1979 summer-camp movie “Meatballs” at Northbrook Canoe Company was a lot of fun. The weather was intermittently rainy, so we screened the film under the tin roof of the canoe barn (formerly a feed and grain store, before Ezekiel C. “Zeke” Hubbard started Northbrook in 1977.) Our friend and next-door neighbor Harold Ross brought a camera with an enormous, light-gathering lens, and took this awesome picture:

I can’t say enough great things about Northbrook. Kate, and I have been taking a trip there every year, and the atmosphere is unbelievably, authentically, and gloriously summery. Someday soon, a Hollywood location scout is going to come through with a polaroid camera and a battery of cellphones, and they’re going to make a breathy, yoga-powered shriek, and summon a battery of helicopters packed with movie cameras, second assistant directors, and makeup artists, and they’ll remake Meatballs as a Will Ferrell vehicle. So go there while you can, before it gets littered with plastic latte cups and craft-service tables! Hurry!