dont keep up.
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