Recollections of Susan Pruyn King (October 9, 2012) As communicated to Charlotte Barrett via email   Hi Charlotte, It was so good to learn from Steven that you are doing this project and to hear from you. Of course I'll help in any way that I can.   Oh boy....here we go... I will now have to tear the house apart, which I have been putting off!  I have a few photos from the time that my brother and I were at Santanoni. They actually show us at several ages, which would be nice for "progression".  Also...some good ones on the steps (the Official Pruyn Photo Site) which show us with my parents (Dad, in his 70's...which might be an interesting progression from his younger years there.)  The frightening part is that I had found them about a year or so ago, pulled out one and then evidently stored them somewhere so "safe" that I haven't been able to find them with a brief scouring!   (In all fairness...the basement which holds the trunks of family photos has become overcrowded because our daughter, the "boomerang baby", and all or her things, has been living here.) I will more carefully go through your manuscript as soon as I can...probably I can start tomorrow.  As far as the pump goes..It's always been my belief that the water which came from the spring at the foot of Santanoni MT was our drinking water and that household water was pumped directly from the lake.  Is it possible that both sets of pipes came through the same pump house, with two different pipe lines?   Now, here's one of the places where Howie and I  (and "Sis" Beatrice Thiabault) disagree.  The log building closest to the kitchen (across from where the generator and now toilets ) was an ice house   all of the time that I was there. There was still some ice in it which my brother and I would sit on on very hot days. We thought that we'd discovered air conditioning!  As I remember it, the logs were not pealed.  I think that Howie continues to say that it was the ash house. There was another similar building behind the ice house. For some reason, we never went in there. Perhaps that was the ash house. Howie et al also present the reason that my great grandfather went to Japan was financial. When you read some of the Pruyn papers at the Institute, especially RHP's, you'll see that I believe that he went because he was a friend of Secretary Stewart, who talked him into it, primarily through appealing to his patriotism and desire for peace with the Japanese. (Townsend Harris had just left and Japan's mood toward foreigners was "testy" at best. The British especially were treating them as "lesser" people.) After my grandmother died, my Dad continued to be at Santanoni at every opportunity.  My Uncle Fritz would have liked to have been there more....however, "Life" didn't always allow it. His wife came from family on the Thousand Islands and, Sis told me, that they spent a lot of her life there. When they did come, they would stay at the Gate House. As I was growing up, my cousins Fritzie and Lannie would come to the Gate House. My brother and I idolized Fritzie. He was just enough older to be driving and gadding about. We were in awe when they would take off to go to movies or "party" in Long Lake. Before Lance and I were in school, we four would take off to Santanoni as soon as the road was passable. (Funny how I have no memory of blackflies!)  After we were school-aged, we would go to Camp as soon as school was out. There were a few times that we would go during weekends in the off-season. I have wonderful memories of Santanoni in the Fall. I can still smell the leaves!   In the winter Art Tummins would cut us three Balsams, wrap them in burlap and go to North Creek to ship them to us in CT.  Lance and I had our own  Christmas trees, smaller than our parent's. One year a dormant wasp had hitched a ride. I knelt on it while decorating my tree and spent Christmas and my birthday the next day having hallucinations. Hence, we discovered that I was allergic to wasp stings! While Dad was alive, he taught us as much as he could about the woods (Grandfather's "wilderness"). Most of all, he tried to instill common sense ....to always think first before any action there, to never, never underestimate Nature, to respect that Nature knows a great deal more than Man will ever know. He would say (and I've learned that Uncle Fritz would say the same to Sis and her brothers) that the person who gets lost in the woods is the one who says that he can't. Having given us this basis, he allowed us a great deal of freedom. We were quite young when were able to go to the beach ourselves...and eventually beyond the beach as far as the brook), to walk as far as the bridge (over Duck Hole inlet)...and eventually to the carriage barn on the other side. We would pull two carriages back to the porch at the Camp (quite a feat for two small children!). I would put toy horses between the shafts. Then we would make terrariums with moss and ferns and salamanders  ("exotic animals") and put them in the seats. Then we would call our parents and their guests and give them a tour of our exotic circus. My mother and I would make "forest gardens" with moss, etc on the Flo-blue platters and place them in the center of the dining room table. Lance and I would take the bear rug from in front of the main fireplace and take turns crawling under it and romping around the yard. This was terribly concerning to our Corgi, Taren, who would bark and dash around trying to save us. The fireplace was our evening Center. The best popcorn in the world was made with the continuous shaking over the fire. We would fish for sunfish off "sunfish rocks", a little point between the boat house and the walkway from the Camp-front to the lake.  When I was bored with fishing, I would move rocks to make a drier path to the rocks where Lance fished. (Oh! I hope that I can find those old photos!) Art Tummins built us a flat-bottomed boat that we could take out. It was pumpkin orange and called the LanSue. As soon as Dad "passed" us on boat safety and canoeing, we were allowed to take out the Indian Girl canoe. It wasn't too long before Lance could take out the cedar Rushton canoe.  I would go out with Betty, a young woman from Newcomb, in a guideboat and fish. We would tell fairy tales and stories. It was during Little Red Riding Hood that I caught my Lake Trout. I could still go to the exact spot where I caught it! Dad had told us that if we ever came across a Black Bear to freeze, never run.  His exact words were "Make like a tree". And, if possible, to duck behind a tree. He told us that their eyesight isn't great. On one of my wildflower-picking trips to the bridge, a Black Bear was on the side, just into the woods and she had cubs. I did what Dad had told me. The funny thing is that I couldn't have moved if I'd wanted to!  When a cub moved in my direction, I believe that I also couldn't breath. But, off they went. I went back to Camp. No wildflowers that day!  But I did learn that day that everything Dad had told us about the wilderness was to be remembered. (I honestly can't remember if he was still alive by then.) My mother, Lance and I continued to go to Santanoni for as long as we could. She loved it as much as any of the Pruyns. Alas (to use an oldie term), the estate was in trust with the bank. Although it was being tenderly lumbered and a few other things were done to pay for upkeep, the bank decided to sell it. Our little family was using it the most, with Morgie and Fritzie going when they could. Morgie and Fritzie and a few others actually tried to raise enough to buy it, but the Melvins won out. It was such a heartbreak for us. Mum was able to get the cedar canoe and a very few things before it passed hands, but that was all. The saddest for Mum was the loss of Queen Anne, the guideboat that Gran had given her as a wedding gift.  The happy ending to that is that, with an arrangement with the Nature Conservancy, I now have Queen Anne. Well, I've rattled on and on!  I promise that I will carefully go through your manuscript as soon as possible and DIG for the missing photos. They've GOT to be here "somewhere safe" !!!!  I am  sorry to have rambled. Most of the very best of me comes from Santanoni, the memories and what I learned there. It's difficult to stop when I get going! Ask whatever you want. I'm happy to help.   All my best to you, Susan