1940’s

Burnt Toast and Bug Juice–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

In the early twenties’ each counselor brought a white enamel pitcher of milk and a plate of graham crackers to the hut. “—for it was a long time between meals and we were hungry by then. This helped us to hold off starvation overnight,” said Harriet Crumb.

Her friend Meg Dahlem remembered the hot chocolate in the morning and buscuits and butter with maple syrup as a treat. “They had good food three times a day and we ate a lot of beef, mashed potatoes and my favorite—raspberry pie,” said Meg.

The kitchen staff, and food in general, were an important component of camp life. Great care was taken to find the right staff, spend wisely and cook nutritiously for the campers and staff. In 1936, there were hints that local businesses were not happy with the amount of provisions that were purchased out of the local area, and buying in bulk from larger distributors was a common practice.

In 1943 Adelaide Macaulay left notes in a camp season report in the archives, referencing a Miss McCullough, who was affectionately nicknamed Mac, and served as the camp hostess. “I think the title is misleading—it should be housekeeper, for that is what it proved to be, and is far from an easy one. The duties start early in the morning and aren’t over until the last child has been served crackers and milk at bedtime.”

“This year was especially hard, because of the food situation, but we had exceptionally good meals, and in quantities so there was always enough for second and third servings. One Bay City mother of two girls who were given a reduction of $56 off her bill, has done a lot of criticizing, said her children did not get enough to eat, Mac was no good at her job and a lot of this kind of bunk.”

They weighed one of the children at the end of the first two weeks and she had gained five pounds! Miss Macauley noted that parents always had food complaints, and some years were justified, but this summer had not been one of them. Mac had served 23,836 meals, which included cakes, cookies and pies and the cooks were considered “treasures”, were clean and managed the budget.

Marsha Immerman (1947-53) loved the food and to this day when she smells burnt toast, it reminds her of camp. “I also loved to get those little boxes of Wheaties, because they were my favorite, but when some of my fellow campers found out, they would grab them. The girls in the kitchen were always singing and we were singing before, during and after our meals. We had a song we used to sing to the cook we called “Cookie”. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was chipped beef on toast and my Mother complaining to the “Y” that the variety of food wasn’t good. They told her it was because I was there all summer!”

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Hoppers and Manners–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“I loved meal time with the chatter and clatter and how we all sat with our cabin at one table. We would take turns setting the table, clearing, gathering the dishes into the tub to wash and so much singing and prank playing,” laughed Chris Lambert (1958-65).

The food was unremarkable for Sue Augustyniak (1962-68), and she figured the kitchen would never pass health inspectors during her time there. “Everyone had a job. Each camper was paired with another camper and the counselors would mix us up. Two would set the tables, two would wait on the tables, and two would clean up. We took turns. After our meal, the kitchen staff would bring two buckets of water. One was soapy and one was rinse water. We would wash and rinse ours, plus those place settings from the kitchen staff. In retrospect, I KNOW it would never pass inspection.”

Sue Michelson (1963-73) said in the sixties’, she was still doing dishes in the tubs and a tongue depressor with jobs written on it were handed out to the girls. She believed the Health Dept. eventually enforced dishwashing in the kitchen, despite the fact that Randi Topping was always impressed with how scalding hot the water was.

(There was a mention of washing dishes in the minutes of the camp committee in 1959 criticizing the camp’s methods and for years a dishwasher was on the wish list.)

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Cooks In The Kitchen–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Meg Dahlem, camper from the early twenties’, recalled the kitchen extended across the entire front of the lodge. (When she stopped in 1987, she recognized the benches, tables, piano and porch swing were all from her time at camp.)

The camp bell rang for meals, and was located in different places during different years. It was the “core of our existence here at Maqua” read a caption under a news photo of Margaret Burr, counselor from Plymouth and a senior at Albion in 1957. “If the bell goes haywire, the camp would not know when to eat, sleep or play.”

“The lodge was very important because we ate every meal in it,” said Kayleen Jacques (1956-59). “There were picnic tables and benches that were not attached to them in the dining room. So, when we sang, we could pick up the bench and pound it on the floor for added effect. We sang before each meal and policed our own tables after we ate.”

(Jean Evans (1933-38) laughed as she related the lodge was only a place to eat and she avoided it at all costs because it was where the director and staff who could boss her around hung out.)

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Skinny Dipping!

Published on by Kathy Baker

“Having a boys’ camp across the lake did not stop the tradition of bathing in the lake in the forties’ and fifties’. Mary Jo Stegall camped in1933-41 and did just that. (I imagine the campers had been participating in this ritual when the camp was built in the twenties’ and kept it up until showers were installed.)

“I remember how silly we got when we got into the lake to bathe in our bathing suits,” said Shirley Colbert (1941). “Part of the suit would eventually come off, and although we never saw them, we always worried about those boys at the camp across the lake coming over.”

Back in the day, there were Saturday night baths and Bev Lemanski (1945). remembered Ivory was the requested soap because it floated. “There we all were in Loon Lake “au naturel” and then we would spot the canoes from the boys camp trying to get close enough to see us,” she laughed. The coldness of the lake and going in for the first time is a memory that stayed with Ellen Hydorn (1954), who had a special little soap dish she used for her lake baths.

Sally Harris, who camped in the late forties’ and early fifties’, could still remember taking those Saturday night baths, and the girls worried so much about the boys that they would run into the water as fast as they could.

Janice Moore (1953) laughed as she related an incident when some of the girls went for a walk off limits and close to the water. “There was poison ivy, so we went into the hut near the water and took off our shorts and washed off with soap in the lake in case we did get poison ivy on us. I guess there was a couple in a fishing boat that came by and saw this horrible display and we were all admonished for being off limits.”

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Taking The Path To The Brownie–

Published on by Kathy Baker

There was no such thing as an indoor toilet in the huts, but the little girls wished there had been, since that dark path to the Brownie was a scary trek. Phoebe Atha (1947-48) thought it was a frightening walk to get there, as did Karen Short (1945-48) .Even the buildings themselves housed creatures that scared the little girls. (The only time it felt safe was in the middle of tornado warnings, when it doubled as a shelter.)

“The cabins were dark at night. There were metal bunk beds and it was so disorienting when you tried to go to the bathroom if you did not have a flashlight,” said Susie Utter (1954-56). “It was pretty traumatic the first time I went and it was quite a hike at night as a little girl. As we got older, I remember we had to do Brownie duty, which no one liked.”

“I can still remember getting up in the middle of the night to walk down to the bathroom from my cabin and seeing all those Daddy Long Leg spiders,” said Sally Hurand, who camped in the mid-sixties’. “I had a conversation with myself to make friends with those things.”

Kellie Moore and Sue Robson camped in the seventies’ and there was a protocol for visiting the Brownie. They would stand by the front door of the hut and yell, “Cabin 5! Brownie!” and someone would answer by yelling out that they could go. “I think they were at the lodge partying,” laughed Sue. (Poor little Kellie encountered a skunk as she was taking the pathway up the hill with her flashlight to go to the Brownie and decided she didn’t have to go that badly.)

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Brownies and Bradley Basins

Published on by Kathy Baker

Campers Margot Homburger and Judy Sherman remembered a time at camp when there was no hot water and no indoor plumbing. They had both camped in the late forties’ and early fifties’.“I hated using the available toilets, which were smelly holes in the ground,” said Judy, who was happy when the large centrally located bathroom with real toilets and a circular sink were built.

“There were no flushing toilets when I was there. It was just a hole in the ground in the outhouse,” laughed Molly Olson (1946), as she told her funny story about apricots. “I ate the whole box. I loved apricots! But, I spent a lot of time in that outhouse. There were also our baths on Saturday night, where we had skinny dips near the boathouse because there were no showers.”

Notes found from the camp committee in 1951 stated the sanitary system was always unsatisfactory and always and expense. A new septic system had been installed in 1950, which had been approved by the Health Dept., “but which were almost useless.”

In 1951 the “Brownies”, which were essentially holes in the ground surrounded by a wooden outhouse, were converted to “privies”. Funds, which were contributed for camp improvements, were earmarked for a new “Brownie”.

An editorial in the July 10-24, 1952 issue of the “Loon” read: “Camp Maqua has a new building, nicer than ever before. This building is the Brownie. It has a fountain where many girls can wash their hands at the same time and it has two showers. Some of the campers did ont take good care of the toilets or hand washer, so the staff of counselors had a campaign to make the campers realize the privilege they were abusing. We hope the campers in the years to come will take care of this building and its equipment, so they will be as good as they were when they were new.”

Girls that had done without these fine facilities were excited with this new concept. “It had a foot bar all around the circle that you depressed to activate the water out of the faucets. It was extremely impressive to a seven or eight year old,” said Judy Sherman.

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