Worms and Wacky Cake: Adventures at Claytor Lake, Summer, 1962

By Nancy Healy

In this story for all ages, Nancy Healy takes us to Virginia's Claytor Lake in 1962. Her well-drawn characters and their adventures keep us turning the pages as we laugh and cry and remember the fun of being children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312505469

Book preview

Adventures at Claytor Lake

Summer 1962

Nancy Robertson Healy

Worms and Wacky Cake

Adventures at Claytor Lake

Summer 1962

First edition

Copyright © 2023 Nancy Robertson Healy

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-312-50546-9

Dedication

To my parents,

Frances Lee and Dewey Robertson

with much love.

Thank you for the Fran-Lee

and Claytor Lake.

Chapter 1 – Christmas, 1961, Atlanta

This Christmas is going to be way special! When Lolly announced this to her family, she meant it was going to be special fabulous. She was as wrong as Brussel sprouts in fudge.

It was Christmas! This year, the Kesslers (from the Virginia part of the family) joined the Robertson family in Atlanta.

Meg Robertson had made stockings for herself and her husband, Andy, the first Christmas they were married. The body of the stocking was red wool felt and the top was white velvet. When their first child, Lolly, was born, she got her own stocking. The second child, Zach, got his three years later.

Christmas morning began as it usually did with emptying stockings. Andy removed the stockings from their hooks on the mantel above the fireplace. Each family member had a stocking identified by his or her name, embroidered in a rich dark green floss. The stockings were arranged by age:

Andy (Daddy)    Meg (Mother) Lolly   Zach

Andy’s sister, Nomi, had continued the tradition of handmade stockings for the first Christmas she and Jim were married. Their stockings had red wide wale corduroy for the body and white wool felt for the top. The names on these stockings were also embroidered in a rich dark green floss.

Nomi (Aunt)        Jim (Uncle)

All the stockings were filled with identical treasures of oranges, chocolates, nuts in the shell and soft peppermints. Each family member also found a gift that matched his or her interests.

Meg got new sewing shears. (Since she neither maimed nor mutilated either child for using them to cut paper, Santa made sure she got a quality new pair.) Andy’s gift was a new University of Virginia coffee (or beer) mug to replace the one Lolly dropped and broke last Easter.

Lolly got an appointment card to get her ears pierced. She would turn 13 in April, and she had been begging for pierced ears since she was 10. Zach’s special treasure was a set of professional drawing pencils and several sketch books.

Jim got a new orange and blue Wahoos tee shirt. He and Andy had been roommates at the University of Virginia. Andy liked Jim well enough to set him up with his own sister, Nomi.

After Jim and Nomi fell in love, they got married and moved to Dublin, Virginia, and lived at Claytor Lake. Jim was an engineering major at UVA and then got a job as the manager of operations at Appalachian Electric Power Company’s hydroelectric dam at the lake.

Nomi’s sterling silver charm of a rocking chair was a lovely addition for her charm bracelet. Nomi was a high school librarian in Dublin, Virginia, a job for which she was perfectly suited. After years of answering the random questions of teenagers, she knew a great deal about a wide range of subjects. She could pair the perfect book with its recipient the way a sommelier could pair the perfect wine with Chicken Divan. It was likely that some of the gifts waiting under the tree were books from Nomi.

After the stockings were emptied, the family sat down to the breakfast feast with Meg and Andy taking the parent seats at the ends of the table. Nomi and Jim sat on one side of the table; Zack and Lolly sat on the other. The feast included the favorite holiday foods: fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, biscuits with sausage or cherry honey, oyster stew, cheese grits and ambrosia. (It was the good kind of ambrosia with oranges, pineapple, coconut, and mini marshmallows, but none of the yogurt or mayonnaise some folks included.) For as long as Lolly and Zach could remember, the menu had been the same every Christmas morning.

If you could live somewhere besides Atlanta and live with someone other than your parents, what would your choices be? Nomi’s question was interesting but unusual.

Zach answered quickly. I’d want to live at Claytor Lake with you and Jim.

Me, too! Lolly exclaimed. Of course, it would be more fun with Mother and Daddy there, too, Lolly added, ever the diplomat.

The opening of gifts had its own tradition. The privilege of opening the next gift went from youngest to oldest – Zach, Lolly, Nomi, Mother, Daddy and Jim. This continued until all the gifts were open.

Zach’s first gift was shoes – tennis shoes and baseball spikes for his ever-growing feet!  The shoes were a little large now but would fit by summer.

Lolly’s first gift was a bright blue suede journal. Meg said, I want you to keep track of all your hopes and dreams, your adventures and accomplishments! I also included several mechanical pencils with extra erasers. I know you like things to be correct and neat.

By the end of the gift-opening, everyone had something special. Zach had some new comics and art supplies and a brown leather suitcase. Nomi got a set of sterling silver bracelets and Jim got a fancy rod and Zebco reel to perfect his casting skills. Meg and Andy had airplane tickets and a set of heavy-duty luggage.

Nomi gave Lolly To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jim gave her a fishing pole. She got some lovely yarns from her mom and dad. She also got another piece of her white Silhouette Samsonite luggage. Lolly’s gift from Zach was amazing – a pen and ink drawing of herself at the piano.

Where are you going with your plane tickets? Lolly asked her parents.

I’m glad you brought that up. We have some big news to share, Andy began. There is a terrible cholera epidemic in Makassar, Indonesia. The Director General of the World Health Organization has asked your mother and me to go there and help. Meg’s background in epidemiology will be vital. I’ll be helping to teach the medical folks there to treat the large volume of sick people. We will assist the medical establishment, treat the people, and try to help get the disease under control. We will leave in June and be gone for 3 months.

Lolly was full of excitement! Ah, shoot! I’ll miss our vacation at the lake this summer, but Indonesia will be a real adventure! A whole new world to explore! I can’t wait to be part of a new culture. Gee, I hope I like the food. What language do they speak?

The silence was alarming and seemed interminable.

Well, Meg finally said, the conditions are so dangerous that we can’t bring dependents. We would love for you to be with us but it’s not safe. We will miss you but it’s good to know you’ll enjoy being with Nomi and Jim.

Temper tantrums were not usually an effective strategy for Lolly, but when fear, anger and confusion combined, she lost control. This stinks! I can’t believe you are leaving us! Sure, Nomi and Jim are great, and the lake is fun, but you are my Mother and Daddy! You aren’t supposed to leave me! Zach and I are your kids! We are supposed to be more important than people you don’t even know in some foreign land!

Lolly stomped out of the room in tears and cried for three hours in her room.

Lolly’s prediction turned out to be correct. This Christmas was special, but it wasn’t special fabulous. She was sure it was the worst Christmas anytime, anywhere in the history of Christmases!

Chapter 2 - Lolly and Zach

Laura Elizabeth Robertson was born on April 18, 1949 in Atlanta, Georgia, the first child of Dr. Meg Robertson and Dr. Andy Robertson. Meg worked as an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Andy was an internist and teacher at the Emory University Medical School. They certainly understood how conception occurred, how infants developed and how they were delivered. Yet, when Laura Elizabeth arrived with her head full of dark hair and her loud cry, they were mesmerized. She got a perfect score of 10 on baby’s first test, the Apgar score that checks things like breathing, color, and response to noise. Every movement, every gurgle and every whimper convinced them this was no ordinary child. Nor did the name Laura fit her. She was already a forceful person – she needed a name that reflected and predicted her personality. They called her Lolly and it fit her well.

She ate well and slept just enough to keep her parents happy. Lolly reached most of the childhood milestones well before her peers. She started out strong and never stopped.

Along with this well above average child came some determination and attitude. Many would have called her stubborn. (Okay, many DID call her stubborn!) She was inquisitive and curious, sometimes exploring an object from every angle, tasting and smelling it before propelling it with great force across the room.

By the time she entered preschool, she was quite a conversationalist. She asked questions, loved books, laughed generously and despised naps. Lolly was affectionate and rarely displayed any shyness, even around new people.

When her brother, Zachary Andrew, arrived in the family three years later, she was convinced he had come there just for her enjoyment. Not only did Lolly love Zach, but she also observed him for long periods of time. Before his blond fuzz turned into ringlets, his bald head fascinated her and was a perfect place to plant a kiss.

These two children were blessed with good food, great care and parents who loved them. Their parents also enjoyed them. Well, 93% of the time, for sure.

Zach was no carbon copy of Lolly. He was quieter partly because Lolly told people what he wanted. There was a time when Meg and Andy worried that Zach was slow in his language development. When they took him to have his hearing checked, the doctor smiled and said, Zach is hearing everything just fine. When Zach wants to say something Lolly hasn’t thought of yet, you won’t be able to shut him up. The doctor was right.

Zach learned to walk easily and then ran everywhere. He was skilled at throwing and catching a ball, something Lolly didn’t even bother to try. Preschool teachers were surprised at Zach’s small motor skills. He was skilled with crayons and pencils and his pictures were more recognizable than most of his peers. He enjoyed constructing many of his own playthings from found objects – especially sticks, toilet paper rolls and cottage cheese containers.

These two children grew like healthy tomato plants in a sunny garden and provided nourishment for those around them. With loving parents, two sets of delighted grandparents and a cadre of aunts and uncles, Lolly and Zach had plenty of nice clothes to hand down to their cousins and friends, and a library that surpassed most elementary classrooms. They delighted their teachers and had lots of friends. Their presence made the world better.

Lolly and Zach had the scrapes and bruises that came with being active children. Although it was close to perfect, there were a few scares for Meg and Andy along the way. When she was eight, the doctors found a thyroglossal cyst in Lolly’s neck. It wasn’t ever life threatening but had to be removed surgically. Zach fell from a swing when he was seven and broke his leg. His cast was green, his favorite color.

A few weeks later Zach accidently hit Lolly with his View Master and she sported a black eye for a while. She seemed to enjoy being the only one of her friends that had one. After Zach’s cast came off, life moved back to what everyone called normal.

Both children excelled academically. Lolly loved music and was a voracious reader. Zach was a natural athlete and loved art. So, it seemed fitting that when Dr. Meg Robertson and Dr. Andy Robertson were asked to go to Makassar, Indonesia, to help fight the cholera epidemic, they felt secure leaving their children. Lolly, 12, and Zach, 9, were emotionally equipped to live without their parents. The children loved Aunt Nomi and Uncle Jim and they were familiar with Claytor Lake, so it was natural for them to live there during the summer. Yet, Lolly didn’t recognize how well-equipped she was to survive in this new situation. She was certain that the world would stop spinning when her parents left. She was wrong.

These two children didn’t realize it, but they were about to spend an almost idyllic summer at Claytor Lake.

Chapter 3 - Packing for the Summer

Lolly spent most of the time from January through May fuming about her parents leaving her and practicing being obnoxious. (She has not yet learned this life lesson: Being mean to people rarely gets you what you want.) She didn’t smile much. In fact, she pouted through most of her own thirteenth birthday party.

She was scared on several levels. Her first concern was for herself. She had never even been to a sleep-away camp. Her mother was her best friend and confidant. The idea of being away from her was debilitating. Lolly was also concerned for her parents’ safety. Any place with cholera was dangerous and that worried her. Indonesia was several plane trips away and planes sometimes crash. Crashes are never good for the passengers. Lolly’s fears were real.

She was worried for Zach, too, but most of her concern was for herself.

Lolly’s list of coping skills was short. While she had become an expert at rolling her eyes, it didn’t make anything better. Neither did her skill of raising one eyebrow and staring down her nose at someone who had just said something stupid. It didn’t even help when she put her hands on her hips and muttered, Man, this gives me a rash!

Her list of what to