Summary of Once More to the Lake
Once More to the Lake" is a personal story told by E.B. White about his childhood experiences at the lake where his father had taken him for an entire month in the summer. In the beginning of the story. White begins to remember more and more about his personal experiences at the lake when he was a child. Now, he has revisited the lake with his son.
In this essay, E.B White narrates a week's visit that he made with his son to the Maine Lake where once he himself had gone to celebrate a vacation as a child with his father.
During his visit with his son, he walks and fishes with his son. He feels same experience but less excitement as before. Now excitement and enthusiasm are not as intense as before. Moreover, he finds that juvenile delight in his son and tries to soothe himself internalizing the fact that everything is transitory and subjected to fade away.
In the past, White as a boy had gone to the Maine Lake to enjoy the vacation. He and his father stayed there for the whole August and enjoyed the simple and serene life. They returned there every summer despite getting ringworms and other such rustic problems.
White with his son visited the lake after many years. After remembering all the fun and great experiences that he had got made him decide to bring his son to the lake. He hopes that he will too enjoy the lake and make memories. During their journey, he wonders how time might have changed his feeling and emotion.
On his arrival at the lake, things were as pretty as before and environment of the lake was not changed much but in him, the excitement was not so intense. Previously, he with his father had come there through farm wagon. But now they have arrived in their own car. So, in this visit, he misses that pastoral life as well. White feels like a mirage because it echoes him his serene activities that he had made in Maine lake as he was with his father.
Activities of his son provide him a calm sensation and make him nostalgic of his childhood in which time he was in the Maine lake. More he views the son activities, more he remembers his childhood
visit to the lake. He thinks that time is changeable so that feeling and excitement also changed. As he was with son, the sound of motors, the three-track road, and the waitress reminded him of those wonderful times he had as a boy. At present, everything he sees and feels in an around the lake that
make him to remember his childhood visit to the lake. In this way, White revisits his ideal boyhood vacation spots. He finds great joy in this visit but ironically it makes him feel that he is a grown-up man