When I was little, I didn't have any great grandparents. I had Omi. She lived with my grandma. Omi told wonderful stories, made the best deviled eggs and loved costume jewelry. Even well into her nineties, she was always dressed in perfect skirt and shirt ensembles, nails painted, hair done and accessorized with some costume jewelry. She smelled amazing. I wish I knew what her perfume was now and sometimes I catch a whiff of it on her jewelry that I have. Her real name was Naomi but we fondly called her Aunt Omi or just Omi. I remembered when I realized that not only was she my aunt but my dad's aunt and my grandma's aunt I was stunned; she was really old! Omi didn't have any grandchildren and her children had died, so my cousins and I were the apple of her eye. She died the summer before eighth grade but from my Aunt Omi I inherited an intense fascination with award shows, a to some disgusting love of black olives and Chautauqua, sight of my earliest and fondest memories.
Chautauqua. I spent a few weeks every summer there until I was five. Omi had a cottage on the lake. There was a dock and a deck overlooking the lake. The cottage was small with only two bedrooms. Looking back now - I'm not sure how we all stayed there. I remember swimming off the dock and hating it (yes, the water was too cold and the bottom muddy), visiting Midway Park across the lake to ride the big slide and going into the Chautauqua Institution. My memories of the Chautauqua Institution are limited - visiting the bookstore, playing in the "Holy Lands," and going to Sunday School. I loved visiting Omi there each summer. Those five summers and the few but fond memories I have of them will be treasured for the rest of my life. We only went until I was five because Omi sold the house that summer. She was almost 90! My parents and aunts and uncles couldn't afford to keep it. It broke my heart.
We started going to Lakeside the next summer though. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had Omi's house never got sold and we went spent part of our summer there instead of Lakeside. Aside from the fact that Annie and I probably would have been better sailors since the lake is smaller and calmer, there wouldn't have been the same possibilities that were presented at Lakeside. I would have never been the editor of the Chautauqua Daily (I don't even know if I would have made it on staff). I would have never met the summer sisters or all of the wonderful people that I now consider family.
I took a few days off from work following the half-marathon and we went to Chautauqua. The last time I was there was 2009 I believe (we went skiing at Peak n' Peak for New Year's and went over for a few hours). I wanted to introduce Dennis to Chautauqua. We walked around the Institute, visited the wineries, hiked at the Chautauqua Gorge and looked for rocks at Barcelona. It was a very relaxing trip and it was wonderful to be back. I went to Omi's cottage to take pictures. We had lunch in the park where we used to go pump water. The Chautauqua Bell (I used to think it was called the Taco Bell) is there until season starts.
It's amazing how different your perspective is of certain things as a child and then an adult. The cottage seemed so small. The "Holy Lands" not as awesome. Midway Park more fair than amusement park. I will never feel the same way about Chautauqua that I do about Lakeside but it was an important part of my childhood thanks to my parents and Aunt Omi, it introduced me to the Chautauqua traditions that are very similar at Lakeside and made lasting memories.
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