Some old pictures I didn't take: Summer vacation

My brother Marty floats, Belmont Lake, Ontario, 1958

SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER, and over the crest of the warmth and sun we can see another year ending. This old photo of my brother floating in a lake in southern Ontario makes me think of those last days of the season. He told me that he remembered this as the moment he could no longer float; there's an inflatable tube underneath him, he recalled, which he needed for the first time that summer to keep himself buoyant - a childhood gift suddenly taken away. A small thing, but one of those memories that stick with you, since they seem to be a milestone. He'd be in high school in a year.

Marty says that this was Belmont Lake, outside Peterborough, where our father's brother, Uncle Tommy, had a cottage. He says he went there once, maybe twice, and stayed for a couple of weeks. He remembers fishing, the loons on the water, watching sea flea races and pitching horseshoes. It sounds idyllic - Canadian cottage life in an age before distractions.

Mary and Marty, Belmont Lake, 1958

He says our sister Mary, then only six, and our mom came up for a weekend. I'm assuming it was her behind the camera. This would be six years before I was born; I don't ever remember going to Belmont Lake.