Traditions On The Way–

Published on October 5, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

When Beth Phillip’s parents drove her to camp in their pick-up truck (1972-78), there was a certain point where she would get so excited, because she felt like she was almost there. As they neared US 23 there was a pink tent and that was the landmark she waited to see!

“My Mom and Grandma would always drive me up there for sessions and my Dad would always pick me up and drive up to meet my Mom at our cottage near Harrisville,” said Jenifer Penzien (1969-71) of their yearly summer ritual.

For Maggie Young (1962), it was an adventure. “Even travelling in my Dad’s 1961 Corvair was an adventure. It ended up being my first car.”

“My family was not wealthy, and we didn’t even have a television until 1956,” said Ellen Hydorn (1954) whose aunt shared her vacation home in Tawas with the family,” but the rest of the girls I went up with were all fairly wealthy. I remember my Dad drove me up in the old Cadillac.”

Carol Requadt’s brother was in Camp Iroquois on Sand Lake in 1945 and when both camping sessions were over, their parents would pick them up and head to their rental cottage, which was also in Tawas. She was not alone in that double pick up, as many of the campers had brothers attending nearby camps.

Hop On The Bus!

Published on October 3, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“Camp Goers Too Busy To Worry About Weather” read the headline from a local Bay City newspaper pasted into the archival scrapbook. “Grade School Registered At Maqua Today: 25 Travel By Bus” was the second headline.

“Too agog about going to camp to care about the gray weather, and too busy lugging crowded bags to bother about rain coats, twenty-five youngsters of grade school age were at the YWCA this morning to board the bus that took them to Loon Lake. Munching candy, and starting to sing before they were even out of town, the crowd made a merry invasion of Camp Maqua for the first camping period of the season”, read the piece from June 26, 1935.

“The girls usually arrived on a bus that left from the YWCA in Bay City”, wrote 1920’s camper Margaret Dahlem in a letter in 1988, “but one rich girl arrived on a white motorcycle.”

There were more ways to arrive in style, as her friend Harriet Crumb could attest to one summer as she stood on the lawn of the lodge. She also rode the bus through Pinconning, Standish, Twining, Turner and Whittemore and into Hale, singing camp songs the entire time and loved the attention she received from the locals as they arrived in town.

“Initially, we were all loaded onto a bus, which belonged to the Y,” recalled Beverly Schlatter (1944-1949), “in front of the old “Y” building. We would meet all our friends there, with our footlockers or trunks packed with clothes or bedding for two weeks. My Dad unloaded the footlocker from the car to the bus and all the parents waved to us. As the bus pulled away, the older girls who had been to camp before, started singing the Maqua camp songs and that’s how we learned them.”

Nurses, Doctors and Patients–#6

Published on September 14, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Carol Hulett was the “Camp Health Director” during the time when it was impossible to find a nurse. After her junior and senior years at Albion College, where she majored in Biology, Carol trained under the American Camping Association and “learned to nurse” at camp the summers of 1973-74.

Sue Patenge, director, had recruited her at college and interviewed her the first summer. “That first summer I spent most of my free time with the unattached staff. I had been a counselor and a WSI and had helped out with the horses, so I had plenty of experience,” said Carol, who ended up becoming close friends with Sue after her camping years.

“I was certainly a little apprehensive, but felt ready as I had spent my whole life going to/working at camp. I was a pre-med, so my ego was fairly healthy,” she laughed. “I was also an athletic trainer at Albion College and felt I could handle pretty much anything!”

The last recorded medical staff in the YWCA records was in 1974, with Carol Hulett as camp health director under the directorship of Sue Patenge and local physician Dr.William McCadie was the camp physician.

Nurses, Doctors and Patients-#2

Published on August 31, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Lurking in the background during her days at camp in 1945, Carol Requadt recalled the silent fear about water and polio, despite the fact that it was not certain how it was contracted. “Since I was at camp during the days of polio, there was a generalized fear and slight paranoia about catching it. I knew a few who got it, but it was not talked about too much and I was never afraid of catching it as a young girl.”

“There was a girl who did not feel well for three days, and no one knew she was in the early states of polio,” said Carol Sue Abendroth (1953-54). “I heard later in high school that it was what she had, but she survived with only a limp.”

The camp personnel committee was responsible for hiring in 1958 and met on February 27, 1958. Their notes indicated Elizabeth Loessel was hired as the nurse with a salary of $270, plus room and board with a room for Margo and a period of camping for Sandra. (Were they daughters?) Nancy Griebel was hired for the final period.

In 1960 the nurse was a retired public health nurse by the name of Margaret Conley, followed by Janet Gehres in 1961. She was recruited for the camp nurse position by director Alice Bishop, who was taking anatomy classes at Michigan State University with Janet. Although she did not have her Michigan nursing license, the YWCA paid for her to get it, so she could take the position. (She was from Reading. Pa.)

“I went home and got my shorts and stuff ready and headed to camp. I lived in the Infirmary, which was in the middle of camp, and was the only building with a bathroom in it. I was pretty much on duty twenty-four hours a day. There were a lot of girls with allergies that summer and they all brought their bottles along with them, but I don’t recall giving any injections. I think they did that before they got to camp,” said Janet.

Alice Bishop had notes in her director’s report that summer relating to the program presented by the Michigan Tuberculosis Association. They presented a program, complete with songs, about TB for the campers to acquaint them with the disease. Although there was no indication that TB was a scare, public awareness about this disease was important.

Janet Gehres filed her nurse’s report at the end of the first session. She indicated that ninety-one campers came to camp and checked through the Infirmary with pre-camp medical sheets, personal medications collected and all girls weighed in. At the end of the session, they were weighed in again and it was noted; “Many of the girls gained weight, apparently satisfied with the menus offered them.”

Nurses, Doctors and Patients-#1

Published on August 29, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Off to camp went the girls, with their injection records up to date, physicals performed and armed with whatever medications they may need for their stay. Although the staff always included medical personnel, there was no way a summer camping session could maintain a clean slate of minor medical maladies, and sometimes even some major ones.

There was always a sick bay of some sort, whether in Dutton or in the new Infirmary and it was always staffed with a health official.As early as June 26, 1935 there was a mention in a news article about medical staff at the camp. The article was partially cut off, but mentioned Dr. Lorna Feng as the camp physician. (The piece noted her interest in art, literature and poetry; her position as an intern at Grace Hospital and that she was one of fifteen children educated abroad.)

Dorothy Bonnen, who camped in 1942, said “Dr. Vail’s wife was our nurse and she volunteered her time at camp with her five year old little boy with her around as she did her job. She used to be the person who inspected the cabins for tidiness.” (It is unclear if her husband was the doctor on call.)

There were also unexpected injuries that demanded immediate attention. “The mouse that Pam Farley hit with a broom during the day came out limping at night and she said ‘poor mouse’ and picked it up,” said Pat O’Tool (1944-52). “It proceeded to bite her and she had to be taken to West Branch to the doctor for a tenanus shot.”

Dutton and the Infirmary

Published on August 24, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

The farmhouse on the shores of Loon Lake was the first structure used as the main building in the summer of 1924 when the Camp Maqua property was purchased.

“Dutton was a farm house on the property, and this was used the first and second years and about twelve girls could be accommodated at one time, with a staff of three. The screened porch (which was added in 1940) was used for indoor activities, and the cooking was done in the same building”, according to a note in the archives.

There were a few discrepancies in the notes as to year the upstairs porch was added to Dutton, but it provided sleeping quarters for the director and the nurse and at one time the dietician.

A few tents were set up for the first campers. Miss Helen Graves, secretary of the Girl Reserve Department of the YWCA was the first camp director and Mrs. E.B. Perry was the camp chairman.

Margaret Dahlem was one of the original campers in the twenties and recalled the nurse’s first aid room was near the kitchen in the lodge during her stay. Beverly Schlatter, who had camped in the mid forties, recalled a tent/cabin, which appeared to be a temporary structure, and was located down the hill from the lodge. “It was used as the Infirmary and it was about 50-60 ft. from the lodge between the craft hut and the lodge. The nurse dispensed meds or we went there if we were ill. I remember I had to go twice a day to get my meds for some reason.”

Girls of Camp Maqua

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1940’s