Some year in the early '80s, shortly after we bought the Schroeders’ cabin on LaPoint Island (in Potagannissing Bay on the north side of Drummond Island), there was a very large hatch of toads. We could hardly take a step in the front yard at the cabin without stepping on pea-size toads. Bill made a remark that the place should have been named “Toad Island”. We’ve seen little toads thick and numerous at the cabin several times since, so the idea and the name persisted.

Soon again, in the days before we had phones on LaPoint Island, we thought that visitors could announce their arrival  by CB radio instead of driving to the end of Harley’s dock and flashing car lights. People, and everything else, too, have to be ferried to the cabin by boat. The boat was at the cabin if we were there, arrival times were uncertain because of the long drive from almost anywhere, and one couldn't be sure of getting on any particular ferry from DeTour to Drummond. Mary’s parents already kept a CB radio in their car, and we bought one for the cabin. We decided that our cabin moniker would be, of course, “Toad Island”.

The CB radios didn't get much use because, by the time we learned to use them, the Upper Peninsula Telephone Company was laying cable on our little island. It was much easier and a bit more reliable to use the pay phone at the Drummond Island Sports Center (Harley’s), right across "The Gap", to announce an arrival.

We continued, however, to refer to our vacation cabin as Toad Island and, when it came time to choose an email ID, it seemed just right to use “toadisland@abc.efg”.

Over the years, "Toad Island" evolved from a name for an old cabin and a 100' lot on LaPoint Island. It's no longer just a place. Toad Island became a state of mind, and now ....