Weekends in the Snow at Loch Leven

One of our favorite weekends each year was the one in January that we would spend at Loch Leven.

By Dave

Jun 12, 2021

My parents were members of a large social group at First Friends Church called Quaker Couples. This group had a Sunday School class together, and they also did a lot of social outings together. Each January, the group would rent a weekend at a place called Loch Leven. It was a big lodge up in the mountains east of Redlands, California. (It’s still there, by the way, and still in use as a Christian camp and retreat center – check it out at lochleven.org.)

Our family went to Loch Leven every year with other Quaker Couples families during the early 1960s. We kids loved it. The main room in the lodge had a huge stone fireplace that was probably 30 ft. high. The room was open to the rafters, I think for three stories, and it felt huge. Hanging from the ceiling by the fireplace was a large stuffed mountain lion, poised to pounce (but it never did). Outside the doors was a porch with chairs so you could sit outside if you wanted to. Somebody always brought a crate of fresh apples from Redlands (Redlands was famous for crisp mountain apples) and set it on the porch so you could grab one whenever.

On the second floor was a balcony that had doors leading into the sleeping areas, which were filled with bunk beds. Downstairs, off the main room and under the bed rooms, was a large dining area and kitchen.

During the day on Saturday we’d all pile into cars and drive to wherever there was snow, so we could play in it. This was usually the only time all year that we got to experience snow. We had a lot of fun sliding down hills on our toboggins, sleds, and inner tubes.

On Friday and Saturday nights there were group activities planned – at least for us kids. And usually a snack before bed. It was really a lot of fun being with all of the other kids and playing in the snow.

Al Bates, one of the men from Quaker Couples, tells a bedtime story to the kids gathered around in front of the stone fireplace. Sue is in this picture, looking up at the storyteller with her mouth open; my cousin Daryl Votaw is sitting next to his mother (Shirley) on the leather sofa.

I’m in this picture, wearing a bright red robe and apparently sitting on another kid’s back. The girl on the left is my cousin Susan Walker, the daughter of Dad’s cousin Marilyn Votaw Walker.

There is some sort of kids’ game going on in this picture. The only one I recognize is my cousin Daryl Votaw who is standing in the middle, clapping his hands.

This is a photo of Sue riding on Dad’s back on a sled during our snow play time on Saturday.

The bedtime cupcake was a highly-anticipated treat at Loch Leven. All of us kids are waiting at the tables, and the moms are standing in the doorway to the kitchen so that they can be thanked. I’m in the lower left of this photo, in my red robe. Sue is at the next table, right in front of me, next to Peggy at the same table. Our mom is in the center of the ladies from the kitchen. Looks like she was in charge.

Another photo from the same occasion, showing Peggy and Sue at their table.

This photo, copied from lochleven.org, shows the huge stone fireplace and the height of the room up to the rafters. Alas, the mountain lion is gone. I remember that the room up on the balcony behind the fireplace was usually filled by a group of people playing pinochle (a game I could never understand). I also remember that one time a group of us were up there behind the fireplace, singing folk songs – that was probably when our high school group went to Loch Leven for a retreat later on in the ’60s.

Accident on the Ice

Loch Leven was the setting for one of the more traumatic events of my childhood. It happened in January 1963, during the Saturday snow play outing. 

We had driven over to a frozen lake to play on it. Most of us kids had never seen a frozen lake – it was pretty amazing. Of course most of us didn’t have ice skates. I had a pair of red snow boots made of rubber or plastic. I went out on the ice to slide around.

I have no memory of what happened next, but I woke up in the hospital, whether later that day or the next I’m not sure. My parents told me that my feet had slipped out from under me and I’d fallen backwards, hitting my head on the ice (which was pretty hard). As a result, I was knocked unconscious. 

They saw me out there on the ice, lying on my back, not getting up and not responding, so they went out and picked me up to take me to the nearest medical facility – the hospital in Redlands. Don Votaw had a station wagon or something like that so they could stretch me out in the back while he got us down the mountain as fast as he could. They tell me that I kept throwing up all over the back of Don’s car.

I was out cold, I have no memory of this. It must have been pretty scary for my parents. I woke up in the hospital and learned that I had a pretty serious concussion. Eventually they transferred me to the hospital in Whittier, and I missed a week or two of school while in recovery.

My fifth-grade teacher used the occasion as an opportunity for a writing assignment. One day I got a thick stack of letters from all of the kids in my class. They all said “get well soon.” It was a little strange, because I don’t remember knowing any of those kids very well.

Related Posts

David in grades 3-6

David in grades 3-6

Pictures and stories from David’s later years in elementary school. David is the writer of this page, so I’m going to use “I” and “me” instead of “David” below.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *