In a message dated 11/28/2002 2:04:42 AM Mountain Standard Time, NJ-MEMORIES-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > We would meet my father at the Matawan Ra= > ilroad Station around 7:00 p.m. and then travel the two hour trip up to S= > tokes Forest in Sussex County, where we would spend four days in one of t= > he cabins on Lake Ocquitunk. In those days there was no electricity in t= > he cabins, just kerosene lamps for friendly light and a fireplace for che= > erful heat. Sometimes we would enjoy wonderful warm late fall weather an= > d would wander through the woods over the soft leaf covered trails to a f= > avorite fishing spot. One year we had an 8 inch snowfall and sledded dow= > n the Coursen Road hill all morning, tracked animals in the snow and made= > a big igloo. My gosh . . . that's the second time I've heard Stokes Forest mentioned today. The first time was when my hubby was talking about our one-month camping trip from California to the Northeast some eleven years ago. He remembered that we'd stayed in either Stokes or High Point when we arrived in NJ, and he wasn't sure which one. It was Stokes. We camped in one of the campgrounds there -- it might have been Shotwell, but I'm not sure. Then we drove up through Stokes to High Point, enjoying the fall colors all the way. A photo that I took of maples on a country road in between the two parks on that atrip hangs enlarged in our dining room now. My first trip to Stokes Forest was a church youth picnic back around 1952 or thereabouts. We drove out Coursen Road and picked up whatever road went to the picnic grounds there. A bunch of us walked over to Camp Madeleine Mulford (sp?) after lunch and borrowed the lake there for swimming. Interestingly enough, the Girl Scout camp closed down some eight or ten years later, and the lake reverted to the park as Stony Lake. We used to take the kids swimming up there when we lived in Hopatcong. Thanx, Jim, for bringing back some wonderful memories! Incidentally, we had a great Thanksgiving this year. Our son came over, and he and Bill just finished putting up the Christmas lights. We talked with our daugher on the phone for about an hour and a half, too, early this afternoon. She and her hubby live in Idaho, so they couldn't be with us. Maybe some year when her hubby's finished with school and they have more time. Doris (Up2Nutrix@aol.com) "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." -- Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr