Camp As A Life Adjustment

Published on June 22, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Many families sent their daughters off to camp during or after moving to the area to make new friends before school started. Marcia Kessler (1959-61) remembered her friend Buffy, who had just moved. Had she met her at school and not at camp, she still would have been an instant friend, she admitted.

For Priscilla (1968) and Amy Johns,their family had been transferred back to Michigan from New York the summer before. “Cilla” went with two friends, Evelyn Biggs and Doris Engibous, and loved it from the beginning, happy to get away from a less than peaceful household. The parents had decided that camp would be a great way to acclimate the two sisters to the move. The sisters had travelled a great deal with family, were very independent and begged to stay extra sessions. “I never looked back”, said Amy, who continued every summer until 1978 between her freshman and sophomore years of college. “It was easier than getting a real job during the summer.”

Kathleen Clement’s family moved to Bay City when she was nine, shortly after her parent’s separation. They lived with her elderly grandfather at the time, and helped to care for him after multiple strokes. “When I got to camp, it was like Heaven! I was never shy and I didn’t want to come home. When my Mom came up on visitor’s day, I hounded her to stay another week, so I finagled three weeks and was happy. I was always good at begging. I don’t know how he afforded it because he had a greenhouse and lost it, but it was the only thing I got to do. I only went the two summers of 1961-62 at aged eleven and twelve, since I helped to take care of my grandfather.”

Where The Girls Are–

Published on June 20, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Girls who came from homes as an only child, homes with all boys or even a house filled with children—the reasons were varied as to why campers loved being with all girls for an extended period of time.

Elaine Levinsohn spent three wonderful summers from 1927-1930 and loved being away from home. She had one brother and no sisters, and like many of the girls camp was appealing because she could be around other girls her age.

“I was the only girl out of four kids in my family,” said Sarah Smith, whose mother Joyce was President of the YWCA board and main fundraiser in the seventies. Her mother had attended Holyoke, which was an all girls’ college, and had valued those friendships. “She sent me on purpose to an all girls camp, so I would understand the world was not all about men!”

Beverley Schlatter (1944) spent four summers there. Her friends had gone and she begged her parents to go. “I had never been away from home and I was an only child, which was a lonely life, since I really had no one to play with. Many of my friends tried to go at the same time as I did, and I begged to go back after my two weeks there.”

It’s A Tradition!

Published on June 15, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Some of the girls were dropped off at camp and loved “being free and away from home”, said Carolyn Stanton, who spent glorious years during the late forties and fifties when her parents took their vacation in July. Debi Gottlieb’s parents had a cottage in Tawas, so they would drop her off and go to their cottage in the sixties.

Beverley Schlatter’s parents vacationed at a Sand Lake rental, but would stay on after camp sessions so Bev could bring a friend. Kathy Krohn’s family had a cabin on Point Lookout near Au Gres, where she spent time with other Bay City families who told her family about Maqua.

But for the hundreds of girls heading off to Camp Maqua, it was a genuine tradition in their family. Their grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and siblings had gone and the younger ones counted the years until they could also carry on the rituals, driving north with their families as their siblings were dropped off and picked up. They knew the songs from the car rides, they had seen the photos, heard the stories and now it was their turn!

For Sue Michelson’s family it was just that. Her mother and sisters had all camped there and she bunked alongside girls whose mothers had camped with her Mom! “Do you know what it was like to go there and see my mother’s name written in toothpaste on the ceiling of one of the huts?”

Why Should I Go?

Published on June 13, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Who could have guessed a movie would have such impact on the camping industry, but “The Parent Trap” (released in 1961) starring Hayley Mills as a set of twins, was a preview of a sleep away camp for sixties campers Mary Grego, and sisters Cathy and Debbie Hawkins, who felt the movie prepared them for Camp Maqua in a happy, positive way.

For many of the girls, this camp was THE camp everyone had heard of and “the expected thing to do”, according to twenties camper Mary Jo Stegall. Even Anne Obey, camper and later a counselor in the sixties, felt like it was a tradition, especially for families who had relatives who had previously attended. “While some were being sent of to those rich uppity camps, we middle class folk went to Maqua.”

Carol Requadt (1945) did not have a best friend and although she was on the shy side, making new friends at camp never seemed to be an issue. “I felt like school was boring, the summers were boring and camp was an exciting place to be!”

Parents who wanted their girls to escape the city and broaden their horizons looked at camp as an ideal solution. Ilene Roger’s family wanted her out in the country for fresh air. Sisters Marge and Helen Hasty, whose father was the camp doctor in the forties, were from the small town of Whittemore, only miles up the road. They found the experience a way to “meet peers at a different level”.

Jan Mosier’s father was also a physician (Dr. Dwight Mosier-General Practitioner), who enlisted as a doctor during World War II, and was gone a good deal of the time. Her mother didn’t drive, but she wanted Jan to have the camp experiences, so she wisely signed her up for a stay at home camp in 1946, which led to her full camping days.

I Was Talked Into Camp—

Published on June 8, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

The list of mothers who sent their daughters to camp would be endless and incomplete, but for most of the daughters who believed the magic of their mother’s stories of their Maqua camp experiences, they were not disappointed by their summers. Well, let’s just add, most of them were not disappointed. There were a few who had stories of their dreaded days away from home.

Sisters, friends and cousins were very influential in convincing and influencing, as seen by the rosters of relatives who attended year after year. Sisters from the Cone, Sherman Augustyniak, Carney, Kessler, and Wilkinson families were prime examples.

“I was twelve and my sister was a year younger than me, but everyone thought we were twins. It was fine that she went at the same time as I did, because we were in different cabins. We enjoyed going even though we had just been on vacation, mainly because it was the first time, aside from overnights at girlfriend’s houses, where we were away from our Mom. She was divorced and worked nights, and I knew camp fees had to be a lot for her, but honestly I think she was glad to get rid of us for a few weeks so she could get her work done,” admitted Deb Wilkinson with a laugh.

Sue and Chris Augustyniak camped in the sixties and were enticed to attend by separate girlfriends, who did not want to go alone, but ended up hanging out in each other’s cabins.

Judy (1946) was the middle child of the three Kessler girls, who included Mickie and Bonnie, and although their camping years overlapped and clothes were passed down, they were never at camp at the same time. Judy Sherman (1946) was a young six or seven, and was allowed to go because her sister was there.

I Can’t Wait To Go!

Published on June 6, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Not every young camper who packed off to camp loved the idea of time away from their parents, sharing a room with sometimes seven strangers and spiders, or eating food that was not cooked by Mom, but for the majority of girls those summers were the days that memories were made of.

Cara Prieskorn’s accounts of her years at Camp Maqua from 1966-71 (as a ten year old and oldest of five) included the fact she was so happy to get away from home. “I was around city kids for the first time”, said Cara, who was from the small town of Cass City. “I went the first time I could go and I had no idea what I was getting into. I used to go to the Maqua Jamborees at the “Y” and hated it, since I didn’t know anyone. They would sing, introduce the counselors who showed up and sometimes divide the girls up by age. Later when I knew more girls, it wasn’t so bad.”

Marsha Immerman was one of the little Bay City girls that attended “Stay-At-Home” camp and also hated it. “It was inside, it was boring and I had to go home at the end of each day”, she said. She had heard about Maqua and was excited by the idea of going away from home, but did not realize until much later in life how different home and camp life were until she experienced her years there from 1947-53.

Girls of Camp Maqua

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1940’s