Many of the girls who camped at Maqua already had family cabins on lakes, rivers or in the woods. For those who did not, many later in life chose that summer or winter cabin lifestyle, which was reminiscent of their early years at camp in the fifties. It was a wonderful way to grow up and they shared that experience with their families and friends.
“I feel like camp had multiple impacts on me. When I heard my Dad talk about the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.) under Roosevelt, where people went to camps to plant trees and built bridges, I think of how it put people to work with a minimum wage and it was a coming together to do good things, “ said Caryl Sue Abendroth, who camped in the fifties.
“I compared my experiences of his to Maqua. I learned to experience and create and it nurtured my spirit .We need more of the gentle camp experiences today where children are encouraged to sit in quiet, read, walk and write. Instead of the viciousness I see now, we helped and cooperated. Camp pulled people together and we could just be one for awhile.”
“My father bought a cottage on Loon Lake and it was a long walk from the camp. It was the greatest little cottage and it was to the right of the camp. I went to camp before they had the cottage, but I do believe they only had that cottage for two summers and had to sell, since it was too expensive to keep up two homes. I think I was thirteen as a camper and fourteen as a C.I.T. and I am seventy now and I have this longing to own a place back on Loon Lake.”
Caryl Sue has been involved with and created programs for schools for gifted and talented children and continues her leadership in her community. Her background is in education and writing.
“I know I was always on the outside looking in, but in general I loved going to camp,” said Gretchen Jacques, who camped in the fifties. “I couldn’t relate to the homesick girls. I loved the woods. My Mom would never camp and so maybe that is why it was so great for me. I got to be out. Sleeping outside. And when I got older, I tent camped. It was a chance for me to have an outdoor experience day after day at camp, even when it was raining. (I learned to play poker on those rainy days.)”
“We used to rent places on Mullet Lake when we were growing up and now my two sisters have places on Mullet Lake, and I think maybe I should buy a little piece of land and then I think—no—I don’t want to do Michigan winters. But, when we get together, we have so much fun! As a kid, I hated to leave those places, too. My whole family felt like that, too. I loved it and hated to leave, just like camp. I call it “Reverse Homesick”.
Sally Harris(1950) experienced camping in the late forties and fifties.She was a pre-school teacher, married young and had a boy and a girl. Her husband was from Charlevoix, so they had a cabin up there and her daughter went to Camp Daggett. Her son didn’t go, but she and her husband enjoyed camping all over the country.
Barb Hale (1950) recalled,“My sister and I coaxed and coaxed to go to camp and we had experience with camping with our parents, who loved to vacation with tents and a trailer. Our cabin, which was built in 1945 is still standing near Cooke Dam Rd. and our family still goes up there. When we were young, there was no electricity and we used kerosene lamps. My parents would go up every two weeks during deer season and we would get our two weeks of homework and did our lessons faithfully and it was so much fun! My daughter even wrote a book about the cabin.”
“When I look back at my camping times, I can still smell that cabin smell at Camp Maqua and I liked the odor. I loved the lodge on the hill and it seemed so big at the time, but when I drove back for a look years later it looked so much smaller as an adult.”