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Atton's Lake - Beautiful Memories
Lorna Sayers

How excited was an eleven year oldgirl when Dad purchases Pook's Electrical building in 1958 for a cabin at Atton's Lake! Dad and Mom worked side by side turning it into 'the cottage' and always hung the hammer up at the end of June to enjoy it. Since then the Levere cottage has been the hub of many beautiful memories with family and friends.

One of my first memories is Stan and Claire Phillips joining us for Sunday Supper. The potato salad and homemade lemonade my Grandma made was stored in an icebox dug into the ground under the deck.

After school on Fridays, my best friend Gail Brackenbury and I would check to see which set of parents was going to leave for the lake first. We would jump into that car and giggle as we traveled over the hilly, gravel road to Attons. Passing by the Community Pasture headquarters, before I knew the Norman Sayers family, Dad remembers me saying, 'Someday I'd like to live there where they have all those horses." Twelve years later that is exactly what happened when I married the manager, Ken Sayers.

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Canadian Red Cross Beginner Swimming Report and Button
July 26, 1957
Main Beach, Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Credits:
Sayers, Lorna

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My sister, Marj, and I were water babies and spent many hours in the lake. She had beautiful blonde hair which turned platinum in the sun. Her tan resembled the child in the Coppertone Sun Tan Lotion ad where the puppy was pulling her bathing suit to reveal the suntan line. We were enrolled in swimming lessons and often got Dad to drive our little green boat with the 7 ½ horsepower motor as we swam the lake. At sixteen I began to teach the swim lessons and either taught or organized them for thirty years.

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Swimmers Pass Test
1963
Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Credits:
Highway 40 Courier

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Swimming Lessons Ad
June 8, 1967
Main Beach, Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Credits:
Gibson, Lorie
Highway 40 Courier

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Life Saving Group
1981
Main Beach, Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Credits:
Sayers, Lorna

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My first Perch fish was caught from Leonard Forests' wooden boat. Dad and I would roll up the silver paper from Mom's cigarette packages to 'bait' our hook. Many a fish fry was enjoyed at the Cottage. Ken remembers traveling from Bresaylor to fish. They would cut a willow branch, tie on a string and bait it with a grasshopper. Standing in the water at the Point, supper was caught. The Perch have returned in numbers these last few years. Our grandchildren catch them from the raft floating in front of our cabin.

Doc Scratch introduced me to my passion, water skiing. As soon as the ice was off the lake in May he would stop for me. Mom would protest that we'd catch cold but Doc would retort, 'Cold doesn't breed cold.' However, it was a relief when we graduated to one ski and could jump start instead of getting completely wet to start on two skis. We loved to jump the wake to slalom. The Doc would gesture how high we jumped and how close we leaned to the water. Jim Wettlaufer broke the record and his ear drum doing this. The Doc was the first to master the trick skis turning circles as the boat sped ahead. We often took part in the Regatta doing the skiers' salute in pairs as we swooped by main beach. Almost fifty years later we still enjoy water skiing behind our orange boat.

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Atton's Lake
Circa 1980
Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Credits:
Sayers, Lorna

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In 1978 Ken and I built our dream cabin on the west side. Ken remembers rounding cattle up in that spot when it was Community Pasture. When the children were in school we spent Christmas there, clearing the ice to skate and skidooing through the pasture. We were amazed to see the water bugs swimming through the crystal clear ice. We continue to 'camp' in the summer making beautiful memories with family and friends at Atton's Lake.

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Rainbow Over the Lake
Circa 1989
Atton's Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada; West of Main Beach

Credits:
Sayers, Lorna