Welcome to Season 20
Opening weekend 2011 marks the 20th season opener since the Gaudry Family has been back in the resort business.
I still remember my first opening weekend in 1992. Being a Dock Boy was my first ever real job. We'd spent summer vacations staying with family in the area and fishing the lake as I grew up, but I didn't spend much time specifically around the resort itself other than driving through to get to Grandpa's cabin on the point. I didn't really know anything about anything back then and it's been an amazing learning experience for me to be apart of this business.
My first opener was a rainy one as well. One of my first duties was cleaning and prepping a rental boat for a couple of guys from St Louis to rent so they could go camping out on the lake. I remember thinking camping out in a tent on a weekend with steady rain didn't sound like too much fun to me.
I spent all the money I made my first summer working on a Sony stereo receiver, 5 disc CD changer, dual cassete deck, a pair of Energy speakers and some CDs. Hard to imagine that stuff being so expensive then and gas being super expensive now.
The price on the pumps, if i remember right, was 63 cents per litre for regular gas (87 octane) and 69.9 cents per litre for gas/oil pre-mixed to a 50:1 ratio.
I still don't know much about much, but at least now I'm at the stage where I can often help our guests out. Whenever I'm asked to check something out that isn't working the way it should, I always offer the motto of my personal repair service: "I can probably fix it for you if it's not really broken." That seems to be about how it works around here and many times that has been just what the doctor ordered. HAHA.
I may post a memory or two here with stories of things that stand out and there throughout the season to keep the thread current, but would really enjoy hearing/seeing some of ours guests memories from the past 19 seasons or questions about people/staff you may rememeber from your time here. We'll see if we can proivide an update for you.
Good luck in 2011, where ever your time on the water takes you. We'll look forward to seeing so many of you at the resort and/or at the dock this year.
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