Fete Lifestyle Magazine July 2024 - Sports & Fitness Issue | Page 26

BY LAURETTE RONDENET

Legacies of the Lake

grew up on a lake

in Michigan

during the

summers and it was a wonderful way to spend those few months. I feel lucky. My first memories are being around two years old and taking naps under the bow of our army green tank of a boat. I would wear my yellow life jacket, which I loved to chew on, while my mom went round and round the lake pulling my siblings on skis. Seeing this, I couldn’t learn to ski fast enough.

My first skis were called fireballs. They were yellow and orange and very small. I was 9 years old and learned to ski from the back of a 15-horsepower rowboat that was manually driven from the rear and required a string to be pulled for it to start. We all learned the fear of propellers from the minute we were allowed to swim, which I still have, and successfully instilled that fear into my children. Lesson number one of Lake Life.

I