The Post-Standard News
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Post-Standard,
The (Syracuse, NY) July 4, 2002 DICK CASE NEIGHBORHOODS I'm sitting on the porch
of a summer cottage, eight miles south of Skaneateles on the lake and
talking about respect for the past and reconnecting for the future.
We're drinking iced tea with mint leaves, rocking in Mottville
chairs, waiting for a breeze off the water, listening to the kids
splashing in the lake, catching up on the news. It's 100 years this summer since their ancestors - Una and John
Pennock, Jessie and Henry Cooper and Mary and William Cooper - started
spending their summers out of Syracuse on a point of land called
"Pine Grove." It used to be a stopover for steamboats framed
by sheep pastures.
Pennock-Coopers still summer on Skaneateles after all these years, in
the same landmark homes of pine boards that are as basic and comfortable
as old loafers. The clan crest is a wet bathing suit on the clothesline
on a field of brilliant, blue water.
"Nothing much has changed," Mary Ten Eyck is saying.
"There are just more of us now. We've kept it together in an
incredible way."
That's for sure.
My companions on one of those wonderful camp porches are "Pine
Cones," as they call themselves, or more to the point, "The
Cousins," six of the more than 170 Pennock-Cooper descendants on
the books.
Mary Ten Eyck, Betty Cochran, Morgan "Scoop" Cooper and his
brother, Randy, and Stan Holt are of the third generation of this
remarkable summer colony. Ginger Kenney's fourth. Cousins now reach into
the fifth generation.
They're here for the centennial celebration that begins today with a
picnic and fireworks and peaks with a family dinner for 175 under a tent
on The Pines tennis court Saturday night.
Ginger, who lives in Connecticut, chairs a centennial planning
committee of cousins that's been working two years. One observation
about the modern Pines cousins: they're well-organized in a laid-back
way.
Years back, family members arrived at the lake, pitched a tent if
needed, put a boat in the water and stretched out under an evergreen
with a good book. The Pines always have been about being comfortable.
"The dress code is sloppy," according to Ginger.
This is not a summer colony with grass lawns like the ones back home
and grandmothers constantly yelling at grandchildren. Still, as the
family added members over the years, vacations at the lake needed to be
structured.
The founders were close kin. The original moms were sisters, the Bagg
girls from Syracuse. Mary and Jessie married the Cooper brothers. John
Pennock and Henry Cooper were managers at Solvay Process.
"Each of the three families had its own house and everybody hung
out together in the beginning," according to Stan Holt, who grew up
in Connecticut but spent his vacations at the lake. "We'd come and
stay all summer."
Stan's mother was a Pennock, one of a summer household of women who'd
see their husbands on weekends, if then, and were nurtured by what his
grandmother, Una "Granny" Pennock, called "strong
stock." Way back, there were maids and full-time sitters to help
with the kids, and a farm family, the Randalls, at the head of the road
to the lake, to look after cutting ice, food from the farm, and keeping
the cottages in shape.
"Granny," the oldest of the sisters and the longest-lived,
was the commanding presence at The Pines for years.
"She managed us all summer, she set the tone," this
admiring grandson explains. "She'd say "do whatever you want'
but she kept an eye on us."
In those simpler times, whole families often spent whole summers at
The Pines. That meant cousins could grow up like siblings. "I
always wanted a sister and I had them with my cousins at the lake,"
Mary Ten Eyck says.
Her cousin Betty Cochran nods agreement.
"My grandchildren didn't have that experience because we'd come
only for a week or two," she explains. "This weekend, there
will be cousins meeting for the first time."
With more people, each of the three cottages set up its own governing
committee. Time shares for cousins who wanted to vacation at the lake
had to be set up, with each chipping in an annual contribution to cover
taxes and upkeep. This arrangement was made legal by formal partnerships
for each family group.
And now, with an eye to the future of The Pines, there is a planning
task force at work at the Pennock house. Cousins have been meeting four
times a year for four years, according to Stan Holt.
This is the largest clan, 121 members. Betty Cochran says the other
two cottages look to the Pennocks to set the tone for passing the torch
generation to generation. Legal partnerships were a start at this, by
her measure.
"The land is secured; it will never be sold beyond the
family," she says.
Ginger Kenney says this weekend's gathering at The Pines is mostly
social, but this first mass meeting of cousins in years is bound to get
the senior generations thinking about past, present and future:
"How did we get here? What do we have to do to keep it going? To
maintain the respect all of us have for this lake, and this place?
"That's why we picked a motto for the celebration: "Respect
for the past. Reconnect for the future."'
Just by way of background, Stan Holt gives me a reprint of a Boston
newspaper article, "A House Divided: As cousins multiply and values
rise, the summer home of childhood memory can turn into a family
nightmare."
"That's not going to happen here," he says.
Mary Ten Eyck says The Pines is this family's "bond that's kept
us together all this time." For Randy Cooper, it's the magnet. For
Betty Cochran, the anchor.
It's blood, and beyond.
Mary has more than a clue to what it means to be part of this
history:
"When the time comes for my grandson to get married, he swears
he'll have no use for any woman who doesn't love The Pines."
Dick Case writes about neighborhoods every Thursday. Reach him at
470-2254, or by e-mail, citynews@syracuse.com. |
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