Cabin Life

Were We A Clique?

Published on by Kathy Baker

Were they a clique if they knew each other? Or were they just friends who happened to all want to go to camp together?  Ann Ward (1958-61), Barb Ballor, Rosemary Orgren, Renee Dean and Jan Haynes were known as the Linwood girls, along with a handful of others.

“I was fairly quiet until I got with my friends,” said Judy Rowden (1949). “Of course, everyone thought we were all a clique, and I suppose we were, but I’d like to think it was because we were all friends at school. We did go our separate ways and chose different activities, though.”

“Dodie” (Dorothy Niedzielski) and I went to camp in 1946 when we were fourteen years old and Ethel Feldman and Mary Lou Winn came in 1947,” said Pat Kula. “The four of us then went when we were in high school the following summer. It was the first time Dodie and I had been away from home without our family. We were social and fun. Dodie and I had taken swim lessons at Handy H.S. when we attended the YWCA Stay-at-Home camp. We had been friends since grade school! We four girls were the clique,” she admitted.

“I hung out in the cabin with friends (1946-47), but I made new friends,” said Dodie Niedzielski. “We were all older, and in fact we probably should have had jobs, but we hung out with the counselors that were our age.”

“One of the mothers in school gave a group of eight of us girls the name “The Dirty Eight” and we are still in touch to this day,” said Bev Lemanski (1945), who said she contacts them more than her college friends.

“The second year when Kady and I were in Hut 3, which was down the steps, all the girls except two were from our street. We called it “The Handy Drive Hut”, and in retrospect we probably ignored those two girls. I have a photo of us in Hut 3 and it probably wasn’t the best idea, even though our parents insisted. None of those girls were really “into” camp like we were, so I guess we were just weird, but it was good to go away and meet new girls, “said Minette Jacques, who camped in the mid-fifties.

Somewhere in the mid fifties, when Connie Cruey was in the fourth grade, she went off to Maqua with her friends Kerry Brown, Mary Obey, Carolyn Park and a few other classmates. “We all grew up together from kindergarten to twelfth grade,” said Connie. “Mary and I even went to the same college. My sister was two and half years younger and the first year she didn’t want to go, and then wanted to go home after she got there. But, we talked her into staying and she was the camper of the session!”

Katie Harris remembered the friends she attended Camp Maqua with in 1951—Elena Fulton, Susie McBride, Kathy Plum and Roberta Wright. Having her friends with her alleviated any homesickness she would have had being away at camp. She recalled one girl in her cabin from Flint, who did not come with friends and she reached out to her. She described herself as a happy, friendly young girl at aged ten, who willingly took part in all the activities.

Anne Schupak attended Camp Maqua for three or four complete summer sessions in the mid to late sixties. She and Sally Hurand were best friends from a tight- knit Jewish community in Flint, but were very competitive with each other. Her parents gave her freedom, but she loved the freedom that came at camp with her separation from her parents and two brothers at home.

“I liked who I was and although I needed them, once I was separated I was fine,” said Anne. “I was pretty full of myself and felt like my parents didn’t know anything. I was stubborn and selfish as a kid—insecure and overconfident at the same time. I was selective about my friends, but also competitive. I did make friends early at camp, but I was less cocky and the more insecure side of me came out at camp, although I knew so many of the girls already.One of my closest friends was B.J. Henderson, but we lost touch. I looked up to the older girls and I always felt like I was sixteen, even though I was ten,” she laughed.

Did you feel like there were cliques at camp?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Shadows–

Published on by Kathy Baker

All of Helen McLogan’s sisters attended Camp Maqua, but she doesn’t remember if they camped at the same time. “I think of all of the four sisters,” said Helen (1954), “Jennifer had to be the one with the fondest and most memories of Maqua. I always felt like I was in her shadow. She was bigger than life and was one of the famous counselors with her name on the canoe paddles that hung on the mantle of the fireplace. She was charismatic and hilarious.”

Jeanne Kiltie’s parents sent her off to Camp Maqua and she was never homesick a day, maybe due to the fact her sister Susan was also there. One of the years, she stayed for seven weeks!

“I was shy and sensitive until people got to know me, unlike my sister who would be a AA+ compared to my B- in personality, in my opinion,” said Jeanne (1966-71). “One of the best things for me at camp was to get to know new people. I was always a team person, not a one on one type, so there were many team activities at camp and I enjoyed that. I loved that we were always busy and I was also the type that always had to have something to do. When I was a junior counselor, if there were homesick girls, I would take them for a walk and talk to them.”

Jennifer Fenton (1971-78) was not close to her sister Gigi, who was three years older and was at camp at the same time, and felt like she had been sent off and did not enjoy camp like Jennifer. Her sister was the type that liked to be in her room and Jennifer loved being outside. “I was a tomboy and my Mom always butchered my hair. In sixth grade, I looked like a boy. I was not one of the cute girls, but I got along with everyone.”

“I had one sister, Nancy, who had gone before me, but she was mean to me and my friends. My Mom was a lovely person, and I was an obedient daughter,” said Karen Kaunitz (1945), “but my sister was a different story. I remember the older campers, Nancy included, decided to give themselves a Mohawk haircut and shaved their heads right down the middle. There were a handful of them and they all were in the boathouse cabin.”

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Having My Sister There—

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

Elaine is the oldest of the three Engibous sisters and was friends with Beth Swift during her growing up years. Doris, fourteen months younger, and Judy, ten years younger, were all Maqua campers. (Ironically, Elaine ended up marrying Beth’s older brother and they must have always felt like family, since Beth had been in nursery school with Elaine and the families grew up with each other.)

Around eight years old and possibly somewhere between 1961-1963, Elaine and Beth headed to camp together. She thinks she was at Maqua with her sister one year, but only the first year that Doris attended.

“I was reserved as a child, but not moody and was not afraid of anyone, but everyone was bigger than me. Beth and I were both little goody-two-shoes. I always made sure I did the right thing and was not a troublemaker.  I liked taking care of the campers. My kids told me I put the smother in mother, “ laughed Elaine.

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Cousins and Sisters—

Published on by Kathy Baker

Helen Johnson’s first year at camp was 1968 at age seven, and she followed in the footsteps of her mother and aunt, Ellie and Nora Goddeyne. “It was only fitting that my cousin and I would go there, also. I’m not sure how many years I attended, probably five or six, and I’m not sure why I stopped going. I would go with my cousin Ann Niergarth and neighborhood friends Katie Easton and Susan Adams.”

Cindy Knapp also went with her cousin Jane Woodworth in 1968, and felt like Maqua brought out the best in everyone. She seemed to be assigned to the same cabin with friends she met at camp, who all ended up becoming staff.

In 1963, at seven years of age, Debra Osher headed to camp with her cousin Judy, who was two years older. Only slightly homesick, knowing her cousin was there, she hung out with Jan Schreiber and her friend Marcia Michelson, whose sister Nancy was also at camp. Somehow all these relations made camp less frightening for Debra.

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Someone Who Knew Someone—

Published on by Kathy Baker

Someone knew someone who knew someone who said Camp Maqua was the best. Either a mother, aunt, friend, cousin or sister would recruit future campers to enjoy the experiences they found to be so positive. Some would remain friends their entire lives and others lost touch.

“It was a huge part of our lives. We were all best friends all summer,” said Julie Bernard, who was eight years old in 1970 when she went off to camp, sharing the same cabin as Michele Plambeck and Michele Patterson. She stayed in touch with some of the girls and even stood up in Missy Plambeck’s wedding.

“I grew up at Maqua”, said Michele “Missy” Butsch of her many years at camp. “I was eight years old when I camped there for the first time in 1969 and although I was a little homesick, my sister, who was three years older, was there.”

Kim Sohigian and Michele were inseparable as young girls and shared the same cabin every summer at camp. “We are still close to this day,” said Michele. “I was shy, but I always had close friends, including Sue Williamson and Beth Hickner, who I stayed in touch all the way through high school. I was always in the middle of the group, which was popular, even though I wasn’t the most popular. We were always the screw-ups. Missy and Kim. If it could happen, it was us.”

Carol Wahl met Pam Moore at camp in 1972, the first year she was there. They ended up as college room-mates and Pam was in her wedding. While at Central she met many of the staff in her sorority, including Mary Toburen.

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Keeping In Touch–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“I did not get homesick until I got a letter from my Mom,” wrote Beth Phillips (1972-78). Her mom and her grandmother had both gone and knew what Camp Maqua was like, so her grandmother would enclose $2 for the camp store for Beth to spend. “We were always excited to buy a snack after a meal.i

JoAnn Kern sent a letter from the summer of 1953 on Camp Maqua stationary, which she had sent to her parents and sister in her girlish penmanship and delightful phonetic spelling.

“Dear Mom, Dad and Mimi-Today we were in line to eat “breckfest” and Virginia said she felt dizzy and (nausa?) she grabbed hold of me and fainted “thay” took her to the hospital and she stayed there till noon. I love camp and hope to go two weeks next year. We went horseback riding today “witch” is Thursday and learned the learned the lead a horse mount, dismount, know how to put on and take “of” a saddle, turn a horse both ways and ride. I had a horse named lightning that want to do nothing but eat. Did I ever have “troble”. (I won’t take him again!) We have a rest period from 2-3:30. I woke up 15 minutes to 6 (the other girls woke me up). At night we tell ghost stories till we run out. (the “constler” does to.) She is our teacher. You can write to me I found that out.  I am in “inormedeant” 1 in swimming. I ‘past” the swimming tst “wich” last 5 “minents” so I can take “canoing”. The girls are all so nice “ever” one helps one and other. The girls in our hut are putting on a play and I am in it. I can play tennis and it is fun. My duties are Thursday-dishes Friday—wastebasket and yard. Saturday cabin cleaning Sunday day off Monday big “Bronie” (bathrooms) Tuesday hopper (set table) “Wensday” dishes. Mom, when you “brout” me I was to eat at home and not here but they let me. My swimming class “teach” at Bay City ish ere. We didn’t have a basket so when we had the shame flag for having papers on the floor a girl told her by for now, Jo Ann PS to Marily I want a letter from you so be sure to write JoJo xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ooooooooooooo

Julie Hutchins was eleven years old when she sent the black and white campfire postcard from camp with the three-cent stamp on it in 1960. “Sorry I couldn’t write to you until I got your address, when you sent the letter. I got the return address, but I’m having lots of fun and a little home sick. You know who, Julie”

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