Story Four, Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss Summary

A TV commercial about a perfect family preparing to go on a family holiday brings to the narrator's mind the annual family vacation to Clear Lake, Michigan. For fourteen years the Shepherd family takes its annual pilgrimage for fourteen days to southern Michigan, on the shores of Clear Lake at Ollie Hopnoodle's resort. Once school lets out, the narrator and his kid brother begin preparations for vacation, of which the most important are amassing their collection of dime-store fishing tackle and a BB gun. Even though the vacation is still almost two months away, the boys must begin their preparations early, no doubt modeling the efforts of their mother who is also beginning to lay in supplies for the journey. Two weeks prior to departure, the Old Man takes the Olds...