A Funny Thing On The Way to The Mounds

Yesterday I was home visiting my mom. Tired of not doing much while I was there I determined mom and I were going to go somewhere. Then I remembered not far from my hometown, in the upper northern regions of our township there were some Hopewell Indian mounds near Nettle Lake.
So when I suggested going there my mother started laughing, 'we won't tell anyone we went there' she said, 'because there's nothing there!' ..... but I wasn't to be deterred. So we stopped for breakfast on the way, mom loves eating breakfast out - half order of biscuits and gravy and part of my home fried potatoes, then made our way to the mounds. They were difficult to find even following a map, but eventually we arrived there, and I'll get back to that find but first the trip there. Along the way we came across a couple of very small cemeteries and of course, following my cousin Dennys inspiration, I stopped and we walked around the smallest one. The latest internment was dated 1953, and I would say 3/4 of them you couldn't even read anymore, however I enjoyed myself and mom humored me, even pretending she was trying to read some grave-markers.
Next we came by the Nettle Lake U.B. church, I pulled just off the road into the parking lot, and looked at a cemetery across the road .... and sure enough in the very front were three grave markers with the last name McLains. Now my mother's grandma's name was McLain, so I kept that in the back of my mind to ask Grandma B later that afternoon. So we proceeded on to the mounds, finally finding them. They were on the backside of a field close to what we 'Ohinians' call a nice size creek that leads into Nettle Lake and backing up against a woods. As we got out of the car mom took her purse with her, and I asked her why she didn't just leave it in the car, she replied she didn't want it to get stolen, to which I replied [but never would have if dad had been there, he would have deemed it disrespectful, though I wasn't, he would have looked for the first chance to reprimand me; dad was extremely protective of mom; we learned early to be more afraid of her than dad - with dad you could most of the time present your case, if mom accused you you might as well hang it up, even OJ's lawyers wouldn't have helped]do you suppose, mom, they have some kind of squirrel thieves around here, or might there still be a Hopewell Indian hiding nearby? ... she laughed, though I'm not convinced she thought I was funny.
Anyway there were five small mounds there and a large plaque about the site. Mom got even with me though, and after a few minutes said, 'well this is about all the respect I think I can muster for these dirt piles,' and for good measure she added 'I think that plaque is as big as they are, what could they possibly be hiding in those little mounds of value?' .... I just shook my head; for someone who claimed there was Indian blood back in the family lineage she wasn't considering these mounds ancestral holy ground.
Going back the same way we came I saw that sign Nettle Lake that we had missed before; so in missing the sign however we got to see both ends of the lake. As we were driving home mom said the first house her and dad had ever lived in was nearby,
which brought the car to a screeching halt [after making sure no one was behind us.]
'do you mean' I asked, 'that we weren't living in town when I was born?" Of course not she replied, your dad farmed for someone from town and we lived in the country...... now she totally had my attention, and after a little more discussion I turned around and we headed for the first house I had ever lived in. On the way she also told me that she used to drive tractor and cultivate helping Dad, with me sleeping on her lap while on the tractor ..... now I have an excuse for my lousy driving - though it doesn't hold much water with the 'good wife.' But then she wasn't traumatized by trying to sleep on a tractor the first days of her life either!
We finally passed a school mom recognized and said the old homestead couldn't be far ... we never found the house, it had been demolished, but we did find parts of a couple stone walls and concrete foundations in the area where the house should have been ... further traumitized and feeling homeless [that's me of course, mom's quite content] mom said that if we went back to the corner where the school was that a mile south we should come to small stone store where she would go to get milk and bread because her and dad only went to town a couple times a month ..... and sure enough there was the stone store, only now it had been added to and made into a garage, and right next to it was the stone house where the owners lived - mom thought they had been distant relatives on her folks side. Now I really had some things to question Grandma B. about - grandma knows everything!
Finally early that afternoon, as we were visiting Grandma in the nursing home where she having a blast - no worrys, no upkeep - and even though Gram would never say it, 'totally waited on by the kids!' is great.
I asked Gram about Nettle Lake U.B. church and she didn't remember anything about any relatives worshiping there. Then I talked about the deteriorating condition of most of the homes on Nettle Lake, ..... she winked at me and said as only Gram can, 'honey, those homes were deteriorating when I was a kid!' ... then she said her oldest brother Andrew recalled that they [Andrew, Grandma, and her sister] had all been baptized in Nettle Lake - and he called it a 'mudhole.' Now I'm really getting interested - Grandma doesn't recall any involvement in Nettle Lake U.B, but she and her siblings are baptized in Nettle Lake, and believe me you've got to intentionally use Nettle Lake for a baptismal service, and there are head stones in the cemetery across the street with the family name??? ...plus there's a stone store in the area owned by distant relatives - there's a mystery here I'm going to investigate. Grandma did remember the store/house and reaffirmed mom's memory.
Well mom and I had a good laugh when it was all over ... mom said she felt like she'd been around the world, she hadn't put on that many miles in a day except to go to medical/dental appointment. I told her to start getting used to it, we're going to be a traveling pair - she did really enjoy the day, I think she just doesn't want to do all the driving. Next week I'm taking home some of my genealogical files on mom's family and we're going back to the Nettle Lake U.B. cemetery.
Well now I'm getting tired from all this writing!
ENJOY TODAY - GOD CREATED IT.