As a boy, I envied friends who so casually could comment, "We're going to the cabin." I remember wishing my family had such a place. Heck, I wished I had a good friend who would invite me to their place sometime. Time passed. I got married. We had a couple of kids. An older couple, Homer and Ginny Plets, sometimes cared for our son and daughter while we worked and they sometimes would bring them to their cabin on Lake Elora, near Cotton, Minn. One summer day, Homer approached me and said, "We don't use the cabin much anymore, and your kids love it out there. Why don't you buy it?" He offered the spot for a very reasonable price and I took him up on his offer.

Often in life, dreams turn out to be better than the real thing. However, in this case, owning this cabin and enjoying the lake with my wife and our three children has meant more than I could have imagined. And, it still does.

Larry Schneiderman, Lakeville