My Lake Erie

In the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared "dead," though, ironically, it was full of life -- just not the right kind. Eutrophication had claimed Lake Erie and excessive algae became the dominant plant species, covering beaches in slimy moss and killing off native aquatic species by soaking up all of the oxygen. The demise of Lake Erie even made it into a Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax. - Teach.glin.net

View Larger Map

   Maps can tell so much of a story. My family lived in this neighborhood from 1961 to 1968 except for a brief period in 1963. Many street names here are unfamilar. The Grand Army Of the Republic Hwy, was just plain Lake Road. Many of these streets did not exist in 1961, gradually the landscape filled in. In those early years the neighborhood extended from Fairfield on the west eastward to Brookfield. To the north Lake Erie. South of Redwood Blvd and east of Brookfield were woods where youngs boys lived out boyish fantasies of Daniel Boone and World War II. Of course those fantasies included Lake Erie

   We were told to stay away from the lake. It was polluted, That meant bad to my 2nd grade brain. We were never allowed to swim. As we got older our parents couldn't keep us from fishing. But we had to throw everthing we caught back. Perch, Bass, Bluegill, and Crappie had been abundant in the lake in the decades before I was born. But pollution and oxygen depletion had crowded out most of the fish. This was especially true in the near shore areas.The fish that did live were not native and mostly inedible due to heavy metal contamination.
   None of  that didn't mattered to 7,8 and 9 year olds. We went fishing. Me, my brother Don, Pat Roberts, The Anderson Kids across the street, David and Steve Dycus from down the street. We traveled in packs to the lake. Using bread and night crawlers as bait we occasionally pulled in small, unidentified fish, They all looked the same to my 3rd grade brain. We argued amongst ourselves incessantly about what kind of fish we had caught. "look I got a bass!" "that's not a bass, its a crappie". The fish were probably carp and sheepshead. We didn't know and it didn't matter. They went right back in the water anyway. That was during those idyllic summers of youth when everthing is sort of magical.
 In the winter the lake was very beautiful but very dangerous. It froze from the shoreline out as far as we could see. There were mysterious swells and ice formations that we wanted to explore. Even to our 3rd grade brains though, the lake was obviously not safe. The community lost a child not bright enough to stay off the lake every few years. We all knew the stories.
  In the summer and autumn of 1963 my family moved to and came back from Los Angeles. I had visited the Pacific Ocean. I knew what breaking waves were supposed to look like, the waves along our lakeshore were similar but much, much smaller. this became important because a few years later I went back to California by myself to visit my step-dad's parents. While there I learned the manly sport of Body Surfing. I brought it back to Avon Lake and of course had to try it on our little, tiny surf, it sucked, There was not enough power in those waves to move a growing pre-teen more than a few inches. But surfing had become a passion. I wish I could say a lifelong passion but I haven't surfed now in almost 30 years. But this isn't about surfing its about my lake.
  The last time I saw Lake Erie as a child, Ronny, my father had come to pick up Don and I to go fishing. We didn't really know Ronny, he hadn't been part of our lives in a long time. We had a step-dad we called Dad. We even had our surnames changed. I guess Ronny wanted to get some bonding in before we headed back to California early in that Fall of 1968. So we went fishing with him and his brother. We did do some bonding; not enough, but we had no way of knowing that at the time.

 It was a strange sort of fishing that was new to me. Ronny bought these very long rubber bands at the bait shop. He tied one end to the end of our lines and the other end to a good size rock. Then he and my uncle heaved them out into the water as far as they could. The rubber band pulled our lines with it, then we reeled them back in to bait hooks set every few feet and let the bands pull the line out into the water again. We caught some fish this way! Good size fish too. of course Donny and I argued over what we had caught. The adults told us what they really were, blue gill and catfish mostly. I think we each caught 3 or 4. Real fishing, odd fishing, but we got results.Ronny kept them, too!

That was the last time I saw Lake Erie and my father for awhile. A story for another day.

Today, phosphorus loads in Lake Erie are now below the maximum allowed in the GLWQA, and eutrophication has been controlled. Algae and excessive plant growth has been reduced, and native plants are once again growing in sections of the lake. Lake Erie still has many problems -- such as non-native invasive species, contaminated sediments and closure of beaches due to sewage contamination. But, through international cooperation and public advocacy, the lake is no longer considered "dead," and, hopefully, people have a better understanding and concern for the effects of human activity on water quality in the Great Lakes and beyond. - Teach.glin.net