The Eating House

by Daphne Mowatt

As a child, I used to go to the Dodges for supper in the "Eating House." Their "camp" was comprised of several separate buildings - main house, studio, eating house, guest house, woodshed, ice house and privy. (Father called it the house of seven stables.)

There were French doors toward the lake and casement windows on two sides. The back wall held the wood stove and a tiny ice box. A round "chair table" was set for dining with blue willow china and bone-handled flatware. Under one window was a huge picnic hamper, elegantly outfitted by Hammacher Schlemmer. Watercolors of fish caught by the family decorated the walls above the windows as well as bits of Quimper pottery.

Hannah Dodge (who posed as a young woman for Charles Dana Gibson) cooked with as many native ingredients as possible - so we would have trout, corn bread, omelettes with Glenn Smith store cheese, blueberry desserts with the Nichols' rich cream and fresh eggs.

After dinner, John did the dishes on a shelf outside, using lake water heated on the stove. Their friend would play his banjo and sing while we watched the sunset. It was a time of simplicity, enjoyment of nature, and friendship that seems very long past.