Posted on 01/16/2013 7:17:30 PM PST by BBell
On a shimmering Saturday 46 summers ago, three young women in bathing suits left their belongings on a crowded beach and climbed aboard a small motorboat on Lake Michigan an hour southeast of Chicago.
It was noon on July 2, 1966, at Indiana Dunes State Park.
A couple whose beach blanket was beside the women’s watched the boat glide away, then waited all day for them to return. They didn’t know the women but thought it was odd that they would leave purses unattended on a day when the park was packed with 9,000 holiday sunbathers.
As they left at dusk, the couple pointed out the abandoned blanket to a ranger. They said the women left on a boat operated by a tan young man with a mop of coal-colored curls. The ranger bundled up the sandy possessions and stored them.
Eighteen hours later, on July 4, Park Superintendent Bill Svetic took a call from a Chicago man inquiring about his daughter, Patty Blough, 19. She had not been heard from since leaving home for Indiana Dunes with two friends Saturday morning.
Svetic opened the blanket bundle and found Blough’s wallet, keys and clothing. He also found clothes and purses belonging to Blough’s companions, Renee Bruhl, 19, and Ann Miller, 21.
Miller’s 1955 Buick was in the parking lot — one of 2,200 cars that had entered the park that busy Saturday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Maybe in 1966 people were more trusting.
Beat me by a minute
;-)
I just read the Chuck Rutherford and Lana Stempien story you posted. Another strange story indeed. I noticed in the story it said that half of all drowning victims in Lake Huron are never found.
Unfortunately, I am old enough to easily remember 1966 - - bought my first record (’Day Tripper’ - Beatles) in January of that year. Yes, people were a lot more trusting, generally, than they are today.
Ping
“This was 1966 remember - - people had a lot more trust back then.”
True, because you could, but within a year things began to change. The Hippie movement started right about that time.
I remember only because that was the year I went into the Army, and the following June of 1967 I came home on leave from South Korea to find a World so different from what I’d left. The Hippie movement had begun, and I saw those freaks for the first time.
Best year of my life. Graduated high screwell and married my handsome prince......and we still “tagatha”......:)
I think the Endless Summer was in the theaters that year. That was a year or two before I found out about Warren Miller flicks. Life changed.
You’re correct. I had a similar experience coming back in 2003 after six years of being assigned overseas.
“it’s been said that the Great Lakes won’t give up the dead”
Could explain why no bodies were ever recovered from the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald ore ship in 1975.
Coming up on the big five oh. Congratulations.
It was a three-hour tour....a three-hour tour.
I wanna bunch of gold.....lots of gold.....LOL
I see something about Warren Miller on our dish. I gotta look him up. I loved the 60’s.....until the hippies and counter-culture started messin’ things up. :(
Were they on the Edmund Fitzgerald?
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