'55 Club House in St. Charles

The Merk Get - Away:
Dad was working such long, hard hours at McDonnell that we decided that we, as a family, needed a quiet Get-Away. So - dad had this very simple two car garage turned into a sort of a club house. At first it was a lot of work, but eventually it was just a quiet, close place to get-away. The Reed's would come with us many times, and Jim came with us many, many weekends.
We also had a boat that was more for speed and water skiing that we kept at the harbor area within walking distance of the house. Mom tried to be ever so brave, but she really was deathly afraid of the water and of course, I swam like a fish and loved every minute of my time on the lake. We had many friends that also had boats and we would actually spend most of the time out on the water - therefore, Dad just kept trading up with the boats until we finally sold the cabin and just had an old, ugly boat that would sleep six. Mom, however, felt much safer and enjoyed our outings more.