Accidents and Illnesses

Keeping Safe and Dry—

Published on by Kathy Baker

23505_115400941820253_431725_n“I do remember spending a night at Rollways State Park. I was just too cold to sleep,” said Ann Meisel (1962-66). “Now I would just ask if there were any more blankets, which I’m sure were available, but I was too young and shy to know how to deal with grown-ups, so I just suffered.”

Ann later took a three-day canoe trip, where the girls were driven to Grayling. “It was truly a rough and hard adventure. We did not have good camping gear back then and it rained and my sleeping bag got soaking wet. We learned how to maneuver the canoes to sleep under them. There was also an accident with a canoe and three girls had to be rescued, which made people in charge quite frantic. I think they tipped in some rapids and some items were lost. One of the girls who was rescued later showed us her lace panties and said she did not know whose panties she had on,” laughed Ann.

The canoe rental place happened to be next door to a house that looked terribly familiar to Ann. She was certain that the people that cared for her father’s mother in her dying years lived there, and had taken her grandmother from Bay City to their retirement home on the AuSable in Grayling.
“I was frantic, ran up to the door and banged. An older lady answered and I shouted, “I’m Ann Mesiel and I think you took care of my grandmother! They remembered me, and still had one item from my grandmother. It was a gold bangle, oval shaped, with Matie inscribed on it. I wore it for the next twenty years,” said Ann, who considered those trips to be the coolest thing she ever did.

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Waterfront Scares

Published on by Kathy Baker

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There are no statistics or mentions anywhere in the archives of any deaths or drownings associated with the camp. The director selected her water safety instructors, boating instructors and directors for the waterfront with a careful eye on experience and maturity. But, incidents happen and that was where drills and safety procedures came into play at camp. Weather was one factor that could change procedures in an instant.

One night Margot Homburger (1946-48) took the canoe out with a friend and the water got choppy, (Although she was never a great swimmer, she had achieved the level needed to canoe.) “I think we were thirteen or fourteen. We could not paddle back, so we left the canoes, took the paddles with us and hiked back. Believe me, there was a welcoming committee for us when we got back,” she laughed. “The next day we went back without the counselor and paddles to get the canoes and ended up paddling all the way back with our hands!”

Janet Gehres, the camp nurse in 1961, had a similar experience. “One of the gals who worked in the camp took me out on a sailboat and we had a nice time until the wind died down. Then we had to paddle back.”

“I think I had to have a blue cap to canoe, so I decided to take a rowboat out. Everyone on the shore was in sheer panic when they realized I could not get back. I kept rowing in circles and someone finally had to come get me,” said fifties camper Jan Bateson.

Ann Carney (1968-72) had an unsettling incident on the lake one summer. “The winds came up on a perfectly beautiful day. It was scary, since all the canoes were on the lake and the girls were scattered all over. I can’t remember how we got them all back, but I think the girls all went to different shores and different families took them in and called from the homes around the lake. I think Dorthe and Mert went to pick them up. Linda Doering was supposed to be on the waterfront and I think she was sailing and it was one of those dicey situations that was very serious and a huge lesson. It made such an impact on me. I got it.”

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Sail, Sail Away–

Published on by Kathy Baker

IMG_0014The camp was desperate to find someone to take over the canoeing and sailing in the mid-fifties, so sisters Nancy, Judy and Pat O’Tool took over the job. “The three of us took the sailboat called “Snipe” out on the lake and instead of laying on its side, it would totally capsize. Over and over and over it rolled,” said Pat. “It pitched Judy into the water. We had a heck of a time righting it and getting back to shore!”

“I always thought sailing was so cool,”said Holly Foss (1966-72), “ but not many people advanced to that level. It was such a joy to be on that sailboat. It had two sails and it was very challenging, but we had to tip it over and right it for our Red Cross certification.”

Mary Lou Goggin (1950-61) was not old enough to sail when she arrived, but learned some skills as a C.I.T. There were no instructors for sailing, so during her free time at lunch, she had her friends help her assemble the smaller sailboat, so she could take it out on Loon Lake. Camp and sailing influenced her and to this day she sails on San Francisco Bay and has boated to Mexico on a trip of a lifetime.

Dorthe Balaskas, director, gave permission in 1964 for her sailboat to be used at camp, but according to Cara Prieskorn (1966-71), “–the coolest thing was the Kiltie sisters, who brought up their own sailboat to camp”. Despite the fact there never seemed to be enough wind and the rigging was difficult to hoist, Cara was both envious and looked up to the girls who were a few years older.

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Accidents and Incidents

Published on by Kathy Baker

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There was “The Great Hay-riding Accident” of 1956, which was a stand out memory for more than one camper. The injuries were varied, according to each girl’s recall of the fifty or more girls who piled atop either one or two hay wagons pulled by tractors.

“In, 1956 the camp sponsored a hayride on a wagon towed behind a tractor. As we started over a bridge or some overpass, the wagon tipped over in a ditch. We were all able to slip off in slow motion, with the exception of one poor girl from my cabin. I cannot, unfortunately, remember her name. As she tried to slide off, the wagon tipped over and pinned her leg, breaking it. We walked back to camp, obviously shaken, with the counselors having us sing songs to keep our spirits up. I remember that I was very upset, and my counselor rubbed my back as I tried to get to sleep, to get me to relax. I have never forgotten her kindness. I think her last name was Webber, but I don’t remember her first name. I think it was Rickie Webber’s older sister and she was a doctor’s daughter,” wrote Dawn Waits.

Jane McKinley, Pamela Watson and Jody Tripp were also on the hayride. Jane recalled the wagon lost a wheel and a counselor broke her arm. Pam thought one of the girls might have lost some teeth. Jody thought there were two wagons of girls singing camp songs. Different memories from different girls.

“All of a sudden, the back trailer turned over and dumped the girls into the ditch. Those who could– walked two miles back to camp. Most of the girls just had scrapes and scratches, but one girl did end up in the hospital,” said Jody.

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Nurses, Doctors and Patients–#7

Published on by Kathy Baker

525514_428550213824492_615732519_nOne of the activity centers that no one ever wanted to have an incident was the waterfront. The waterfront staff were all certified in water safety, Red Cross training and lifesaving. But, there were other causes for concern that did not always entail water.

On the first day of camp in 1961, Margie Barbier fell on some stones and broke her arm, so off to Dr. Payea’s in East Tawas she went, which ironically was her home. Her mother seemed satisfied with her care, but since Margie could not ride or swim, she was forced to stay home with fees refunded.

 The business manager, Rhonda Thayer (1974-77), played softball and was in the outfield running backwards when she broke her hand and fingers. With a splinted hand, she had a tough time doing the books with her hand in a claw shape.

Amy Johns admitted she had such a crush on Mel Hurst, a counselor from Hawaii, who was there the last two years of camp. “He made homemade skim boards out of plywood and sanded each one down. He taught the kids how to skim, but took one fall and cut his foot on a rock under the water. I remember the blood squirting in the air. Maybe it was an artery. We put compression on it and off he went to get stitched up at the hospital.”

Camper Debra Osher (1963) went for one week her first time and can still remember whittling a little stick with a little army knife. “I carved my finger instead. No stitches, but it was a long walk up the hill to have someone help me.”

Carrie Norris (1972-73) spent time in the Infirmary for a dose of poison ivy and Dawn Sohigian was also terribly allergic to poison ivy and underwent a series of shots before she went off to camp in 1966, which paralyzed her leg and caused it to swell.

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Nurses, Doctors and Patients–#6

Published on 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.

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