I first visited Pine Plains when I was just a few days old, but it probably wasn’t until I was a proper toddler that my grandmother, Christine Crouch, started taking me down to Stissing Lake. On late summer afternoons, after she had returned from her library work in Poughkeepsie, we would pack the bare essentials – this most certainly involved books – and head down to the beach. I would stick to the shallows or, when I got old enough, head out to the raft and dive off the sides. But my grandmother would discreetly paddle towards the ropes, then bob under the water and reappear on the other side, making her way to the quiet center of the lake, where she would swim, in happy solitude, for up to an hour.
Like many children, I believed all adults – my grandmother included – thought and acted pretty much the same. Growing up, I learned this was far from the case. It wasn’t just that my grandmother flouted the rules, crossing the ropes to head for the open lake. It was also that, once there, she swam with a peaceful leisure that seemed thoroughly different from the aerobic churn of a lap pool. Her gentle, slow strokes were dreamy and relaxing. I’ve never again seen that kind of buoyant calm, that absolute lack of sputter, in anyone else.
After our swim, we would head home to a house filled with cats, wallpaper, dust bunnies, perfectly sharpened pencils, paperweights, curiosities, Tab cola, aunts, neighbors, newspapers, laughing, and most importantly, books and the cozy corners needed to read them in. That pleasure in reading, that luxury of time to truly become immersed in words on the page, is another thing I now know was far from usual, and hard to recreate.
For me, Pine Plains is the place that is synonymous with my grandmother and her magical, deceptively simple rules for how — and where — to spend the perfect day.
— Daisy Sindelar is the managing editor for the New Pine Plains Herald.
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As we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the town we all call home, the New Pine Plains Herald wants to hear from you!
Maybe you have a family story that stretches back through generations. Maybe you remember a favorite walk, friendship or pet. It could be the winning run in a baseball game, the birth of a calf or the crunch of autumn leaves. There’s simply no limit to what Pine Plains represents to each of the people who live here.
Throughout the Bicentennial year, the Herald will be publishing your stories, creating a portrait of the town through your memories and images. If you’ve got a story you’d like to share, please send 200 to 500 words and a single photograph to mypineplains@newpineplainsherald.com.
Please include your name, brief biographical details and contact information so we can reach you with any questions or edits.
We look forward to hearing from you!