Let Me Count the Ways

Dear Sue,

You're right: Cheston can be annoying in the same way a crowded state fair is -- loud, teeming with cursing and splashing children (in this case four boys who systematically caught and squeezed newts and then threw them like trash in the water), country music, pontificating adults carrying on the same irritating conversation we've both heard before, parents ignoring their children while sunning themselves well away from the water (periodically also cursing at said children), and a whole gaggle (30 at least) of young boys led by a Sewanee student who gathered them on the dam long enough for a picture and then clomped up to the picnic pavilion. Not only that, but I discovered that some bozo weed-ate clumps of the blackberry bushes along the run-off between dam and bridge. Why? And why so many loud, obnoxious, thoughtless people?

Your friend,
Robley

PS Lest I forget, I should name three good things: a chance encounter with painter and alum Claude Buckley (www.claudebuckley.comhttp://www.claudebuckley.com/aboutus.html#.VZ7kvPlVhHw) and former resident of JB's "cave" on South Carolina; deep purple blackberries bursting with juicy flavor and red ones ripening; and the first Halloween Pennant I've seen this summer.

PPS Parts of the lake are indeed silty, and it takes no scientist to know why: I watched four boys jump in, walk around, and generally roil up the lake bottom.

please note the color of the water

PPPS Remind me as I did you: go early or late.