I have a nostalgic vein that I guess is pretty common. I thought it was just me, but I hear country song lyrics like, “I can’t wait to show you where I grew up…”, “I want to introduce you to my kin-folks, where I grew up”, “I Go Back” by Kenny Chesney, “The House that Built Me” by Miranda Lambert, and others. Wanting to go back home isn’t unusual. What often happens when we do, however, is we discover how much everything has changed. Life has gone on without us.
I get teased about driving friends and family by the house where I lived when I was in high school. The house looks the same but nothing else does. I’ve driven through the neighborhood where I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan many times. The shape of our house on Wellesley Drive is the same. Nothing else is. The houses look smaller and crowded together. The trees that were not much more than sticks when I was little now hang over the houses like huge green hands.
I recently followed the pull of the past and took a drive to Houghton Lake and Cadillac, Michigan. When I was very young, our family vacationed at a small resort in Cadillac called “Wally’s Cabins”. It was in the early 1960s and three or four-cabin resorts were common along Lake Mitchell and Houghton Lake. The photo on the left is what used to be Wally’s Cabins.
My parents had friends with a cottage just down the road from Wally’s. Their main cottage was right on the lake but they were building an A-frame house near the main road. The photo in the middle leads to the cottage by the lake, the A-frame is on the right. In those days there was just a two-lane car path and a swamp on the left where we hunted frogs and snakes.
In 1983 we were introduced to DeClerk’s Resort at Houghton Lake. It was like reliving Wally’s Cabins from my childhood and I loved it! Just like at Wally’s, each cabin included a rowboat and motor. It couldn’t have been better!
In 1983 we were considering having another baby. Our daughter was six and we were reaching the point of “now or never”. Cabin #2 at DeClerk’s Resort proved to be the perfect place for our family to grow. In February of 1984, we had triplet boys. When we returned to DeClerk’s the next summer, Kitty told everyone our triplets had been conceived in cabin #2. I don’t know if there was a rush to rent that cabin or not, but it made a good story.
I talked my precious wife into going back to Houghton Lake when the boys were just five months old. They were still on apnea monitors. They all slept together on a foam mattress in cabin #2, connected to their monitors. It was terribly difficult.
Our daughter loved fishing. I don’t remember her volunteering for cleaning but she was always excited to catch them.
The last time we were at DeClerk’s Resort was 1997. The boys were 13. Our daughter was married the following summer and now has three boys of her own. I wish I could have them little, all together one more time.
On my recent road-trip to the past, I was saddened to see how drastically the area had changed. Life has moved on.
The first time we went to Houghton Lake, I was thirty years old. That was thirty-seven years ago. Seeing what has happened to Funland was the most challenging part of the day. In my mind, I could still see our children and grandchildren on the rides.
Life goes on. Sometimes painfully. Looking back can be painful too, yet we all do it. It’s one thing to think about it, it’s another to actually visit and see just how much has changed.
A Coffee State of Mind 
Hello Dale and family!
I happened to run across your article this morning and what a pleasant surprise!! Thank you for all the kind words about DeClerk’s Resort! Kitty & Les are my grandparents. I recall the story about the conception!! Cabin 2 was amoung the favorite and most popular cabin! I am moved by all the pictures you have from the resort! I have a handful of pictures from those days and I’m forever thankful and grateful you posted these.
I don’t know if you recall me personally, but our family spent a lot of time there. I helped grandma & grandpa out with cleaning cabins, mowing the lawn, raking the beach and of course, skiing, boat riding, paddle boating and fishing. I am the oldest of 4 siblings, Myself, Denise, my brother, Bob and my 2 younger sisters spent a lot of time there as well, Teresa and Christine. My parents owned, Diane’s Restaurant.
The DeClerks’s owned the Resort from May 1976- Feb.1998. Grandma Kitty died in 1992. Grandpa kept the resort but couldn’t handle it and had a hard time with grandma having past that it went downhill. We finally convinced him to sell in 1998. We were all happy to see that the new owners were re-modeling and fixing up the place. We were afraid that someone would come in and tear it down. Grandpa Les passed away in 2003 at age 85.
I do remember the picture of you and the triplets taken in the swing. I’m so glad that you have fond memories to cherish. Les & Kitty had so many repeated customers every year and they enjoyed entertaining and making friends with the customers. They would be just tickled by this article! Thank You!!
Denise (Priebe) Edick
Les & Kitty’s granddaughter
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Hello Denise,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write, and for your kind words. As I told your sister, Teresa, you both have made my day. What fun it must have been to spend so much time at the resort with your grandparents. They were wonderful folks, and we always loved being with them.
When we returned to the resort in 1984 when our boys were tiny infants, your grandma warned all the other tenants that I was a preacher and they better watch their language! I laughed when she told me. We always had such a great time with everyone.
One fun thing we did every year was rent a pontoon from the marina for a day. We took lunches and our fishing gear and spent the day cruising, fishing, and swimming. Our first year at the resort, 1983, just our daughter and my younger brother were with us. We rented a pontoon and stopped out in the middle of the lake to swim. When I tried to crank the motor, the starter rope came out in my hand. Somebody from the marina saw us and came out on a jet ski to help us get going again.
We always fished every day, and actually did catch some nice walleye, but mostly tiny perch. I remember using the little cleaning shed your grandpa had. I put my trophy fish head on the nail with all the other prizes. Your grandpa always gave us the same boat with the red and silver Johnson 25 hp motor on it.
What wonderful memories. Last summer, our daughter and one of her boys, and our son and his family, and Mary and I drove to Houghton Lake to rent a pontoon for a day of fishing and swimming. We had a great time. I tried to find the resort on the water, I was sure I could locate it. As it turned out, I wasn’t sure. It appears the cabins have been sold as there is no sign for a resort on the road.
Anyway, thank you again for your kind note. DeClerk’s on Houghton Lake will always be very special in our memories as an amazing place where we watched our kids grow up. Our triplet sons will be 40 in February. We now have eight grandchildren. If it was possible, I would take all of them back to DeClerk’s Resort for a week.
Best wishes to you and yours,
Dale & Mary Parsons
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Dale, it’s so funny how I’m recalling these memories that you are writing. I couldn’t have pulled them up on my own but it’s funny how our memories are triggered. I really enjoy your blog writings and your writing style! I’ve read a few entries and have enjoyed so far, the moving and the now I’m 70! Great fun!
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thomas wroblewski, stayed at swicks resort west shore dr. 1959-1972, sold to previous renters, sub-divd lots,$65-70 per week.rent cottage. we cut grass and painted cottages to pay for rent,we had the life, horse back ridding wallay halday riding stables, as teens Music Box dance hall
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That sounds like a blast. What great memories!
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Hello Dale,
I’m one of Les & Kitty’s granddaughters. I just want to thank you for writing this article. You have no idea of how those memories warmed my heart. The pictures all have itty bitty reminders of a place & a time that I will cherish forever. I too hurt a bit each time I drive by Funland. It was once such a great spot in our little town. I lived for the times Grandma Kitty would give me a few quarters & helped me cross the street after I begged all day!
We may not live forever but fortunately legacies do. Each time I’ve meant a “customer” that stayed at the cabins over the years it was more like meeting a distance relative. Would you believe I actually made a dear friend in Florida that we later found vacation there throughout his childhood?!
Again, thank you. This story was like a warm cup of tea on this chilly winter evening.
With Gratitude,
Teresa (Priebe) Renkiewicz
Another one of Les & Kitty’s granddaughters 😁
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Hello Teresa,
Thank you so much for your kind note. You and your sister, Denise, have made my day! We loved your grandparents, it was always so much fun to stay at the resort, and I hated leaving at the end of the week. I remember in 1986, I believe, when our boys were two years old, your grandpa took me water skiing behind the blue boat.
One year we took our golden retriever, Cody, with us, and he loved chasing the ducks in the water. It was like a game to them, they would let him get close and then fly back over his head. We have a family video we called, “Cody Goes to Houghton Lake” that we watch once in a while when all the kids are home. Such fun.
Thank you, once again, for taking the time to send a note, I appreciate it so much. It’s nice to connect with someone who has such a strong and meaningful memory of a wonderful place.
Best wishes to you and yours,
Dale & Mary Parsons
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These pictures bring back so many memories of my childhood at Houghton Lake in these cabins. I vacationed there every summer back in the late 70’s early 80’s for many years with my best friends family the Clarks. I to have always wondered what the cabins look like now. Thank you for sharing these nostalgic photos! We friend and I would also go to Funland. I also remember like some sort of Indian place AND this store that could walk to where we would buy hard candy sticks. They were in glass jars and they had all different flavors. I would love to know if that store is still there. My husband recently went to Canada fishing and passed right by Houghton Lake on the way home. I was jealous!! We now live in South Carolina, but I will never forget my childhood memories in those cabins on the lake. Thank you for letting me relive my childhood through your family photos. They truly were the BEST SUMMERS EVER!!!❤️
Amy Dominguez/ With Fred and Anne Clark, and my best childhood friend Jennifer
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Hello Amy,
I was delighted to receive your note and the reminder of all the fun times at DeClerk’s in Houghton Lake. I still love going to the lake, in fact, last fall we drove all the way there to go to Walmart because it was the only store that had the outdoor rocking chairs we wanted. I’ll use any excuse to drive up north!
You might enjoy reading the comment from Denise, Les and Kitty DeClerk’s granddaughter. What great fun it must have been to be around there all the time, not just for a week in the summer.
We camped at South Higgins Lake State Park for several years when our kids were older, but we always drove down to Houghton Lake just to look around and go to the shops. Our boys loved going to that same store you mentioned. Many of the shops are different now, but I think that one is still open.
During one of our weeks at DeClerk’s, there were two other families with children, and one of the girls was the same age as our daughter and they played together all week. I don’t remember any names, except “Snooky” the dog. It would be a crazy coincidence if our families were there at the same time.
My, how the years have flown. Our daughter is an art teacher, they have three children. One son is a philosophy professor in Chicago, they also have three children. Another son is a worship leader at a big church in Nashville, they have two. The third son and his wife live in Australia.
Thank you again for your kind note. South Carolina is wonderful, we’ve been there several times.
Best to you and yours,
Dale and Mary Parsons
PS: It appears the resort has been sold and the cabins are now individually owned. It all looks very different now.
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