TIMOTHY MICHAEL ROSE

The summer of 2002 was horrific. Business was great and we were 95% - 100% full every night but I had major problems with the staff that year. There was so much damage done to the staff house that summer I think I stopped keeping track at one point. Every single morning I got out of bed and actually dreaded going into the office, it was that bad. Thankfully I haven’t had a summer like that since.

Friday, August 9th, 2002 is a day that forever changed me and everybody that worked at Cleves that year. I was on my way home at about 5:30 pm and I ran into the Corner Store to grab something. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky. As I walked up to the register to pay for my stuff I saw the 2 trucks from the Minett Fire Department go screaming through the stop sign and head towards Port Carling. I got in my car to head home not knowing that in about 15 seconds my life would be changed forever. When I came around the corner by the ‘Welcome to Minett’ sign, I saw what I can only describe as something that one usually only sees in the movies. There were 2 fire trucks, 3 ambulances, 3 OPP cars and every member of the Minett Volunteer Fire Department about 200 feet in front of me. I got out of my car and walked closer to find out what was going on when I saw 3 of my staff standing on the side of the road. I asked what happened and all I heard was ‘Tim’s really bad.....’. I distinctly remember not hearing another word and I took off running full speed towards the accident and down into the ditch.

Tim Rose a Dining Room Server that summer was riding in a Jeep on a beautiful day heading home to see his family in Waterloo for the weekend. He was with his girlfriend and best friend. When they left Cleves his seatbelt was stuck and he told them to leave and he would get it untangled. Less than 2 minutes later another car coming towards them was driving on their side of the road, the Jeep had to swerve to miss it and they ended up going off the road and down a steep and deep ditch. Tim was thrown from the Jeep. I knew every police officer, fireman and paramedic there that day and they asked for my help to try and get the 2 girls calmed down because they were both very close to going into shock. It is an absolute miracle that neither girl was injured in any way.

When I climbed out of the ditch I was met by one of the OPP officers. We didn’t say it out loud but we both knew that Tim hadn’t survived. The girls obviously didn’t know that and neither did any of the other staff who were there. It was very important that his death not be made known until his family had been notified. He asked me what I needed as he helped me out of the ditch and all I could say was ‘grief counselors at the hotel as soon as possible’. I did my best to try and calm the girls down and they begged me to ride in the ambulance with them but there wasn’t room so I promised to follow close behind.

The next 2 hours were maybe the longest of my life. The girls had been admitted for observation and I was going from room to room to try and comfort them. A physician who was staying at Cleves helped with Tim at the scene and went in the ambulance with him to do what he could. He and I spent our time in the ER just standing with each other, with our heads down holding each other’s hands most of the time. The girls asked me every 10 minutes to go and see how Tim was and to get some sort of update on his condition. Each time I left them I just walked around the corner and did my best just to keep it together. After a few minutes I would come back and tell them they were still working on him. Eventually the ER doctor called me out into the hall and told me they had notified Tim’s parents and that I could now tell the girls he didn’t survive the accident. I distinctly remember telling him as the attending physician it was his job to tell them that. I knew those two amazing girls would resent me for their entire lives if I told them the worst thing they would likely ever hear. Tim’s girlfriend’s parents arrived about 30 seconds later. I went outside, where about 20 Cleves staff had gathered in the parking lot and the doctor took the girls and the parents into the conference room and told them. If I live to be 100 I will never forget hearing the girl’s reaction to the devastating news.

When I got back to Cleves I allowed myself to come totally unglued for a while and collapsed into my Mom’s arms in my office. I remember thinking over and over on the way home from the hospital that there was just too much responsibility involved with dealing with a bunch of kids every summer and for a brief moment decided it was a responsibility that I was unwilling to accept anymore. With the help of a friend, I wrote a letter that was placed on every dining room table at breakfast the next day because our Guests needed to know why every single member of the staff would be hysterical. I had a few Guests come into the office the next day and tell me they would do anything we needed them to do from washing dishes to bar tending, to help us get through it all. We had about 500 guests in the hotel that week and it broke my heart to tell the staff they couldn’t go to the funeral. I had already decided we would have our own Memorial Service for Tim the following Wednesday that his family would attend, which made them feel better about missing his funeral.

The next couple days of my life were totally dedicated to the staff and their emotional needs. They were obviously away from their families and really only had each other to lean on during that horrific time. If you have worked at Cleves before I am sure you can try and imagine what it would have been like if that had happened when you worked here, but believe me, you can’t and there aren’t words to tell you how heart wrenching it was. The morning after he died I went into the dining room at 7:15. I knew I couldn’t help but thought if everybody knew I was just as upset as they were, they might be able to limp through the next few days because we were all trying to cope together. The hardest thing I have ever done in my life was go over to the morning meeting for the children’s counselors that day. I lead everybody out of the Sagamo Centre and we all went and sat outside the colour cube on the ground. I asked the Guests to give us a little bit of privacy while I talked to them, tried to comfort them as best I could and told them about our plans for the Memorial service.

With the help of the Minister from our church up here the Memorial was planned. I invited the volunteer fire department to come to the ceremony and hand yellow roses to everybody after the service. Tim’s entire family came up for it and I remember dreading meeting them. When I introduced myself to his parents they both threw their arms around me and told me how much Tim loved working at Cleves and that they were so glad his last days were spent there surrounded by his friends. His parents still come up twice a year to visit the site and come to the office every time they are here to see me. They are incredible people who will always have a special place in my heart.

After the Memorial service ended, I was on the sundeck talking to Tim’s family and the parents of the girls that were with him in the accident. I could hear a huge commotion off to one side but wasn’t really paying attention until I looked over the side of the sundeck railing and saw at least 50 people swimming. Everybody had jumped off the dock in their clothes. The commotion I heard was them chanting my name. It took me about 30 seconds to run down those stairs, take off my shoes and cannonball off the dock in my suit... then Ted promptly jumped off the dock and did his best to land on me! If you weren’t there you won’t understand this but everybody jumping in the lake was a major turning point. It was at that exact moment that the kids realized life would go on and they were allowed to still have fun for the rest of the summer even if it was with a heavy heart.

The whole event had a very profound effect on everybody who was at Cleves that summer. It forced all of us to bond in a way that quite frankly I never want to experience again. I saw the best in some people, like the Guests who volunteered to help in any way possible, and the Doctor who helped at the scene and ended up at the hospital with me, all of whom ended up becoming great friends of mine. It also brought out the worst in some in people, like the Guest who came into the office to freak out because we cut the kids program short so everybody could attend the memorial (don’t worry, my Dad handled her....). I do have to thank RB for coming with me and being at my side that entire day and night at the hospital. I leaned on you a lot that night but didn't want to put words in your mouth about how you felt during those awful hours we shared. I will always value the support you gave me that day and in the days to follow as I know you had your own team to lead while grieving yourself. As always you did it with class and stoic grace.

Today marks the 8 year anniversary of Tim’s death and like every other year I will go and sit with my Mom on the bench at the Memorial Garden we made in his honour. I will remember the handsome young man I hired, with the amazing smile and great personality who’s brief time at Cleves made such a huge impression on so many people. We were all so much better for knowing him even if it was for such a brief time.

I Don't Like Mondays

Here’s to hallsitting

On a Monday night

When everyone’s partying

Or starting a fight

When everyone’s making out

And fooling around on the bus

When Danny tries his best

To prevent a big fuss

Here’s to hallsitting

One important role

You surf the web in a hall

And get 12 dollars whole

Here’s to wasting a chance

And to missing a night

With the guy that you loved

Who’s with someone else tonight

Here’s to peeing in pants

And crying in cribs

Here’s to staying up late

And to changing bibs

Actually now that we talk

And think about it a bit

A bar night’s no different

Than watching these kids

We act stupid and silly

While we ride in a bus

We need adults to watch out

And supervise us

We need people to care

Someone to love us

Today it’s Jim or Andy

It’s no big deal or fuss

And when it’s all over

And when it’s all done

We need someone to wake us up

And to work we run

So remember my kids

The new crew at Cleve’s

Don’t get too attached

And kiss him when he leaves

Tell him you love him

And you will until noon

When you’ll see someone better

It always ends soon!!!

...AND I OWE IT ALL TO YOU!

I am guilty, I admit it. Every single time I see the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ listed on my channel guide I watch it. I am sure I have seen it at least 75 times. It never gets old, I never get sick of it and it always makes me smile from start to finish. Anybody who has ever worked at Cleves knows exactly what I am talking about. We have all lived that movie - I just happen to have lived it for 42 years. The similarities between ‘Kellerman’s’ and ‘Cleves’ are uncanny. The properties actually look a lot alike. Both are beside a lake, have a huge Main Hotel and a ‘staff area’ (which we have a hard time keeping the Guests out of - ie Flip Cup Tournament of Summer 2011). Both have great Social Programs for their Guests. Sadly we don’t have time in our program dedicated to trying on wigs but we do have a weekly bocce and shuffleboard tournament and those are the events that get the most Guest turnout!! In ‘Dirty Dancing’ the Dance Instructor made all the women weak in the knees - in my day at Cleves it was the ‘Ski Boys’. Even some of the Guests liked the ‘Ski Boys’... and you know who you are!! :)

Obviously after the dancing, the main theme of that movie revolves around love and friendship. The same can be said for Cleves. If I were to sit down and make a list of how many people met and married after working at Cleves, I am sure there would be at least 50 couples on it, some have even come back to get married here. My parents met here and my sister and brother met their spouses here too. Back in the 70’s it was mandatory for every applicant to send a picture with their resume, something that I find absolutely horrifying!!! One winter my sister was rifling through the applications, saw a picture attached to a resume and suggested that one of the managers should interview him. They have been married for 26 years :)

The whole reason we are all connected comes back to my parents. Their love story is truly epic, one that Hollywood writes movies about. My Dad wanted to be a pharmacist when he was growing up and that was the plan until that fateful day his parent’s brought him up to stay at a resort called Clevelands House in Muskoka. As soon as he stepped foot on the property at the age of 14 he knew he was home. He worked his way up from Bellhop to Manager and one winter he went to Toronto to do interviews to hire for the following summer. My Mom was just finishing Teacher’s College and went with her friend to the interviews on a whim. My Dad interviewed her and when she got back in the car she told her friend that she had just had an interview with ‘the nicest man she had ever met’. That summer (1955) Mom worked as a waitress in the Dining Room. One of the other girls that she worked with came up to her in the kitchen and said ‘You don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of landing Bob Cornell’. That was absolutely the right thing to say to her. Not only was she horrified that people knew she liked him but she was even more horrified that Dad probably knew too. She did the only thing any sane woman would do. From that day on, she totally ignored him. Apparently and quite frankly, thank God, that drove him nuts. They started dating later that year and got married three years later.

That was 53 years ago and they are still best friends. Each year as their anniversary approaches on October 18th I think of how many lives would be affected if they had never ended up making a life at Cleves. Dad once told me that when he and Mom got married he was in love with two things, her and Clevelands House. I can’t even begin to imagine where we would have grown up, spent our summers, worked or how many amazing people I would not have met if they hadn’t married. So on behalf of everybody who has ever worked here, fallen in love here, had their hearts broken here, met lifelong friends here or vacationed here, THANK YOU! I know I speak for everybody when I say ‘I’ve Had The Time Of My Life’.

B-BYE

I recently posted a new status update on FACEBOOK and in the 3 years I have been addicted to, I mean a member, I have NEVER had such a huge reaction to something I have put up. Over 50 people commented on or ‘liked’ it so it obviously stuck a nerve. I vented about parents calling me for jobs for their kids. It is THE most annoying thing I deal with when I’m hiring. In case you are wondering, parents calling me about something their kid was disciplined for during the summer or informing me she (it’s usually the mommies) doesn’t like the way we are doing something, is the most annoying thing when we are open!! ‘I am sorry Mrs. Smith but because of privacy laws I am not allowed to discuss that with you. Have a great day’ - CLICK :)

I have always thought of myself as a patient person. I know there is no way I could work with the age group I work with and not be patient. I often share stories with my sister about things people say to me and almost every time she follows it with ‘Thank God it is you and not me doing that job’. I love telling her the stories about the parents calling me because the reaction is ALWAYS legendary. The best response she gives me after I tell her one of those ‘interfering parent stories is....’ ‘SANNNNDDDDYYYYY why do you tell me things like that?’ in a very annoyed ascending pitch voice. It almost sounds like she is going to burst into tears - HILARIOUS. Let’s face it the only reason I tell her about those things is purely for the reaction.

The last 18 or so years have absolutely flown by and a couple of years ago one of my friends who I worked with at Cleves called me and asked my how her son should go about applying. My first thought was that I couldn’t possibly hire an 8 year old, my second thought was that it was time to retire, I wasn’t ready to have my friend’s kids working here!! Honestly, her calling me didn’t annoy me at all because I knew her son and he was was a great kid AND I knew that not hiring him could easily mean that some of the stories about the fun we had when we worked here might get out and I couldn’t have that. I told her to have her kid send me a resume and he was hired. I am only human - therefore bribable!!!

I do not have kids of my own so can’t really say how I would parent but I am pretty sure I can tell you how I wouldn’t. I really think doing everything for your kids after a certain age is just setting them up for failure later in life. The kids working in this generation are the ones that get trophies just for showing up. When I was a kid, you had to win to get a trophy and what is wrong with that? I am sure some of the kids that have worked here in the past have thought they should be getting special mention for just showing up for work. I said that to somebody not long ago and she told me she called it ‘Helicopter Parenting’. That is a good one but I think we should take it a step further and call it ‘Submarine Parenting!!’

I could easily sit here and recite phone call after phone call replaying conversations that seem to happen a few times a week this time of year. The following is a fairly accurate re-enactment of an call I got about 7 years ago.

‘Good Morning Sandy Speaking’ ‘Good Morning Sandy, It’s Msssss. Buffy Wallingford an Executive VP here at Scotia McLeod calling.’ (it is important to know that she sounded like she was clenching her teeth when she spoke to me) ‘Hi Buffy what can I do for you (knowing a) calling her by her first name would annoy the crap out of her and b) exactly what I could do for her)’ ‘My 18 year old son Stevie is looking for a summer job and I thought Clevelands House would be the perfect fit for him. He is finishing his last year at Upper Canada College here in the centre of Toronto (duh) and he is heading off to university in the fall. He is a prefect, on the debate team, plays several sports for the school and is a born leader. What sort of position are you able to offer him? I would like him to work in Muskoka for the summer’ Now I am not normally like this but I couldn’t resist..... ‘Buffy, if Stevie is old enough to work at Cleves for the summer and has all of these great qualities, surely he is old enough to call for himself’ ‘Well Sandy I just thought I would call for him as he is in school 9-3 and really doesn’t have the time to call you himself’ ‘I work Monday - Friday 9 - 5 this time of year, I am sure like every other kid who calls me, he can find the time perhaps on lunch or after class...B-BYE’

THE CLEVES LIST OF AWESOME - PART 1

For Christmas this year I got a really fun book called 'The Book of Awesome'. It is a huge list of every day things and events that are so simple but we take for granted. Often they are things we don't notice but we should because they are awesome! That gave me the idea to compose the following....The first Cleves list of Awesome.....and to change it up I did it in rhyme!!

I get in my car in the morning to come to work each day

I pull up in front of the office and it smells great I must say,

From the bakery I can smell today's fantastic baked treat

And also from the kitchen wafts the smell of smoky meat!

AWESOME

The time for lunch in the staff dining room has finally come

There can be times when it's unclear where it comes from,

But you swing open the back door and there to meet ya

Is the coldest milk in the world and amazing homemade pizza!

AWESOME

You pull in front of the office that first day keen and all ready to go

You're about to meet your roomies, none of whom you even know,

Time flashes by so quickly and the best summer ever ends

You are bawling and saying goodbye to you new lifelong friends!

AWESOME

When I turn the light off the last thing that comes to my mind

Is what in eight hours on my desk in the morning I'll find,

The best possible thing ever that could happen to me

Is a boring, one page night report waiting for me to see!

AWESOME

Your staff account has opened and your finally nineteen

You head to the club to jump headfirst into the scene,

The night is so fun, you bought and drank a ton

The next day you account is cut off ooooh that's not so fun!

AWESOME

It's taken a while to learn how to never cause the team harm

You've figured out down to the second, when to set your alarm,

You throw on your uniform and put your hair up in the morning

You arrive in the dr exactly on time, another day with no warning!

AWESOME

Last night was Tuesday and you partied really hard at Cleves

Your body needs the day to go quickly, you even beg and say please,

When suddenly you realize something great, its the BBQ night

Your guests are all going, your name on the 'OFF list' is the best sight!

AWESOME

It's the biggest bar night of the summer and of course work you must

Every one of your friends and roomies went, they just left on the bus,

The Rosseau Room is dead, hardly any Guests came down at all,

So you are let go early and you race to meet your friends for last call!

AWESOME

One of the best things that happens to me year after year

Is when staff come to my office to share stories and talk off my ear,

This is when I'm told all of the gossip, and people should beware

The best stories I've heard are by people in that pink leather chair!

AWESOME

You've worked really hard all summer and can't believe it's almost gone

You've dragged you ass for the last while when on you it does dawn

For the last few months while you were partying, working and romancing

It hits you like a ton of bricks, you just starred in 'Dirty Dancing'!

AWESOME

YOU ARE TRESPASSING AT 5:00 PM

Today in the office we had a meeting about next summer. I just can’t get my head around how quickly the seasons come and go the older I get. In about 6 weeks I will be receiving about 20 resumes a day and until March I actually read (albeit very quickly) all of them and make any notes on the file so when I am picking the kids I want to interview I pay attention. By the time we open I have usually received about 2000 resumes and eventually stop reading them around the middle of March.

Hiring 150+ new staff for every season has advantages and disadvantages. It is great when I manage to hire a great group the previous season and a lot want to come back (for the record 2010 was a great staff year), it means I don’t have to interview as many newbies. There are seasons however, when I have a lot of turnover and the group as a whole isn’t fantastic or some of the staff have started to take working at Cleves for granted and I have to ‘clean house’ in a bunch of departments when hiring for the next year. There isn’t a formula for hiring a great bunch, it is mostly luck. Honestly if they all get along and have a ton of fun together, I have a good year - simple.

My least favourite part of the job is firing people. I hate doing it but somebody has to when it is necessary. My Dad always told me that firing at least one person at the beginning of the season sets a good example for the rest of the summer and I guess he is right but it doesn’t make it any easier.....unless the person I just fired pulled a major boneheaded move, like one kid did in the summer of 2003.

The job description of a children’s counselor starts with the following sentence, ‘The primary responsibility of a children’s counselor is to provide a safe and fun environment for children ranging in age from newborn to teen.....’. After this following incident I actually read this sentence over to see if there was a grey area there and I should change the wording, nope.

We have made a lot of great additions to our kids’ facilities since 1996. One of the things we built was what we call ‘The Colour Cube’. It is a covered play structure that is like the ones you see in some fast food restaurants and it has been an amazing addition, especially on rainy days. Sometimes when counselors don’t have any kids come back to their group after lunch they are given odd jobs to do. One day in the summer of 2003 one of the counselors had the job of replacing the huge ‘zip ties’ on the foam posts of that structure. There was a group of kids in the ‘Colour Cube’ one afternoon playing ‘Cops and Robbers’ and this SECOND YEAR counselor thought it would be funny to tie one of these ‘zip ties’ around one of the kids’ necks. Of course the kid panicked and pulled the end, which made it tighter, started to choke him and the other counselors had to quickly cut it off with scissors. The Director of my kids program at the time (who did that job for several years and was amazing at it) hauled him into her office to give him shit. He couldn’t understand what the big deal was and thought she was over reacting. She called me, told me what happened and we decided to let him sleep on it. If he came in the next day and apologized and was remorseful we would just put him on probation, if he still didn’t see her point of view, we would let him go. Right after the counselors’ morning meeting the next day she called me and told me he was actually pissed off and thought she totally freaked out for no reason. My immediate response was ‘He’s gone, would you like me to do it or would you like to’. Her response was, ‘I’d be happy to do it’.

I sat in my office waiting for the parent call that I knew was coming (those are a subject for an entire posting at a later date). What I didn’t know was that this kid’s family had a cottage pretty close to Cleves so about an hour later the dad and the kid come into my office for ‘the talk’. The dad introduced himself to me and said that he felt his son had been unfairly treated and that he thought I should have given him a second chance. I have a rule that I have always abided by and it might not be the right way to handle things but I will never do it any other way, I NEVER go over my manager’s heads. If they make a decision and want to handle things a certain way, unless I know something else about the story that will change their minds, I will NOT go against what they say. I called the Director, told her the pair were in my office and asked her to come over. The three of us sat in my office for several minutes not saying a word, and waited for her. When she came in I had her sit behind my desk and I sat on the far side of the office and just listened. She was a pro, didn’t waiver, was confident in her decision and said that there was absolutely no way she was going to give him a second chance because he still didn’t get what he did wrong. The Dad then turns to me and tells me he wants me to go over her head and keep him, which I said I would absolutely NOT do. To say that didn’t go over well would be a major understatement!!!

Until that point I don’t think I had said a word. He was getting really pissed off and told me he was a Vice Principal and that he had to give students second chances all of the time. Me saying to him ‘OK you are a Vice Principal, if one of your teachers had done this to a student what would you have done’ PUT HIM OVER THE EDGE. (By the way it is important to note that he might have been 5’7”, I am 5’9”, thank God) We are now all standing because I want them out of there and he gets right in my face and starts screaming at me and I actually thought he was going to take a swing at me, he was that pissed off (for the record I wanted him to, I could have taken him!!). I stepped back, reached for the door and said ‘This meeting is over’ and I followed that with ‘and you have until 5:00 pm to have your kid off the property’. RAGE! He started to leave my office and screams the whole way down the hall ‘YOUR FAMILY SUCKS AND YOU DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR STAFF.....’. I obviously wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. The Director and I went back into my office, she sat back behind my desk, and I sat across the room from her. There was silence for at least 2 minutes until I said ‘I don’t know about you but I thought that went VERY well!!!’ HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER, meeting adjourned.

THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS

In the last several years I have had a lot of people tell me I should write a book because let’s face it having spent my entire life working in this business I have seen some great and horrific things and have met a lot of interesting characters. I decided to start writing a blog to help me recall some of the stories that are worthy of telling. The first thing I did before I actually started writing wasto make a list of topics I thought people would be interested in hearing about or that I thought were hilarious. Never in all that time did I ever think I would feel compelled to write about something or somebody that doesn't even have a Cleves connection.

Let’s get one thing straight, I think Paris Hilton is a total skank / ditch pig and a spoiled little bitch. I know I am not alone in my thoughts on this. I still cannot understand why this person is famous. She can’t act (unless she is in a sex tape), she can’t sing (without auto tune) and she is as dumb as a bag of hammers. I am certain if her head were held under water bubbles would rise to the surface. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am absolutely not comparing the Hiltons to the Cornells at all. We owned 1 hotel in the smallest town in the world and they own several in the most glamorous places around the globe. It has however got me thinking as to why she is such a disaster and for me it boils down to her childhood and parents. Obviously I can’t say that without discussing my own childhood or parents, both of which were amazing.

The differences are blatantly obvious. She grew up in Beverly Hills being waited on hand and foot every moment of her life. I grew up in Minett and was waited on at the family dinner table in the Dining Room in the summer to which I have already told you wasn’t exactly enjoyable for me. Getting dressed up every night just about killed me. She likely spent her childhood being raised by nannies, rarely saw her parents and spent her days lying by the family pool having some poor servant wait on her hand and foot or shopping on Rodeo Drive. After the age of 9 I spent my days running around the resort spending every minute with PS skateboarding, swimming in the lake, riding my bike and after the age of 11, working. At 11 I rented boats half a day, 6 days a week. It wasn’t exactly difficult and I spent most of my time swimming in the lake, but it was a job. After that I did everything from nursery, front desk, reservations and bar. Along the way I have done my share of housekeeping and dishwashing. Let’s not forget the black out of 2003 when I was in the kitchen for 6 straight meals hand washing cutlery for 500 people. The second the power came back on I walked into Dad’s office and had a serious discussion about generators and how badly we needed one to run the kitchen. I doubt Paris had a job until she made that sex tape.

A lot of the blame for what an ass she is has to be put on her parents. I can’t imagine she had a curfew as a teenager and until I was about 17 I distinctly remember looking at my watch every 30 seconds willing the second hand to slow down as 11:00 pm approached. I had the exact time it took me to run from the club up to the house, down to the second. My dad would be sitting in the front living room window waiting for me, having a smoke (Cameo menthol - yuk) looking at his own watch as I flew in the door every night at 10:59:59. I knew if I was late I would be grounded which would mean I wouldn’t be allowed to go to the club at all for a period of time. Let’s face it Cleves isn’t exactly a place where you want your kid wandering in and out of the staff house in their early teens at night which makes me think that Paris spent her teenage years living any way she pleased with absolutely no rules or even the pressure to work. I also highly doubt that unlike me, she got excited when she and her friends ran up to the phone booth to score loose change, crawled under the pop machine on the dock where we made a mini fortune, or got to roam around the woods beside the golf course looking for golf balls, so excited to yell ‘FOUND ONE’ every time one appeared!!!

Does Paris live a glamorous life? Absolutely. Would I trade places with her? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! I had just as much fun at Cleves growing up. Believe me I cranked it up A LOT and there are lots of stories that will always remain in the vault but I think my parents did a brilliant job of finding a way to raise 3 kids in an environment like that who never got into any MAJOR trouble. Paris used the ‘the cocaine found in my purse wasn’t mine’ defense not long ago...really? I had to fire a kid this spring for drinking underage in the Club and she tried to use the ‘I didn’t actually buy myself the drink I was enjoying, somebody gave it to me’ defense. What I should have said to her was ‘and I am sure they water boarded you with it and that’s how you ended up having to drink it!’

My advice to Paris is simple; get a grip, get a real job, and put your big girl pants on - scratch that - put some underwear on. Didn’t your mother give you the time honored advice ‘don’t leave the house without clean underwear on or without $20.00 in your pocket?’ Your way is obviously not working and you are making the rest of the ‘Hotel Brats’ look bad!!

THE 10 WEEK BREAKDOWN

Eating in the Dining Room with the family has changed a lot over the last 30 years. When I was a kid we ate in there every single night as a family. That was back in the day when men were required to wear jackets so that meant we all had to dress up seven days a week. For a kid who windsurfed, swam and skateboarded around the resort all day long that was a pretty bitter pill to swallow! These days we might eat dinner in the dining room twice a week, but in the last couple of years even that has been a stretch. Long gone are the days where the men are required to wear jackets. The last time we had dinner in there on Labour Day weekend a father and son came in to eat dinner wearing baseball hats and they wore them through the entire meal.

One thing that hasn’t changed in the last 15 summers is the ritual of my Mom and I eating breakfast in the dining room about 4 days a week. We don’t eat in there on my day off, on Sundays (because she is at church getting a good word in for all of us) or on her ‘hair day’ - we cannot mess with ‘hair day’, after all her hair could be considered a ‘National Treasure’ it is that good!! Mom actually eats breakfast with Dad before she comes down and just has a coffee with me and I go into the kitchen and grab something quick. We aren’t there for more than 20 minutes but it gives both of us a chance to see some of the long time guests. Not a meal goes by when a guest doesn’t stop by the table to say hi on their way in or out and it is usually one of the great parts about eating in there. There are however some guests who come over and just stand there for ages. A couple of years ago we actually ate our entire dinner, salad, entree and dessert while the same couple stood beside Dad and talked. I couldn’t even look at Mom across the table because every time I did she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me - hilarious.

After eating breakfast with Mom four days a week for a few summers I started to notice a distinct pattern to her behaviour and enjoyment of our brief time together. When she and I go in for breakfast we always sit in the same seats. She sits in the chair closest to the kitchen facing the Dining Room door and I sit in the chair across from her facing the dining room. As I have mentioned before we are always ready for the spring conference season to end and for family season to begin, but after you read this you will understand why I have also said that we are also always ready for family season to end.

On the first Monday of family season we sit down at the table and immediately some cute 4 year old girl will come running in to get to her table and Mom will say something like ‘Ohhhhhh look at this little girl with the little pigtails coming in here, she is so pretty and look at her run by with those adorable running shoes on....’. At about week 5 some equally adorable little boy will come flying through the lobby and Mom will say something like, ‘This little boy about to run in here is really cute but jeeeeeezz I wish the managers would stop him from running through here...sigh......’ Week nine hits and the first kid that runs down the aisle gets ‘the eyebrow’ (those of you who have seen it and know what I am talking about are shaking right now - it still scares the crap out of me at 41!!!’ and she puts her fists up in front of her face and shakes them ever so slightly and she whispers ‘one of these days I am going to stick my foot out as they run by’.

The Monday of week 10 a few years ago Mom came into my office to get me and on my way by Sharon’s desk I said ‘this is it, this is the morning, Mom is going to FREAK OUT at the first kid that flies by our table, it is going to be AMAZING’. Mom and I headed over to the dining room and took our usual seats. I hear it before I see it.... coming through the lobby is some cute little kid super excited about his first full day at Clevelands House, looking forward to starting camp for the day and just as he hits warp speed beside our table Mom screams at the top of her lungs......‘SSTTTTTOOOOOPPP RUUUNNNNIIINNNNGGG!!!!! Of course the kid bursts into tears immediately and the parents rush up to little Johnny to find out what happened. Mom calmly explains that she told him to stop running because little Johnny is going to be trampled by a server carrying 12 entrees and hot coffee and that probably wouldn’t be a good thing. Now really, what sane person would look at a woman with hair that white and that fabulous and yell back!!!

CHANGE BAD - TRADITION GOOD!!!

Tradition has always been a pretty huge part of the Cleves experience both from a Guest’s perspective and from the Staff’s. Some have been around for as long as I can remember and some only last a few years until we think we have found a better way of doing something. That new way often ends up failing in spectacular fashion and we just go back to what people are used to. In recent years we have tried some new things that absolutely bombed. Hardcore Cleves Guests apparently don’t like major change!

Up until the time I was about 18 one of the best and most popular traditions was the Wednesday night Masquerade Parties that were held in the Club every week during family season. The Dining Room Staff kicked off the fun every Wednesday dinner by dressing up and serving in their costumes. After dinner, Rockin’ Roy Kitchen the greatest 70 year old, Herb Tarleck plaid suit wearing DJ, would spin his records down in the club and all of the staff and guests would go down for the night. It was so much fun. The Social Directors would then offer prizes to the best costumes in various categories like Best Man’s Costume, Best Woman’s Costume and Best Group. The coveted prize was a box of ‘Black Magic’ chocolates, I kid you not!

From as far back as I can remember there was one family who came to Cleves for 2 weeks at the end of July every summer. The most hard core supporters of the Masquerade in the family were the Grandparents and they had to be about 60-65 when this all started. To say that they lived for the Masquerade Nights is a major understatement. I really think they planned most of their vacation around it and arrived with supplies, costumes.... and lots of rum. They were really good to my friends and I as kids and always included us in the planning and made sure we were part of the entire process.

Some of the ideas they came out with were pretty elaborate. One year we went as aliens and painted our faces silver with some paint they pulled out of a suitcase. When I think back on that now I am sure that if I did have kids of my own they might have been be born with 2 heads because of what was lurking in that paint! One year they decided to dress up like the Flintstones where the Grandpa ran around the club wearing absolutely nothing but a giant diaper because he was Bam Bam and his wife proudly followed right behind him dressed like Dino wearing a skin tight black full body suit with a huge milkshake cup over her nose held on with the leg of a nylon stocking, one must never forget that they were in their late 60’s at least!! Watching her do the ‘Bunny Hop’ dressed like Dino was pretty great!. You gotta love the enthusiasm and the fact that they really didn’t care about what asses they looked like...it was all about that box of ‘Black Magic’ chocolates. Down in the Club on the other nights of the week all of the entertainment was held in the big room of the Club and those two would dance every night away. He had the best taste in clothing and would show up about twice a week wearing a hot pink, cream and black zebra print blazer. Excellent. Sadly in the late 80’s Masquerade nights lost their popularity and nobody dressed up any more so we had to cancel them.

To say that these 2 grandparents partied would be a huge understatement. They showed up for their two weeks with the same stuff every year and one of my most vivid memories would be when they hauled out the massive bottles of booze and the little silver metal cups they used to drink it from. They would go down to the club with a mickey stuffed in her purse and crank it up every single night and quite quickly you would notice them go from dancing to swaying to the music. There were many nights when the two of them, still wearing their amazing clothes from the dance would show up in the Staffhouse to play caps with the staff after spending all night down at the club pounding back the booze and waltzing / staggering around the dance floor. After weaving their way up to the staff house from the club he’d sit on the floor of the hall wearing that zebra print hot pink jacket and she’d be in a dress sitting spread eagle on the floor with a beer bottle between her legs. I am sorry but it just doesn’t get any funnier. They were a huge part of my Cleves childhood memories and I was very sad when they passed away. Every time I see somebody sitting at table 19 in the dining room I am a little sad because it isn't them :)

TIMOTHY MICHAEL ROSE

The summer of 2002 was horrific. Business was great and we were 95% - 100% full every night but I had major problems with the staff that year. There was so much damage done to the staff house that summer I think I stopped keeping track at one point. Every single morning I got out of bed and actually dreaded going into the office, it was that bad. Thankfully I haven’t had a summer like that since.

Friday, August 9th, 2002 is a day that forever changed me and everybody that worked at Cleves that year. I was on my way home at about 5:30 pm and I ran into the Corner Store to grab something. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky. As I walked up to the register to pay for my stuff I saw the 2 trucks from the Minett Fire Department go screaming through the stop sign and head towards Port Carling. I got in my car to head home not knowing that in about 15 seconds my life would be changed forever. When I came around the corner by the ‘Welcome to Minett’ sign, I saw what I can only describe as something that one usually only sees in the movies. There were 2 fire trucks, 3 ambulances, 3 OPP cars and every member of the Minett Volunteer Fire Department about 200 feet in front of me. I got out of my car and walked closer to find out what was going on when I saw 3 of my staff standing on the side of the road. I asked what happened and all I heard was ‘Tim’s really bad.....’. I distinctly remember not hearing another word and I took off running full speed towards the accident and down into the ditch.

Tim Rose a Dining Room Server that summer was riding in a Jeep on a beautiful day heading home to see his family in Waterloo for the weekend. He was with his girlfriend and best friend. When they left Cleves his seatbelt was stuck and he told them to leave and he would get it untangled. Less than 2 minutes later another car coming towards them was driving on their side of the road, the Jeep had to swerve to miss it and they ended up going off the road and down a steep and deep ditch. Tim was thrown from the Jeep. I knew every police officer, fireman and paramedic there that day and they asked for my help to try and get the 2 girls calmed down because they were both very close to going into shock. It is an absolute miracle that neither girl was injured in any way.

When I climbed out of the ditch I was met by one of the OPP officers. We didn’t say it out loud but we both knew that Tim hadn’t survived. The girls obviously didn’t know that and neither did any of the other staff who were there. It was very important that his death not be made known until his family had been notified. He asked me what I needed as he helped me out of the ditch and all I could say was ‘grief counselors at the hotel as soon as possible’. I did my best to try and calm the girls down and they begged me to ride in the ambulance with them but there wasn’t room so I promised to follow close behind.

The next 2 hours were maybe the longest of my life. The girls had been admitted for observation and I was going from room to room to try and comfort them. A physician who was staying at Cleves helped with Tim at the scene and went in the ambulance with him to do what he could. He and I spent our time in the ER just standing with each other, with our heads down holding each other’s hands most of the time. The girls asked me every 10 minutes to go and see how Tim was and to get some sort of update on his condition. Each time I left them I just walked around the corner and did my best just to keep it together. After a few minutes I would come back and tell them they were still working on him. Eventually the ER doctor called me out into the hall and told me they had notified Tim’s parents and that I could now tell the girls he didn’t survive the accident. I distinctly remember telling him as the attending physician it was his job to tell them that. I knew those two amazing girls would resent me for their entire lives if I told them the worst thing they would likely ever hear. Tim’s girlfriend’s parents arrived about 30 seconds later. I went outside, where about 20 Cleves staff had gathered in the parking lot and the doctor took the girls and the parents into the conference room and told them. If I live to be 100 I will never forget hearing the girl’s reaction to the devastating news.

When I got back to Cleves I allowed myself to come totally unglued for a while and collapsed into my Mom’s arms in my office. I remember thinking over and over on the way home from the hospital that there was just too much responsibility involved with dealing with a bunch of kids every summer and for a brief moment decided it was a responsibility that I was unwilling to accept anymore. With the help of a friend, I wrote a letter that was placed on every dining room table at breakfast the next day because our Guests needed to know why every single member of the staff would be hysterical. I had a few Guests come into the office the next day and tell me they would do anything we needed them to do from washing dishes to bar tending, to help us get through it all. We had about 500 guests in the hotel that week and it broke my heart to tell the staff they couldn’t go to the funeral. I had already decided we would have our own Memorial Service for Tim the following Wednesday that his family would attend, which made them feel better about missing his funeral.

The next couple days of my life were totally dedicated to the staff and their emotional needs. They were obviously away from their families and really only had each other to lean on during that horrific time. If you have worked at Cleves before I am sure you can try and imagine what it would have been like if that had happened when you worked here, but believe me, you can’t and there aren’t words to tell you how heart wrenching it was. The morning after he died I went into the dining room at 7:15. I knew I couldn’t help but thought if everybody knew I was just as upset as they were, they might be able to limp through the next few days because we were all trying to cope together. The hardest thing I have ever done in my life was go over to the morning meeting for the children’s counselors that day. I lead everybody out of the Sagamo Centre and we all went and sat outside the colour cube on the ground. I asked the Guests to give us a little bit of privacy while I talked to them, tried to comfort them as best I could and told them about our plans for the Memorial service.

With the help of the Minister from our church up here the Memorial was planned. I invited the volunteer fire department to come to the ceremony and hand yellow roses to everybody after the service. Tim’s entire family came up for it and I remember dreading meeting them. When I introduced myself to his parents they both threw their arms around me and told me how much Tim loved working at Cleves and that they were so glad his last days were spent there surrounded by his friends. His parents still come up twice a year to visit the site and come to the office every time they are here to see me. They are incredible people who will always have a special place in my heart.

After the Memorial service ended, I was on the sundeck talking to Tim’s family and the parents of the girls that were with him in the accident. I could hear a huge commotion off to one side but wasn’t really paying attention until I looked over the side of the sundeck railing and saw at least 50 people swimming. Everybody had jumped off the dock in their clothes. The commotion I heard was them chanting my name. It took me about 30 seconds to run down those stairs, take off my shoes and cannonball off the dock in my suit... then Ted promptly jumped off the dock and did his best to land on me! If you weren’t there you won’t understand this but everybody jumping in the lake was a major turning point. It was at that exact moment that the kids realized life would go on and they were allowed to still have fun for the rest of the summer even if it was with a heavy heart.

The whole event had a very profound effect on everybody who was at Cleves that summer. It forced all of us to bond in a way that quite frankly I never want to experience again. I saw the best in some people, like the Guests who volunteered to help in any way possible, and the Doctor who helped at the scene and ended up at the hospital with me, all of whom ended up becoming great friends of mine. It also brought out the worst in some in people, like the Guest who came into the office to freak out because we cut the kids program short so everybody could attend the memorial (don’t worry, my Dad handled her....). I do have to thank RB for coming with me and being at my side that entire day and night at the hospital. I leaned on you a lot that night but didn't want to put words in your mouth about how you felt during those awful hours we shared. I will always value the support you gave me that day and in the days to follow as I know you had your own team to lead while grieving yourself. As always you did it with class and stoic grace.

Today marks the 8 year anniversary of Tim’s death and like every other year I will go and sit with my Mom on the bench at the Memorial Garden we made in his honour. I will remember the handsome young man I hired, with the amazing smile and great personality who’s brief time at Cleves made such a huge impression on so many people. We were all so much better for knowing him even if it was for such a brief time.

GENERATION 'WHY'

Having spent 41 summers at Cleves I have seen 3 different generations of employees come and go. The first one being the ‘Baby Boomer Generation’, the Second one, my generation ‘Generation X’ and the one I have worked the most with, this generation ‘Generation Y’. There are so many differences between the 3. The ‘Baby Boomers’ were just happy to have a job, the ‘Generation Xers’ were happy to have a job that came with the the chance to party and most of the ‘Generation Yers’ have a job that interferes with the party. As I have said before back when I was 19-22 I went out 6 nights a week, maybe got 8 hours of sleep a night twice a week. We all partied hard and got up, went to work and never complained. Most of us were scared shitless of the management team and the thought of being hauled into one of the Manager’s offices was quite frankly horrifying!

I started working as the Director of HR in 1996 and quickly after, once the shift from Gen X to Gen Y occurred, there was a definite change in the staff’s behaviour. I would have to say that the most difficult years for me would be 1997 - 2003, with 2002 being the worst by a long shot. That summer the doors in the staff house were being broken and kicked in every day, several kids were late for work almost every shift and there was a definite rebellion against any sort of authority with many staff constantly asking why they had to do something. I have decided that the internet is a major cause of this generation being so different (how ironic is it that I am posting this on the very same internet) and has turned a lot of them into the instant gratification generation. Before I go on I have to say that a lot of the kids in the last 10 years have been great, but the attitude of a few of them is that they start work and can’t understand why they aren’t the manager of their department one week later. I still smile when I think of the day about 10 years ago when we were just opening and I asked somebody to vacuum one of the areas of the dining room. The obviously slightly spoiled girl turned to me and said ‘Sorry Sandy you will have to show me how to use a vacuum, I have never had to do that before’. WOW we interviewed well that year!!

Some of the kids in this generation ‘have a very large chip on their shoulder, that’s very unattractive’ (kudos to those of you who get that movie reference), questioning authority all of the time and could care less when they are late for work. I am sure some of it stems from the ‘get a trophy for showing up to a sporting event’ that is the norm for kids now - what happened to getting a trophy for winning!! It has just made so many of these kids feel that they should be given raises and praise for just showing up to work when they are supposed to. Over the last couple of years I have actually noticed the behaviour and attitudes getting better and the kids have some respect for authority again but that just happened fairly recently.

So many of the doors in the staff house were being kicked in every year that I actually had to write a policy that if somebody kicked in a door they had to pay the damages and labour to fix it (I think I charged them $150.00 and they lost their entire $50.00 room deposit), if they did it again they had to find accommodation somewhere else. One night one of the girls who worked in the kitchen got totally plastered, kicked a huge hole in her door and then told the Night Manager and Security Guard to fuck off. She was actually painfully shy when she was sober, or so I thought...I called her into my office and told her I was firing her, not for kicking in her door but for her complete lack of respect for the Night Managing team.

About three weeks later I came back into my office after having lunch with my friends in the dining room to this exact voicemail, (It was way too good not to memorize) ‘Ya hi Sandy, this is Laura, you know the one you fired. I was at Cleves today and saw that somebody had kicked another hole in the door to my room. Did you fire them too you AAAAASSSSSHHHHOOOOOOLLLLLEEEE’ I am sure most Directors of HR would be horrified by that, but I can honestly say it is still one of the funniest things I have ever heard. Just imagine how proud her parents would be to know she called me and left that voicemail. I have to say the joke was actually on her, I saved that voicemail for months and had a lot of my friends call in and listen to it. She just about crapped her pants the next summer when she and I ended up alone in the bathroom at Bala Bay one night, I loved seeing the blood drain from her smug little smart ass face when she saw me walk in!!

FILL ME IN....

One morning a few years ago, I pulled into a parking spot in front of the office at around 7:00 am to start what I assumed would be a typical busy day at Cleves. I had no idea how atypical it was about to be. Waiting for me outside the office was our Baker. As soon as I saw the look on her face I knew something pretty bad had happened. I opened my door to ‘we had to call an ambulance. A girl was found almost naked and covered in mud in the Main Hotel Lobby - BY A GUEST’ (For the record that was not very funny that morning but is HILARIOUS now looking back). Trust me that is not the way the Director of HR at a resort wants to start her day!! I found out that her roommates had moved her to the front of the staff house to wait for the ambulance. When I got there, lying on the ground on a blanket was the most wasted human being I had ever seen and having spent my whole life at Cleves, that is saying a lot. There was talk that she had potentially been drugged by somebody and obviously finding her naked, alone and this wasted in the morning, in the Main Hotel Lobby was bizarre even for Cleves. I tried to wake her up and she head bobbed a few times at me but I couldn’t get one coherent word out of her.

Due to the bizarre 9-1-1 call that was made the OPP were also dispatched. The paramedics arrived, did their assessment and loaded her in the back of the ambulance. This poor girl had just earned the distinction of being labelled ‘the drunkest human being this paramedic had ever seen in his career’ - YIKES. He told me to follow them but that the police would come and the ambulance would pull over so they could brief him. We had just gotten on our way when the cop car came screaming from the other direction, did a U turn and we pulled over. It wasn’t surprising that I knew him. There was some panic with all of us because we didn’t have a clue what had happened to her or how she ended up where she did, in the state she was in or if anything horrific had happened to her. After a brief chat we all headed to the hospital. They put her in a room in emerge and started an IV to get some fluids other than vodka running through her veins and thought it would be a good idea for me to sit in there with her while she came to, lucky me.

At about 9:30 am she opened her eyes and saw me standing beside her bed and said, ‘Where am I?’, I said ‘Where do you think you are?’ She looked around and said ‘In a hospital’ to which I nodded. That was quickly followed by ‘What time is it?’ I replied ‘About 9:30’ - she bolted up in bed and screamed ‘I AM LATE FOR WORK!!!!’ That was immediately followed by me saying ‘Honey, that is the least of your problems right now. What happened?’ Of course she couldn’t remember. The Doctor on duty wanted to run some tests and said she wouldn’t be let out for a few hours so I decided to head back to Cleves and try and figure out what happened and how she ended up where she did, looking like she did.

I spent about 3 hours putting her night together and when I had fully solved the mystery I was relieved and quite frankly highly amused at the same time. The following is the abridged version of what happened.....

It was a Tuesday night so she hopped on the bus to Resort Night. She was underage (not a big surprise) and had excellent fake id that apparently also worked at the LCBO. She and her roommates started priming for their night out almost immediately after they had finished work at Play World that day so she was well on her way before she even got on the bus. When they got there she met up with a bunch of people that she had just graduated high school with (the same school I graduated from - so proud...) so her Cleves friends lost track of her. At the end of the night when the bus was leaving to come back to the resort her roommates tried very hard to get her on the bus but her high school friends wanted her to go back to their cottage with them. They assured everybody they would have her back in the morning in plenty of time for work.

She continued to drink and party at a cottage. At the first sign of daylight the time came to get her back to Cleves. When the boat pulled up at the dock, she fell in the lake, dragged herself up on the dock and proceeded to take her jeans off. They watched her stumble and weave halfway up the dock and then left. Looking up she obviously thought that nice looking cottage (the Main Hotel) would be a perfect spot to have a nap before work so she continued up the path. She bailed in 2 different gardens (hence the mud on the legs, I later saw the ‘body prints’ in the flowers), weaved up the stairs and curled up in front of the fireplace to have a little pre-work nappy.

Her parents were called by the hospital and they showed up a few hours later. The Dad tried to give blame me for the events of the night. He couldn’t believe his underage daughter was allowed to go to the bar. I pointed out that she was an adult and if she was old enough to work at Cleves she was going to be the one doing the babysitting for the summer, not me. Even though I am sure he didn’t appreciate my answer, the argument ended after I said that.

She didn’t come back to work at Cleves that year. It turns out that the ‘lab tests showed some irregular numbers in her liver screening...’. A few days later they came back up, packed up her stuff and moved her out. I don’t think she actually had ‘liveritis’... I think she had ‘humiliateditis’. Imagine the man who originally found her curled up in front of the fireplace going back to his wife and kids after picking up his paper and telling that story!!! That gave a whole new meaning to ‘Dirty’ Dancing.

DON'T JUDGE A BOOK....

Like most people when I was a kid I really didn’t like it when my Mom told me what to do. The sad thing is that in every single instance she was right. She and I have talked many times about specific things she told me not to do when I was a kid and I did them anyway just to prove her wrong. It always ended up backfiring in spectacular fashion. The best example I can think of is the day I ran up to the house to ask if I could go to ‘Queen’s Face’ by boat with a bunch of people when I was about 12. She said I could go with them but under no circumstance was I to jump off. Obviously that was the wrong thing to say to me. (Thanks Rand!!)

The boat pulled up to the dock at the church and I was one of the first up that rock. It was pretty high so I carefully stepped down to a lower platform and hurled myself off the ‘nose’ with reckless abandon and landed with a big splash. It was completely exhilarating! I quickly climbed up on the dock and ran up to jump again. On my step down to the ‘nose’ I lost my footing and SLID THE WHOLE WAY DOWN ON MY SIDE AND LANDED FEET FIRST ON SOME ROCKS!! I have to say I was very lucky that day because even though I did have MAJOR road rash on my thigh that was it. Now I had to think of a great reason why I got hurt because I had promised not to jump (and for the record I haven’t jumped off of that rock since) and I made up this big story about leaning against a railing that broke and I fell on a rock (not bad for a 12 year old). Even though it was a good story Mom and Dad didn’t buy it. I wasn’t grounded but I think my punishment of having to be taken to dinner in the Dining Room being pulled in a wagon because I couldn’t walk was enough. Pride lost = understatement!!

I am sure you all know I have the greatest woman in the world as a mother and I quickly learned after my teenage years when I didn’t think she was ever right, to pay attention to her advice and stories because even though I found it incredibly annoying it turned out she was never, ever wrong. I think she said the expression ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ many times to me growing up and this little story is why I am so grateful that I eventually went from thinking it was a ridiculous expression to actually taking her advice.

In 1986 a family from Fort Lauderdale where we have vacationed since I was 5, came to Cleves. To make a long story very short it turns out the Dad was originally from Toronto. When they got to the resort Mom and Dad insisted on dragging me up to the table to meet them because they had 2 daughters and one was my age. I had absolutely no interest in meeting what I assumed could only be a stupid, blonde ‘Buffy’ from Florida but I didn’t have a choice so up I went to table #1 kicking and screaming!!! I think all I said was ‘nice to meet you’ while I was thinking ‘get me out of here!!’ For the record she didn’t like me at first either!!

She started dating one of my best friends that worked down at the ski school (oh those ski boys….sigh) and they continued dating over the winter. The next summer she came a week before her family came to Cleves to spend time with him at his cottage. One afternoon I was walking by the ski school heading to the end of the dock and saw her sitting by herself so I swallowed my pride and sat down beside her. I decided I should make some sort of effort to get to know her if she was going to be in his life.

I can honestly say that was a life changing moment. After I sat down we started chatting and I asked how things were going. Her honesty actually surprised me because she said she couldn’t wait until her family arrived because they weren’t getting along at all. She must be okay if she was sharing all of this with me…

Since that day she has been one of my best friends and I am thankful every time we talk or see each other that she is such a huge part of my life. She has lived in Washington DC for 20 years and I have been there to visit many, many times and she and I have had some serious fun together other over the years. I love to get her fired up about American politics and I bring up certain topics just because I know it is going to infuriate her. She is now married and has 10 month old twins. Her husband is amazing. The 3 of us laugh our heads off when we are together and he loves it when I tell him the stories of her prancing around the dock in front of the ski boys in that damned bikini. Thank God for my Mom’s wisdom or else this ‘Cleves Guest’ and our amazing friendship that has lasted 25 years might not have happened!

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

Turning 40 is a pivotal moment in most people’s lives. I actually found turning 30 a lot harder. On my 30th birthday I barely acknowledged the people who called me. I am super lucky to have so many great friends that call on my birthday but that year I just wanted to crawl under the covers and wake up the next day. I can’t explain why turning 40 wasn’t a big deal. Maybe it is because I still feel 20 and not a lot has changed in my life, I am not married, don’t have any kids that I gave birth to (lots of surrogates and god kids though) and I still get to work at Cleves. Actually when I was 20 all of that was true, so I guess absolutely nothing has changed except that I am in bed at 10:30 pm and at the office by about 7:00 am, instead of going out at 10:30 pm and coming home at 7:00 am as my Mom was heading to work announcing what breakfast food there was out her car window!! I have to say those were some fun days. I have been very lucky to spend every summer of my life here and I guess having just opened has made me feel very grateful and nostalgic. Maybe Cleves is Neverland and I get to be Peter Pan!!

I am amazed how so many things that we all used to do, wear, partake in at Cleves back in the 80s just keep coming back around. I wore a pair of plaid shorts the other day to a family dinner and almost everybody there commented on them. I had to laugh, I was dressed exactly like I would have been 25 years ago but I just bought those shorts so apparently plaid is back but obviously so are polo shirts and popped collars. I have to smile when a dining room server comes to work with a popped collar and I casually go up behind them and flatten it!!

I am a little horrified to admit that I like some of the music the staff listens to now. Many of you obviously remember the music we used to listen to at Cleves in the 80’s. Who can forget Rockin’ Roy, everybody’s favourite 70 year old DJ who spun a mean ‘Rock Lobster’, ‘Celebration’, ‘Le Freak’ and ‘Super Freak’ in that adorable plaid suit he used to wear on Wednesday’s Masquerade Nights (don’t worry Masquerade Night will be discussed in great detail some time in the near future!!). How about the summer of 1982 with 'Men at Work', 1983 when ‘Dancing in Heaven’ was all the rage or in 1989 when all we played was ‘The Hip’ but most people hadn’t had the pleasure of hearing them yet! I am sure if I looked hard enough I could find my mixed tapes full of Duran Duran, Howard Jones, New Order, The Thompson Twins, INXS, Simple Minds and the Cult. I can’t bring myself to get rid of my CDs even though all of them were put on my iPod years ago. My iPod by the way, is still full of ‘mixes’ they are just in the form of ‘Playlists’ now with titles that all mean something ranging from ‘Almost Forty Something’ to ‘Be Right Back’ (the summer I had my first back surgery in 2006) and the latest one I am filling up called ‘Titanium Rocks’ a tribute to the success of the last back surgery!!

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to scan all of my photos into my computer. Believe me that is not an easy undertaking. I have about 20 albums to plow through and I am not even close to being finished but the entire process has brought back some amazing Cleves memories and smiles like the aforementioned Masquerade Nights and the Inn on the Bay (lesson learned - how to have the most amount of fun in the biggest dump ever built!!!). I was really comforted to find the pictures of all of us hanging out at the end of the dock day after day. That tradition began when my parents first started working here and it still continues today, the difference is that my parents used iodine in baby oil on their skin and I am sure we used some sort of SPF even if it was just a 2!!!

The new staff just arrived and were trained this week. This is a great time of year for me, the newbies are too scared to cause any problems and are rarely late. For the first year ever the servers will be punching in on the terminals in the dining room. I will really miss the familiar sound of the back door flying open, somebody running to the clock outside my office to punch in for the breakfast shift they are super late for and me yelling ‘I HEARD THAT’ as they shriek and run to work! As the season goes on though the fear fades and I inevitably have to drag some kids into my office to give them shit for some offense they committed. I absolutely love it when they give me this big song and dance about why they did what they did and I just chuckle and say ‘did you not see the name on the door of this office - I wrote that one!!’

...AND THIS ONE IS JUST RIGHT!!

Before I bought my first house, I lived at Mom and Dads. It was actually great. It was super close to Cleves so I could be back down there in a heartbeat if necessary and I had the whole top floor to myself. My room ran along the front of the house facing the road. During the summer months I am in the office pretty early every morning so for those first few years after I became a manager I saw some amazing things out my window as I was getting ready in the morning. Many days I would see somebody walking up or down the road from Dodds past the house before 6:30 am. It was super obvious that they were sheepishly looking out the corner of their eyes to see if anybody was awake at the Cornell house. Every time I saw somebody walking very quickly up or down that road I quietly opened one of my bedroom windows and screamed at the top of my lungs ‘YOU ARE DOING THE WALK OF SHAME AND YOU ARE SO BUSTED!!!’ The person in question would always scream and bolt. That never got old.

A few years ago the mother of all ‘Walks of Shame’ happened. It was my day off and at about 10:30 am my phone rang. I could tell it was the office calling, which is not a surprise because I don’t think a day off goes by when at least one person doesn’t call me about something, which I am totally fine with. I answered the phone to Ted’s voice, which actually was very strange and he said ‘I don’t mean to alarm you and I waited as long as possible before I called but we can’t find “Erin”’ (again I have changed the name...). Now I am panicking. Erin was a department manager and was NEVER late, not once in the many seasons she worked at Cleves. I started my usual round of ‘filling in the blanks for somebody the day after’ questioning. Yes he had talked to lots of people she was with the night before and she had gone missing somewhere between a cottage close by and Cleves. I could feel my heart racing and actually thought about when I should call my OPP friend to start getting serious about this. Ted just wanted me to know what was going on and promised he would keep me posted.

To say the next hour was a very long one would be an understatement but he did call me to say that Erin had arrived at work and was being pretty quiet about what had happened. The story about what had happened was eventually told and it went something like this.... It was getting late and the cottage she and a bunch of other Cleves staff were at was really close by. Nobody was in any condition to drive but nobody else was ready to leave yet either. She really wanted to sleep in her own bed so she decided to walk back to Cleves alone. About 15 minutes after she started her hike back to the resort it started to pour rain. She was a lot closer to the cottage she had just left then she was to Cleves so she turned around and headed back. When she got back to the cottage all of the lights were off because everybody had gone to bed so she quietly went in and just crashed on the couch in the living room.

Imagine how horrified she was when she opened her eyes the next morning to find a blanket on her while she lay on a couch she didn’t recognize, in a cottage she didn’t recognize, in front of a family she didn’t recognize....she had gone in the wrong cottage and crashed... It almost killed me to wait several days to call her and ask if Goldilocks would come and see me in my office and that I hoped the pink leather chair in there was just right!!!