Cabin Life

Funny Stories–

Published on by Kathy Baker

What is it about peeing and stories about peeing that can bring girls to hysterics? One of the funniest things Sandy Indianer (1967) learned at camp that stayed with her forever was to learn to pee outside in the woods. She was not alone, as many campers felt like that was an important fear to surmount—peeing outside.

“My cousine Ann reminded me the other day that we would stick our butts out the cabin window and “wee-wee”,” said Helen Johnson (1968-64). “Now, let me explain. I did and still do today wet my pants when I laugh. So, I am SURE it was out of necessity—maybe. My Mom used to gauge how good of a time I had at camp by the amount of times I wet my pants. My good friends knew about my tiny bladder, but others could sometimes be mean.”

Pat O’Tool (1944-52) could still recall the canoe trip with Pat Parsons from Grayling. “We took a photo of her peeing, and from then on we called her P.P. Parsons,” said Pat, who still has the photo.

“My biggest memory is of three red-headed sisters with the last name of Cherry. They were all a few years apart, maybe eleven to fourteen, and they were always running back and forth from their cabins to the bathroom naked,” laughed Liz Anderson (1973-74).

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From Alcohol To Drugs—

Published on by Kathy Baker

“I remember one year there was a girl with the last name of Polk and we got her really drunk and she had a bad reaction to the alcohol,” said Mardi Jo Link (1973-78). “We had to walk her around so she wouldn’t pass out. We were so afraid and said, “Oh, God, I hope we haven’t killed her”. She was only fifteen. I can’t remember who bought it, but I was a willing participant. I know the director caught wind of it and called our parents. Now, my parents were really straight-laced. My Dad was a Principal at the time, I think. They were horrified. I was supposed to stay at camp the entire summer and they wanted me home. I begged to stay and they finally gave in.”

Mardi’s friend Michele Patterson (1971-76) was in training to become a C.I.T. and recalled the same incident. One of the girls bought a bottle of Boone’s Farm and off they went to drink. One of the girls was unknowingly allergic to alcohol and went into convulsions and sick enough to have an ambulance. There was disciplinary action taken, but Michele was not one of the girls drinking. One set of parents pulled the girl out of camp and brought her home. Michele recalled it was traumatic with the ambulance, but the girls never really had any trouble at Maqua.

Unaware that pot smoking was going one, the counselors during Michele’s time never discovered the girls who were experimenting, and again Michele was not part of that activity. “We were there for the whole summer being trained for counselors and there was always game playing going on. Capture the flag, where you would hide in the woods. We would all laugh because two of my friends were always gone and no one could find them, but we knew what they were doing.”

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Drinking—

Published on by Kathy Baker

“In 1972, Michigan became one of the first states to experiment with lowering the drinking age to 18, following the 26th Amendment, which had lowered the national voting age to 18. However, following a rise in drunk driving accidents, Michigan also became the first state to move its drinking age back to 21 in 1978.” (study.com)

The sixties and seventies at camp were not exempt from the issues that faced teenagers of the entire country. Lowering the drinking age meant that counselors could legally frequent the bars around the camp, and by the time the camp had closed, the age requirement went up again.

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Fads and Fashions–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Driven by her friend’s parents, Molly Appleford (1946) had her suitcase packed with shorts from Best and Company in Grosse Point. “They had buttons down the side and I loved them. So did  Marsha Immerman, who thought they were so “in”, so I bought her a pair,” said Molly. Tucked in with those coveted shorts were tee shirts, blouses, saddle shoes and bobby socks and maybe even a pair of jeans, although they were not worn as much back then.

“I was a tomboy, but I was into Ship ‘n Shore blouse, Lollipop panties with the days of the week on them, cuffed gabardine sailor shorts with sailor buttons and a stripe down the side of them, the “whites” for Chapel Hill and photos, blue and white Keds and jeans, “said Marsha Immerman (1947-53). “I got my first pair of boy jeans at the Mill End store, which seemed more fitting to wear for horseback riding. I also had brown Frontier pants that zipped on the side and had buttoned pockets. I did bring up my cowboy boots, but never wore a hat or a helmet.”

Although her family did not have much, they were able to send Mary Jane Keschman (1944-54) to camp. The year she wanted to go extra weeks, she realized she did not own enough underwear. With finances tight, her Mom sewed extras from feed bags. Coming from those circumstances, her envious memories of the sailor double- buttoned shorts that the girls from Birmingham owned were fresh in her mind.

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Garb—-

Published on by Kathy Baker

Patsy Walsh (1938) remembered one of the sweet girls in the bunk above her had jeans. “I was so fascinated. I had never seen girls in jeans. She let me wear them and I was so excited! We always wore shorts or dresses. Honestly, it was one of the highlights of being there. I felt sharp. We had to wear our whites on Sunday, though, for our services at Chapel Hill or when the counselors took us to mass.”

One summer Helen Hasty (1943-50) noticed many of the counselors were wearing jeans. She had been sent off to camp with lovely clothes, mostly in white. She wrote home begging her Mom to send some blue jeans, but the request was denied. {“The next summer I went back and I had them”,said Helen.)

“We had footlockers and my Mom made us (sisters) shorts and we almost always dressed alike,” said Susie Utter (1954-56). “We were not allowed to wear jeans at home, but had to buy some for riding horses.”

Then came Shelley Harris (1965-75), who desperately wanted bell-bottom jeans. “Oh man, I remember making those jeans from two pairs. I cut off the thigh parts of one pair, turned them upside down, and laced them to the other pair at the knees with rawhide laces!”

“Camp WAS my summer,” said Laura Taylor (1964+), who was a self-professed goody-goody, but hated the matchy-matchy clothes her mother sent her off to camp with in her footlocker. “”I wanted to be cool and be with the cool kids who turned their shirts inside out and dressed sloppy with bell bottoms and no bra. I copied everybody and tried to dress the part. Cute outfits were not cool and the trendsetters were the counselors. Camp sweatshirts were the symbol of cool.”

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Elemental Garments and Hair Don’t Care–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“Every camp session yielded a copy of the goings-on of the campers in a newsletter, aptly named the “Loon”. It was usually a tongue in cheek review of what went on in each hut, activities of the days at camp and humorous stories relaying such things as deep dark secrets, anecdotes of the date and confessions of campers.

An early edition, somewhere in the 1920’s titled “Confessional Edition” and subtitled “A Bugler Bungles” read as follows; “There was only one of us—I—deserted by my family for the summer and was forced to earn money and a summer vacation at the same time. We—I—thought and thought and finally decided on a summer camp—Maqua, it was called. Since I was young and inexperienced, I was not too careful in my choice but then Maqua seemed a fairly nice camp.”

“Sad as it may seem, it was immodest in its attire in this regalia. I stepped out of a hut and behold sunlight, bright as any lily of fair girl—and then—ah then—two males sitting in a car. Two males looked up me and then away, but not before they had completely identified me as the bugler. But I, what could I do? Heaven know how much lower I may descend the stairs of gegradation, but it can be but a little lower. Woe is me!”

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