Sentimental Sunday - Camping at Taughannock

Taughannock Falls State Park abt 1940

Cayuga Lake - New York State

This is a great photo because it ties some of the best times in my parent's lives with my best memories of spending summers at Taughannock Falls State Park. 

This particular memory came about when a friend who grew up in New York City recently talked about how her family vacationed in the Catskills during the summer. Her comments sparked memories of how my paternal grandparents also escaped the city’s oppressive heat, but instead of the Catskills, they went further north. Their son Harold Nunn attended Cornell University, played on Cornell’s football team, and had secured a lifeguard job for himself and his brother, Edward, at nearby Taughannock Falls State Park. He suggested his parents camp in the park’s campgrounds for the summer. So while my grandmother, Mary Doyle Nunn, and her teenage children camped through the summer months, my grandfather made the grueling trip up and down the two lane Route 17 to work his job in the city, returning to his family on the shores of Cayuga Lake whenever he could. 

The park had a bathhouse, and my maternal grandmother, Maude Agard, was the attendant. Her daughter Carol and son Richard would ride their bike – Carol on the handlebars - down the steep hill to the park bringing their mother her lunch. And that is when Carol Agard spotted a handsome lifeguard named Edward Nunn.

Edward Nunn abt 1940

 The first photo is of particular interest as it was a source of anxiety for my mother (pictured center with hand shading her eyes). The perfectly formed acrobat is Genevieve Cosintini, daughter of a well-known Ithaca family, and someone my father (far left with a big smile on this face) seemed to enjoy. Genevieve’s parents are sitting on the grass at the far right. My mother, a farm girl, was very jealous of the city girl, Genevieve, and related she was especially upset the evening the Nunns were invited to the Cosintini’s for dinner. 

Aren’t we fortunate that Dad chose the right gal to be his soul mate. 

Edward Nunn and Carol Agard abt 1940