Summertime in Tourist Town

Stockton Cottage: its family and its historySeveranceEssex County, New YorkSchroon Lake is a little rural town that re-invents itself as a tourist resort each summer. I grew up there, in a small family-run lodge from 1937 through the 1950s, returning some summers with my young children to help out again. For us, it was routine to give up our bedrooms and home to guest each summer. In return, along with enough money to survive till the next tourist season, we met new guest, heard new stories and enjoyed new friendships. Not an easy way to earn a living, but normal for life in a tourist town.This is a glimpse into life for one family, mine.

Joann Hodgkins Sheets grew up at Stockton Cottage, a small family-owned lodge in Essex County, New York. Schroon Lakes was the nearest town, 4 miles away and Paradox Lake was 400 yards away. She is a graduate of Schroon Lake Central School, SUNY Postdam and the University of New Mexico. Joann Moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1971. Her poems are in three local anthologies, and Eber and Wein Publishers' " Across the way" as a third place winner.