Molly at the Beach???

[jerseycow6]

Since we've all been kind of abuzz about items of Molly's, it's brought up something I've been wondering about for a while...

Molly's Bathing Suit.

They say that it's for Molly to go to the beach in. I'm not familiar with the area, but didn't she live in Illinois?

According to Google maps, the real city of Jefferson, Illinois appears to be near Chicago on a Great Lake. Does it have a beach that people would have gone to a lot?

Unless this is another item that we're supposed to look at as something she would have gotten post-war, wouldn't it have been an awfully far drive for her family to get to a beach that's not on a Great Lake? And, rubber rationing aside, wouldn't driving that far have been a no-no during wartime gas rationing?

I think it's cool they made a reproduction bathing suit of the era, and it's really pretty, but I know very little about the availability of beaches in the midwest. How often would Molly's character really have had use for such a thing? (The same question kind of goes for Kit, too)

[MaryCarly]

The Great Lake beaches are wonderful. The water is cold, but having grown up in Michigan, we were used to cold. Our favorite spot on Lake Michigan was five hours away and worth every bit of the drive. There were huge sand dunes and the waves were awesome. The lakes are so big that it takes hours to cross them by ship and of course there is no way you can see the other side. If you didn't know any better, you would think you were at the ocean - just no sharks. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[MaryCarly]

There were also probably lots of smaller inland lakes. I don't know the Chicago area, but it isn't very far from Michigan and there is one lake after another there. You couldn't get away from water if you tried.

[lacherig]

I grew up on Lake Superior. And, yes, there are plenty of beaches on the Great Lakes.

[zap_sea]

I think her mystery book starts out with her swimming at a swimming hole at her grandparent's farm. That kind of counts as the beach.

[jrtmom3274]

Oh my, yes do the Great Lakes EVER have beaches!!! When you say, "Let's go to the beach" around here, the dogs go crazy and the trip takes only 90 seconds!
There are dozens of public beaches, just here in our county. The water is swim-able (not bone chilling) from about the second week in June to mid-September. At certain times of the day in our area, body surfing and boogie boarding is possible. Michigan also has the highest population of boats (pleasure, ski & fishing) than any state in the union.
PLUS, if you accidently snort the water up your nose, it's not salty!

Here are some photos of Molly at a Lake Huron beach:

Molly & Friends Go To The Beach

[thepidget]

That's actually a really good question. I've lived my entire life in Southern California (and two years very close to Santa Monica), and when I think of beaches, I just think of...well...big oceans like the Pacific or Atlantic. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I never even considered the Great Lakes...shame on me!!! Oh, well. You learn something new everyday!! If I ever get to visit the Great Lakes, I will take my Molly with me! [img]wink.gif[/img]

[jerseycow6]

Yeah, I grew up in South Jersey, and I spent last summer staying with family a little south of LA, so ocean-bordering beaches are the only kind I've ever been familiar with, too. Well, or man-made ones at the edges of inland lakes. I do like that idea of no sharks, though!

[jrtmom3274]

The first time I saw Lake Erie, at age 9 or so, I said to my mom, "You LIED! You said this was a lake. It's the ocean!!!"

Lake Huron is 125 miles across. When you look out on it, it looks like the ocean because all you see is water. Well... except it's really blue and WAY cleaner than any part of the Atlantic or Pacific I've ever seen!

[jerseycow6]

It sounds beautiful!
I knew that there are supposed to be some pretty islands in the lake near PA, and I saw the lake when I was in Chicago, but I hadn't even thought of beaches.

Definately echoing thepidget with "you learn something new every day!"