Diane Dudley(1957-63) was one of the writers for “The Loon” and saved many of her copies. Her time at Maqua was very influential, and her love for the woods influenced her to continue living in the woods to this day. She sent a passage from a book by G.K. Chesterton from one of his short stories-”The Sins of Prince Saradine”, from the book “Father Brown—The Essential Tales”.
“Father,” said Flambeau suddenly, “do you think it was all a dream?’ The priest shook his head, whether in dissent or agnosticism, but remained mute. A smell of hawthorns and of orchards came to them through the darkness, telling them that a wind was awake; the next moment it swayed their little boat and swelled their sail, and carried them onward down the winding river to happier places and the homes of harmless men.”
“Well, that’s the feeling I remember most— reminds me of the whole point of summer camp,” said Diane. “The memory of good things also brought on the smell of 612 insect lotion.”
“I remember not liking air conditioning in our house after returning from camp. I loved the outdoors, the water and the smell of camp,” said Sally Hurand, who camped in the mid-sixties.“ That place was a place to live out being a child outside the academics and expectations of our parents. I could become one with nature, be an Indian, be in a different place and time. I never perceived camp as an escape but as a gift. It was the luxury that my parents could afford for me. When I first started, it was scary for a kid who was away from home for the first time, but I did ask if I could go back. It was an adventure and it was part of being healthy as a kid—to go to camp. The more I experienced the natural world, the more I liked it. The more I liked it, the more it felt like a gift to me. I just remember camp was camp and life was life.”
For others, the very structure and discipline of camp was a huge appeal. Judy MacNicols (1946) said, “Camp taught me how to be away from my parents with its structure and rules, even though we had some of that at home. We had schedules and had to be there at a certain time. It was good to get out among strangers.”
“The nice thing about camp that I enjoyed the most was the structure. I’ve noticed I do better with structure, said Ann Ward (1958-61). “My parents were fifties hippies and we were always somewhere else in the winter for months at a time. Mexico, Florida—and my Mom would “home-school” me. I was in the military for four and a half years in the mid-seventies and at the end of the Vietnam War, they anticipated that women would be needed as officers. I served in the Women’s Army Corp. and I ended up in EOD school as one of the few women, working with Jimmy Carter and Elizabeth Dole’s details. Now I am a prosecuting attorney in New Mexico and I believe the structure and discipline I learned at Maqua was a help to me. My sense of adventure started at Maqua and with my parents, who had options in their life.”
Susan Bradford (1965) felt like she never wanted to leave Camp Maqua and was always connected to groups growing up. (Girl Scouts, youth fellowship, Young Life and other camps.) Her time at camp and other organizations were the underpinning of her formative years.
“I have always wished that as an adult I could go back to Camp Maqua for two weeks during the summer and do the same things I did as a kid,” said Lindy White (1970-73). “There were no summers that have ever measured up to the summers I spent at Maqua.” I wonder how many of you felt the same way—