Moe and Cathy Salm began their lake journey in the early 1960’s, initially renting cabins
including George’s Hideaway and Laurnette Cabins before buying their own lake escape. In 1964, the McAllister’s sold 803-1 AVE to the Salm’s and their friends, the Rogers, for the grand total of $5500. The two original cabins were built in the 1920’s with some upgrades made to each. A couple of years later, the Rogers sold their cabin to the McGregor’s. Since then the lot has been subdivided into 803A-1 AVE & 803B-1 AVE.
The log cabin the Salm's chose had electricity, a wood burning stove, a dumb waiter for cool storage, and an ice box refrigerator. Blocks of ice were delivered weekly in the summer by horse drawn wagons. Water was hauled from a hand pump located close to ‘Dingman’s Dump.’ In the winter, the water fetching journey included toboggans to make hauling the load back a wee bit easier through the snow. Sometimes, the snowdrifts were so high between cabins that an adventurous person would be able to walk from rooftop to rooftop! Later on, snowmobiles were used to fill up at the local firehall. This simplistic way of living at the lake filled the time with many happy memories for the Salm family. They embraced every season spent at Ma-Me-O Beach and if there was a holiday you could bet they would be out at their cabin. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter became synonymous with going to Ma-Me-O.
While winter was fun, summer was when even more adventures were to be had! All six siblings - Harry, Pat, Maurie, Gerry, David and Jane could be found climbing up to the tree fort built by Moe, building sand castles, going to the Tasty Delight for soft ice cream, buying penny candy from Thompson’s General Store, jumping on the trampolines next to the pier, and canoeing to the island to see baby seagulls that had just hatched. Evenings were spent around bonfires and playing ‘kick-the-can’ or ‘ante ante over’ with all the kids on their block. Swimming lessons at the pier in all kinds of weather became a test of their endurance. Moe was an avid sailor and he and some of his kids entered the weekly sailing races at Crystal Springs.
Moe and Cathy were very active in the community and volunteered for the Summer Village of
Ma-Me-O Beach throughout the late 1980’s, and into the early 1990’s. Cathy was always a
welcoming presence at the Sunday Mass for St.Theresa's Parish. Her warm hugs were the
highlight of many churchgoers and visitors to their cabin at Ma-Me-O. The Salm’s brought
happiness and light to all they met and their door was always open for a friend in need, which
happened a fair bit at the lake. Everyone came together to help one another out in those days;
whether that be to install a new deck or patch the roof after a rough lake storm.
In 1996, Moe and Cathy bought two more cabins on one lot on the third row to accommodate
their growing family. In 2007, Maurie and Gerry took over ownership of 803-1 AVE and 803-2 AVE. The Salm legacy continues on through Maurie and Gerry who both have their own cabins and kept the original property to share with the generations to come.
That's all for now folks! Stay tuned for our next post as more stories are collected and submitted.
~History Book Team~
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