9 HEBE LANE (Full House)

The Abbotts at Sunset Lake - William B. Abbott - June 23, 2002

In about 1940, William and Lena Abbott of Wilton rented Putnam’s camp along with sons William B. Abbott and John K. Abbott.  I was only two or three years old and don’t remember it at all.  There is picture evidence however.  One picture shows me sitting on a potty in the outhouse.  In those days, no one had the luxury of indoor plumbing.

In about 1946, the family rented Seven Keys.  By this time number three son was on the scene, David D. Abbott.  I remember having visitors who liked to fish and saw the first use of shiners as bait.  They left me with their unused shiners but they expired before I could use them.

In about 1947, the family bought Onarock.  Again, the camp was without indoor plumbing, and one had to cross the street to use the facilities.  We were joined often by family and friends.  Lena had become an incurable Red Sox fan by then.  On one occasion, she had listened to the Sox game on the family 1947 Ford beachwagon.  When it was time to go home, we discovered that the battery was dead from the several hour use without the engine running.  With father at the wheel, Bill, John and Lena pushing, the Ford started and we were on our way.  Another time we managed to lock the keys to our 1942 Chevy sedan in the car.  At someone’s suggestion, we tried the keys to other Chevy cars and much to our surprise, the key for Elmer Draper’s Chevy sedan worked and another crisis was happily resolved.  Soon after buying the camp, we bought a blue 14 foot Grumman canoe.  I recall that there was one other Grumman canoe on the lake at the time.  This proved to be a rugged craft and is still in service today.

 In about 1950, we sold Onarock to Dr. Raymond P. Galloway of Wilton.  He along with his wife, Nellie, daughter Nancy and sons Harvey and Andrew enjoyed the camp for a few years and then sold it.  At the same time we bought Full House from the Hopkins of Greenfield.  He was the owner of the Hopkins Grain Mill.  My folks thought the camp name did not sound too welcoming and never displayed the sign.  We discovered another sign in the shed which approximately said, “Please leave when the owners arrive.”  I assume that they let the employees use the waterfront but when the Hopkins were there, they wanted privacy.

Before moving in, an addition was made to the ell.  The addition is the new kitchen with plumbing which the old kitchen didn’t have.  The old kitchen became the dining room.  The outhouse which was part of the shed was replaced with a shower and toilet.  A gas heater was installed in the living room.  This performed well for 10 or 15 years but is now unused.

The family spent full summers at the camp until about 1957.  During those years, Dad commuted to work in Wilton.  When I was old enough, my ritual was to pedal my bike from Wilton to the lake in June and back again in September.

We had a pickup baseball team consisiting of Bill and John Abbott, Bruce Maki, and possibly either or both Bob Boyle and Gerard Boyle.  On at least one occasion, we played boys from Wilton who had a similar pickup team.

We had a 16 foot Penn Yan row/motor boat.  We had rigged up a steering wheel with ropes and pulleys.  It worked fine until one day, with Richard Farr, Robin Farr, John Abbott and me aboard, the rope broke, close to shore, and we crashed between Onarock and The Maples.  No one was hurt, but I remember that one or both of the Farr boys ran home to their camp at the end of the lake.  Apparently they were not supposed to be out in the boat with us.

In 1955, I bought a SCUBA outfit.  It gave me my first look at the deeper waters of the lake.  I was surprised to see how much vegetation and silt there was at the bottom of the lake.

In 1959, John Abbott and his new bride, Mary Kaye, spent the summer at the lake.  In the following years starting in about 1963, Bill Abbott, wife Sandra and children Pamela and Jeffrey spent two week vacations at the camp as well as some weekends.  John and his family moved to South Carolina in about 1966 and started coming up for occasional two week summer vacations at the camp.   At about the same time, David Abbott, his wife Elizabeth and later son Mike and daughter Lisa started using the camp.  In 1981, David and his family spent the summer at the camp.  That fall they moved to their newly acquired home in Lyndeborough.  After David died, the family continued to use the camp.

Today, the third generation is the main user of the camp.  Pamela (Abbott) Lamontagne along with her husband, Marc, and children Jonathan, Joshua, and Jennifer are one group. Jeffrey Abbott and his wife Catherine and daughter Briana are a second group.  Lisa (Abbott) Brogan and husband David use the camp as well as Mike Abbott and Elizabeth Abbott.  John Abbott’s son Bradford Abbott has come up from South Carolina occasionally to use the camp.

Jeff is the most avid fisherman.  Mike is the designated Plumber and two years ago he replaced the Myers water pump which had been in service since 1950.  Marc has painted the camp and made numerous repairs.  Elizabeth handles the scheduling and somehow they work things out so that everyone has a chance to enjoy Sunset Lake.