GENERATIONS OF TRADITION
THE HUGHES CREW TRADITION
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BY TERESA SUTTER n the summer of 1944, my grandma and grandpa loaded up their car in Peoria, Illinois, “borrowed” some extra gas coupons (as rationing was still going on) and headed over 600 miles north to visit their friend, Bill Urban, a fellow centralIllinoisan, who had recently been deeded a resort on Upper Gull Lake in Nisswa, Minnesota, as a debt payment. They spent a week fishing, playing cards, enjoying the water and the woods, and reveling in time away from their five children. At the end of the week, Grandma and Grandpa vowed to return, not realizing then that their descendants wouldn’t miss a summer in Nisswa for the next 80 years. In 1946, Grandma and Grandpa decided to bring their six kids along on the annual trip to Urban’s Resort, this time staying for three weeks. They loaded up their ’38 Plymouth, spent the night in Black River Falls and arrived in Nisswa two days later. Thus began the tradition of my mom and her five siblings spending three weeks each summer in Nisswa. They played on the dock (which all five cabins shared) and on the slide in the lake, caught frogs, worms and minnows, fished and swam in the water for hours, and picked blueberries and raspberries. My uncle tells the story of sneaking into the icehouse and grabbing chunks of ice to slide down the hill into Upper Gull Lake when Grandma and Grandpa were dancing, gambling and enjoying a night out at Bar Harbor Supper Club. In the ‘50s, as my mom and her siblings entered their teenage years, they became good friends with many locals such as the 40 | Nisswa Chamber Guide 2024
Castners and the Schmidt kids, whose parents were the caretakers of Urban’s Resort. Not having a boat themselves, my mom and her four sisters spent the first few days finding boys that did! They’d often head down to the clubhouse at Cold Springs Resort to play pool, listen to music, pick up a game of ping pong and enjoy ice cream on a hot summer night while swatting the mosquitoes away. In the mid-’60s my mom met my dad on a blind date and he happened to own a boat! She convinced him to drive his boat
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