Sports and Staff–

Published on October 4, 2017October 3, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Some years were better than others for staff, and the sports section at Camp Maqua was not immune to the ups and downs of hiring qualified counselors for tennis, archery and riflery.

In one of the directors reports in the sixties’, Dorthe Balaskas wrote that sports was a let down, as she felt they had so much to offer. “I felt the staff did not open enough of the activities to the campers and limited what they could do,” she said, reflecting on the free choice scheduling and lack of enthusiasm. But, the following report indicated sports went much better and the staff was capable and worked better together, attempting to interest campers on a wider level.

Barbara Haggart was the sports director in 1967 and Dorthe felt her to be an asset, as a song leader, driver, and proficient with camp skills and planning programs. She was popular with girls of all ages. “I feel she would make a marvelous program director, and have been pleased with her ability to handle the campers in a group, which I must mention, is not an easy thing to do,” said Dorthe of the loyal social butterfly known as “Beanie” who had excellent ratings.

Sports!

Published on October 2, 2017October 2, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Sports at camp consisted of tennis, archery, riflery and games. In the sixties, the archery field was located directly east of the main lodge; the badminton and volleyball field were to the left of the drive that led to the Infirmary; the baseball field and riding ring were located up the road from the archery. The tennis courts were located past the Infirmary, and the rifle range was past the tennis courts, but in other years, activities could have been located elsewhere.

Linda Lee Harp, who was the sports director in 1969, left a detailed report at the end of the summer. Her staff included Barb Grey in archery, Chris Lambert in tennis, Sue Wiegand in riflery and Jeanne Kiltie in games.

The west porch of the lodge was considered the ping-pong porch and a diagram of the lodge showed a small green cupboard on the east porch, along with the sports cupboard, with the riflery and archery equipment on the east porch. The shuffleboard equipment was in a long brown bench to the right of the fireplace, with the tennis racquets hung on the wall above the bench. The green benches were at the lakeside east wall, and stored badminton raquets and ping-pong equipment.

Stored in the archery cabinet were bows, arrows, targets, arm guards and finger gloves. The riflery cabiniet held the rifles and cleaning equipment. A small cupboard held badminton birdies, tennis balls, bases, first aid kit, extra riflery targets and the award sheets for archery and riflery.

Kicks, Bites, and Fears–

Published on September 25, 2017September 23, 2017 by Kathy Baker

There were a few girls who would have loved to ride, but could not afford the lessons. They admitted they were envious and some of them made room in their lives to learn years after camp. Others had the opportunity and experienced some accidents and incidents that changed their minds about ever wanting to ride again.

“I hated horses,”said Phoebe Atha (1947-48). “In fact, I remember my sister riding “Gypsy” at camp. I had a camera that I bought. My sister loved horses and I didn’t. I did not want any part of those big animals, but I took a photo of her on the horse. Well, she was so mad. When the photos came back, I had only half the horse in the photo.”

Her sentiments about riding and being around horses were shared by many—some who tried and some, like Liz Anderson (1973-74), who wanted to ride, but “the horses were so big and mean and they tried to eat my shoes and scared the heck out of me, so when I started crying, they let me take arts and crafts instead.”

Girls Unafraid–

Published on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Many of the girls had previous experience riding, and came to camp with some confidence and skills. A self-professed horse crazy girl, Kathleen Clements, lived near the Saginaw riding stable, and had ample opportunity to ride, but still loved riding at camp in the early sixties. “I had a niece and an aunt who were in the same class at school and they had the Lear’s Stable, where we rode bareback.”

Two early campers, MaryJo Stegall (1933-41) and Judy MacNicols (1946) also had experienced riding before camp. Judy practiced at a local stable with no formal lessons and MaryJo learned from a wealthy family in Davison, who allowed her to ride and exercise their horses.

Bonnie Schlatter, had a pony on her farm, as well as pigs, chickens and sheep, so she was unafraid of riding when she went to camp in 1976. Jane Miller’s aunt and uncle lived in Tawas and had a lake house and a farm. Jane (1969-72) had her own horse on that farm, where she first learned to ride.

The Kessler sisters discovered Camp Maqua, in the forties, through Marsha Immerman, who was Judy’s good friend and horseback riding buddy. Sister Bonnie liked horseback riding until a bee stung her horse, which caused her not only to be thrown by the horse, but stung by the same bee on the ankle!

“I still own a horse now and both my daughters had horses growing up. Marsha, Judy and I used to meet each other to ride in Bay City State Park, and we took care of horses for other people by exercising them,” said Barb Hale (1950), who had lessons at camp a few times a week on tame horses in addition to her stable time before camp.

Giddy-Up!

Published on September 18, 2017September 14, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Penny Mitchell’s (1951-54) favorite thing to do was ride the horses at camp. It was something that she could do that she hadn’t done before. “I loved horses and camp was my conduit to horseback riding. I never fell off and we even rode bareback, which was very exciting. I can remember riding past the raspberry and thimbleberry bushes and picking them. I asked one day if I could go pick and the counselor said only if I brought enough back for the whole breakfast table to put on their cereal. So, I took one other girl and we picked raspberries for everyone!”

Many girls like Penny learned at camp for the first time, including Debbie Robson, who said Sarah Dufendach, (her riding instructor in the early seventies), was the only one who would let the girls run the horse into a full gallop. “It was an awesome feeling to be running on a horse,” she said.

For Carla Wilhelm (1945-49), if a class was offered, she took it. “I loved horseback riding and all the side trips we took. I remember one year we used long-eared mules for a while. We would saddle them up like horses. And another year we had to ride those darn English saddles, which were narrow with a slit and no horns. Jackie Valley was our instructor.”

“I had one particularly ornery horse that scared me,” said Randi Wynne-Parry (1969-73), who learned to ride at camp. “He always got me too close to the branches. I think they used trail horses and they just wanted to get back to the stable. Being a new rider, I was always apprehensive and nervous on that one horse.”

Kellie Moore (1970-77) loved the riding, even though it was a totally new experience for her. She took it year after year, saying, “It was pretty much a walk in the woods every time, and not much in the arena, but one year a couple of instructors started teaching us to jump. It was more like jumping over a log,” she laughed.

On Horseback—

Published on September 14, 2017September 14, 2017 by Kathy Baker

The authors are unknown of these two delightful pieces, but they are a great peek into the minds of excited campers about to camp and ride, especially poignant in their emotions. The first was from the “Loon” 1947 and the second in 1949.

“Oh! How happy I was today! I was to ride on a horse and, since I have never been on a horse, I looked forward to it. It seemed so simple from the distance that I hurried merrily on my way. I reached the corral ahead of the others to try to get a good horse. Of course, I didn’t know one horse from the other. As I looked at the horses, my mouth dropped. They didn’t look very friendly. But, I kept telling myself it was easy and I might even be a born rider. I finally took a brown and white one. I walked up to it on the right side, pulled the reins, and just as I got the straps fixed, the horse moved. After three unsuccessful attempts, I got on. I went down when the horse went up and I went up when the horse came down. What a situation! I ended up with a side-ache and saddle-burns. The rest is too gruesome to tell!”

“This is the day. I awoke at 3:30 this morning too excited to sleep, thinking of my first trip to Camp Maqua. I had trouble getting my oatmeal down and even more trouble keeping it there. After we had the luggage piled in the car there wasn’t enough room for me, so I had to ride in the rumble seat. It would have been more comfortable if there had been more seat and less of me. Arriving at camp around 12:30, we drove up to the lodge. We thought it very peculiar to see horses standing around but we were glad since we all love horses. But, we were again disappointed because we were at the stable house.”

She later wrote on June 30^th, “Dear Diary, today I started my classes. I’m a full-fledged beginner in practically everything. I rode “Salt” this morning. He has a beautiful cantor and I have a beautiful blister. (I won’t say where.)”

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