Lost in the Woods

Last night, Our Man Larry sent this article he found in the Brainerd (Minnesota) Daily Dispatch (December 29, 1955).  He thought it might be a family story, like a cautionary tale about wandering too far or not obeying your parents.  But no, it's all new to me! 'Course, if mom and dad discussed it, it would have been in German, and besides, I was six in 1955.

Cousin Carol is ten years older than I am. At first, I thought "her cousin Gary" might be Aunt Katie's son, but no, he's about my age, so wasn't a teenager either ☺
A fascinating thing about this story, ignoring the fact that it could so easily have been tragic, is that it brought back such a rush of memories.
 I think we visited Uncle Matt and Aunt Eileen at the lake only once or twice, in the summer, and my impression of their house was that it stood in trees as dense as the photo below, on a knoll above a lake.  There was a path to the dock, but you couldn't swim because the bottom there was rocks, weeds and mud.  It sure looked nice tho.

I suppose there were no "what to do if you're lost in the woods" discussions before their adventure.  Who would expect Carol At 16 or Bev at 14 to even think about exploring the woods?
But then, the article says they had 4 matches with them.  How come? In the 50's, you carried matches with your contraband cigs, but swore to your parents that you Did. Not. Smoke.
Ha.  Carol and Gary probably walked down the driveway out of sight, thought they heard a car, and dashed into the woods.  The snow cover in December might have been sparse--enough to track them later, but not enough for them to retrace their steps.  "Hunting"?  Naaaw.  Oh, and when I googled "Big Pine Lake", a completely different lake came up, so they've changed ours to simply "Pine Lake".

Hooray, Larry! ☺