Les is More

by Sophia Schein

Our first article, by Sophia Schein [then 13], is a profile of Les Ernhout who, as Sophia notes, may be "the resident who has consistently lived on the lake the longest." Sophia lives with her parents and brother in the home first owned by her grandparents, Joy and Harvey Schein, who came to Lake Waramaug in the 70s.

The first time I met Les was when I was two, and from what I am told, I thought it would be funny to run away from my mom and older brother on Ash Swamp Road where we had been walking. I ran off the dirt road and onto the lake road right into Les Ernhout's driveway, where he entertained me with his bird houses until my frantic mother caught up to me. Les reassured her that I was quite alright and from this short encounter we learned how truly thoughtful a man Les is. So naturally, when I decided to write a piece on someone who lives on the lake I thought of him.

Les Ernhout

Before my interview with him, I thought that I at least knew a bit about Les, but it turns out that I really didn't know anything. He truly is a legend. Les was born on the lake and grew up in a home on Arrow Point, belonging to the Holzworth family, for whom his dad worked from 1929 until the early 1950s. Les's mother was from Kent, CT and his dad was originally from Warwick, New York.

In 1956, after his two year service in the army with the combat engineers during the Korean War, Les bought the house he lives in today and worked for the Connecticut Light and Power for almost 40 years, where he was a supervisor in the line department. My grandma, Joy Schein, has told me stories about walking along the lake road early in the morning and seeing Les doing repairs way back in the late 80's. "He was always there helping us in all kinds of weather," she fondly remembered. Les has also told me stories about caring for our house in the 70s when it was owned by the Spetenagel family and driving their belongings down to Florida after each summer, spending a week in their condo and driving back to the lake.

As many know, Les takes care of many homes on the lake over the winter. However, most do not know how he took over this position. In 1962, when Les was in his 30's, Mr. Scott and his family were heading back to New York City after Labor Day and needed someone to look after their home, which was directly across from Les' home and now belongs to the Hansens. Les remembers that it was their maid, Mrs. Curtain, who suggested him. "I've been doing it for 50 years," Les proudly stated. The news of his service spread quickly by word of mouth and many grabbed up the opportunity to have a trusted member of the community caring for their homes while they were away. He now cares for over 75 houses in our community.

Over the years he has had some now funny stories. He has, on multiple occasions, been followed by police who believed he was burglarizing the homes he had been checking. "Twice I had guns drawn on me and many times I've seen the police looking in windows or hiding behind a tree trying to figure out what I was doing." Of course these stories weren't so funny at the time, but Les and his wife, Irma, now joke about it.

Like the rest of us, Les enjoys living on the lake. "I like to live around water and nature," he told me. He likes to fish and walk his dog as often as he can. He spends his time with Irma, who he met in 1970, and his family. He described that when he first moved back to the lake it was mostly people that lived here year round and would visit somewhere else on Labor Day or on weekends. Today, the lake community is made up of more families that use it as a vacation home. When describing the lake, Les remarks that the natural environment stays similar and calm from year to year, and that he knows what to expect each season. For example, some algae in August. He did note, though, that the lake is exceptionally low this year.

While there may be some other folks on the lake that are older than Les, he is the resident who has consistently lived on the lake the longest. I hope that if you didn't know it already, you can now see how vital he is to our community.