Cabin Life

I Was That Girl—

Published on by Kathy Baker

I was the nerd, the pale, buck-toothed, self-conscious, freckle-faced redhead, who befriended another little red-headed camper named Lillian, whose Mom was a cook and a single Mom at a time when single Moms were uncommon. (Ann Meisel 1962-66

I was the little girl, who had a wake-up moment at camp, when the third-grade girls thought I bragged too much about my archery. While pretending to be asleep, they talked about me and my friend Heidi Dean stuck up for me, insisting I was a nice person, which cause me to love her and become humble at that moment. (Debbie Tweedie (1965-72).

I was the middle child between two brothers who felt like staying in the cabins was a wonderful experience because it was like a slumber party all the time. (Pat Purcell, fifties).

I was the camper who came back a second year, but was more homesick than the first and was saved by my counselor Mary Jane Keschman and two weeks with horses. (Judy Crissey 1954+).

We were those girls who came to camp and found friendships that allowed us to be ourselves.

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Forming Bonds Beyond Home–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“I am the only girl with three brothers (and a half sister) in my family and my Dad had just passed away in 1969 when I was seven and he died at home,” said Andrea Gale.” We had lived in Caro, but moved to Bay City. I had just moved and didn’t know anyone. It was a difficult time. My Mom probably wanted to get rid of me for a few weeks because I was a bored and a whiney crybaby when she sent me to camp in 1970.”

“I was shy, introverted and sometimes belligerent. I felt painfully alone. My life had changed with my Dad gone. I didn’t open up. I think camp helped me assimilate even though I was a little homesick at first, then not too much after that. I wasn’t forced to go, but I didn’t really want to be with other girls in bunk beds in a cabin. When I went the following year I felt like a veteran.”

“Camp help to socialize me. My Mom remarried a year and a half later, which made it even harder for me. Camp started me with girlfriends and forced me to be with them more than recess breaks at school. I did love the camaraderie and friendships. It was huge for me in terms of socializing.”

“I developed some sharp skills of sarcasm and found a sense of humor, although for some of my targets, I might have been mean when I finally spoke up. Those were my insecurities showing up. I took a lot of solace and shelter in the kind and helpful counselors at Camp Maqua. I’m sure I had quite a bit of social anxiety during that first summer. I was there to make friends and be entertained,” said Andrea, who does not recall many of the activities she may have tried during the three years she attended.

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Four Girls Find Friendship–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“My first summer in 1965, I was seven years old and I was in cabin one for two weeks’” said Karen Magidsohn. “Every year after that I would sign up for two weeks, but half way through the session I would call and beg to stay for two more. I can close my eyes and still picture myself begging my parents to stay. The phone booth was a massive dark wood booth with folding doors and the phone was on the wall on a little shelf. Finally, my parents just started signing me up for the whole summer.”

“I continued every summer until I became a kitchen aid at fifteen with Pam Hartz, Katie Ayles, and Jen Woodward.  It was 1973 and I was supposed to take driver’s training that summer. The pay for kitchen aid was $100 and that is what I used to take my driver’s class. Pam and I were in the same class and stayed friends our whole life. I can still remember “Beanie” coming to my house to interview me for the kitchen aid job.”

Maggie was from Flint and said she was part of the contingency of little Jewish girls who loved going to Camp Maqua. “That was our life growing up. Going to camp’” she said. “We were either related or we were friends or our parents were friends, and after camp we all kept in touch for awhile.”

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With A Little Help—

Published on by Kathy Baker

There were the introverts, the extroverts, those with friends, those who knew no-one, those who did not fit in and those who made themselves at home year after year at a camp that felt like their second home. The staff always tried their best to make the girls feel comfortable, understanding that homesickness and loneliness were a reality for many of the new girls. Event the older giris sometimes struggled, either as a camper or a staff member, to fit in.

“When a new batch of kids came in on Sunday night, I always wanted to put a name to a face, so by Monday morning I would have their names memorized, “said Nancy Sautter (1968-70). “I would walk around during dinner doing this. Of course, some years it was easier because they might return from the previous year. I remembered the confident girls, Jennifer McLogan, B.J. Henderson, Megan Topping and Jan Schreiber. They were all good kids. Jennifer, who always had an air of confidence, later became a broadcaster on t.v.”

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Friends at Home and Camp—

Published on by Kathy Baker

“I loved camp and went every year until 1941,” said Edna Young,” and my Mom couldn’t understand why I liked it. Every year I stayed longer. I got so I stayed six weeks! I was an only child, so it was fine to be there with girls my own age. There were many girls from Bay City and we would all leave for camp from the Bay City Y.W.C.A. In those days camp was considered expensive. I had many friends who could not go, since it was the Depression, but I got acquainted with many girls from Pontiac, Detroit and Royal Oak. I was also friends with Natalie Seaholm, who was the adopted daughter of the Seaholm family for which the school in Birmingham is named.”

“I was an extrovert, and embodied the song “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, and I wanted to do everything I could possibly do at camp,” said Susan Bradford (1965). “I had just finished sixth grade and was a student leader and my Mom was a teacher. I had two brothers, one older and one younger. They all loved guns and hunting, so it was no big deal for me to pick up a gun at camp and learn riflery. I had friends who went to camp with me and I think I hung out more with people I knew, and I don’t remember any cliques—just the older girls shunned the younger ones to be cool and didn’t want to do any of the baby stuff,” she laughed.

Kerry Weber thinks she might have been one of the youngest girls to go to Camp Maqua in 1952, when her mother talked the powers-to-be into allowing her to attend. “I was seven and I wanted to go because some of my friends were going, but I ended up in a different cabin. I had no problems with homesickness, but some girls did. In fact, when they came to pick my up, I was down a the lake swimming and someone had dumped all my stuff outside the cabin, because the new girls were coming in.”

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Old Friends and New–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Just the fact that Maggie (Karen Magidsohn 1965+) was at camp for eight years is a testimony to the love she had for her summers. “They were the best summers of my life,” she said. “I developed friendships with girls from school who also attended, but made new friends. Our family was never wealthy, and we would never have done all these activities at home. My parents had a membership at Atlas Valley in Grand Blanc, where I learned to swim. But, I was always the outdoors person.”

Judy Crissey (1954) recalled going to camp with her friend Jocelyn Meagher and said there were never any conflicts with any of the girls there. “We were all young girls —all away from home—hanging on to each other. There was no room for squabbling, just fun. I did have the personality that ran to the cabin on the first day to get the top bunk, though,” she laughed. “I made friends easily, but once we went home, those friendships ended quickly and I never kept in touch with anyone.”

“I do remember one incident as a camper where the younger girls had to dress up as girls and the older girls had to dress up as boys. The “guys” made corsages and had to ask us to dance and nobody chose me. I was ten or eleven and I got my feelings hurt over that one.”

Maggie Young was seven or eight years old when she first attended Camp Maqua in 1962 and did not return until she was twelve years old. It was her first time away from home and she attended with one of her neighbor’s granddaughter–-Beth Van Aacker. (She did two week sessions when she was older.)

“I was very shy, but I fit into the group okay. I was with an outgoing friend, which helped. I know I was on the bottom bunk and Beth was on the top. I’m surprised my parents sent me to camp, but maybe they thought it would break me out of my shell. I remember one girl was a major tomboy who was very pushy, but still nice. I loved the camaraderie. The buddy thing was more than just going into the lake with your buddy.”

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