Growing Up on WEISS: Chamber’s own Joy Perry Remembers
We were lucky kids, growing up, and just didn’t give it the credit we should have. My dad, Jake Coker, was part of the construction crew chosen to build Weiss Dam.
That put us right at the heart of the Weiss Lake, and it was just the normal thing to go swimming in Weiss, and that’s what we did.
When I was about 10, I learned to ski near Yellow Creek Falls, and I still believe it was one of the most fun times I had as a child. As a teenager, I spent an inordinate amount of time skiing all over Weiss with my friends, and did so until it was too dark to see.
52
I can still ski, and each summer I slalom ski at least once to show my grown children (and myself ) I can. The rest of the summer is usually spent cruising around on my Jet Ski, or sight seeing with family on their pontoon boat.
I have lived on Weiss Lake most of my life. My children were riding in a boat when they were just a few weeks old, and on training skis as toddlers. I can’t remember when they couldn’t swim. We always enjoyed packing a picnic and going out on our sailboat to watch the sunset over the lake. Sunsets were always spectacular, and never the same. We loved going by boat to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks on Liberty Day, at Cedar Bluff or Chesnut Bay and the campgrounds. In their teens, my children and their friends would ride the jet skis for hours, sometimes making stops at Yellow Creek
Falls to jump in or ride to where Little River joins Weiss Lake—to swim in the “cool” water.
“Lake Days” with their Church youth group was an every weekend activity during summer break. They loved skiing, wakeboarding, tubing and riding jet skis.
I absolutely loved living on the lake and being there with the kids and hosting their friends.
I cherish the memories I have on Weiss Lake, and now my grown children have created memories of their own. When they both lived on campus during college, they brought many friends home to visit. They came from all over Alabama, some from New York and Boston, and still love our lake, coming back every summer since.
“It’s pretty nice to have Weiss Lake in your backyard.”