Directors, Counselors, Staff

Gagging Down Breakfast!

Published on by Kathy Baker

Oatmeal  and hot cereals delivered the most powerfully negative food memories for campers of all years. Holly Foss (1966-72), Bev Lemanski (1945), MaryJo Rawlings (1950’s) and Beth Taylor (1966+) all shared their intense dislike fore oatmeal.

Most of Beth’s camp memories were good ones, but she remembers one counselor who would insist they all clean their plates. Beth hated oatmeal and no amount of brown sugar could help her get it down. She gagged and gagged and this counselor would not let her up until it was done. To this day, she cannot eat oatmeal.

For Sue Robson (1970-71), French toast with powdered sugar and syrup was a good memory, but she has an aversion to this day to oatmeal, even when it was doctored up to make it more palatable.

“I learned to eat oatmeal and I hated hot cereal. It was the texture, not the taste, so I used to drown it in brown sugar and milk and take small bites,” said Stephanie Patterson (1961-65). “I was at camp during the time if you did not eat your breakfast, you were sent to the nurse for castor oil!”

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Dog Food Sandwiches and Taffy Pulls

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“There was one dessert with cherries on it that we would do anything for a second helping. Usually, if you worked in the kitchen, you could get that second piece,” said Pam Wintermute (1955-56), who also recalled she had to bring a folding drinking cup to camp.

Cynthia Gregory (1960-65) also brought her collapsible cup for snack time. “We would have milk and cookies in the lodge, but we didn’t wash the cups very well. Maybe we would bring them back to the Brownie and rinse them out. I guess I didn’t wash mine for a few days and the smell of soured milk had gone inbetween.”

Two of the campers remembered the best homemade ice cream they had ever tasted at camp, and for Elaine Levinsohn (1927-30), apple butter was her favorite new taste.

Business manager Rhonda Thayer (1974-77) said, “The girls loved the pizza burgers, which were hot dog and hamburger buns with a can of pizza sauce spread on them and ground beef with a handful of cheese. It took so much work though, making hundreds of them to be then toasted in the oven, bevause they wanted three or four of them! But, we did it anyway.”

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Potato Donuts and Creamed Eggs

Published on by Kathy Baker

Most of the campers felt that although the camp food was not fancy, it was warm and good. Running off calories during the days’ activities meant the meals were especially welcome for staff and campers alike, and the girls often learned to eat and enjoy food not found at home.

The girls learned to like new dishes like tuna noodle casserole for Kerry Weber‘s (1952) friend; Johnny Cakes for forties’/fifties’ camper Marcia Sherman; creamed eggs for Edna Young (1932), canned fruit for fifties’ camper Susan Alcorn; creamed corn with bacon for Barb Hale (1950); banana boats for sixties’ camper Coleen Gasta and desserts for everyone!

“The food was not fancy, but it was not like home either,” said MaryBeth Morton (1974-75), who recalled more of the rituals surroungding the food in the lodge. “It was served family style and someone would go to the counter to get it. There were call-outs for certain things while we were at the table. We said grace and we were all excused at the same time.”

Judy Crissey (1954) said she was not a finicky eater and thought the meals were good. “I never gave food a second thought,” she said, remembering the bell that rang for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Cookie, Cookie!

Published on by Kathy Baker

Alice Sageman “just loves Maqua and has the patience of Job”, wrote Dorthe Balaskas in her 1967 report on the cook. (No temper, just calm and never wasteful in consideration of the high cost of the food.)

Lin Harris (1967) had a memory of a cook named Alice, cigarette hanging from her mouth, with her child at camp.

“There were some complaints about the food,” wrote Dorthe, “but for every complainer there was someone who thought the food was good.” (A specialist had come from Lansing to help Alice with her menus, but had only one or two suggestions that summer.)

She had a talent for gathering her group of aides together, which meant she was not left to do it all on her own. The campers showed their appreciation with songs. She tried not to repeat menus, and despite not being the best baker, she tried. She was eager to return to Maqua the following summer, which was a relief to Dorthe.

The assistant cook, Mrs. Finnie, was a concern to Dorthe, with her heart problems and age, but there were no incidents and she was a hard worker, who was warm and friendly, which “added so much to the camp spirit and staff morale”. She was considered Alice’s right hand man and if there were ever any disagreements between them, they worked them out quietly between themselves.

The kitchen aides that summer were hard workers and anticipated the needs of the kitchen without having to be constantly reminded. All three of them hoped to return to Maqua. Dorthe added comments about how much easier it was with paper products, but the expense was high and she hoped a dishwasher could be purchased in the future. The camp aides did not have to do towels this year, but a laundry lady was hired.

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Cooks In The Kitchen–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Meg Dahlem, camper from the early twenties’, recalled the kitchen extended across the entire front of the lodge. (When she stopped in 1987, she recognized the benches, tables, piano and porch swing were all from her time at camp.)

The camp bell rang for meals, and was located in different places during different years. It was the “core of our existence here at Maqua” read a caption under a news photo of Margaret Burr, counselor from Plymouth and a senior at Albion in 1957. “If the bell goes haywire, the camp would not know when to eat, sleep or play.”

“The lodge was very important because we ate every meal in it,” said Kayleen Jacques (1956-59). “There were picnic tables and benches that were not attached to them in the dining room. So, when we sang, we could pick up the bench and pound it on the floor for added effect. We sang before each meal and policed our own tables after we ate.”

(Jean Evans (1933-38) laughed as she related the lodge was only a place to eat and she avoided it at all costs because it was where the director and staff who could boss her around hung out.)

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Spam and Supplies–

Published on by Kathy Baker

An undated (presumably early twenties’ or thirties’) news article in the archives boasted not only the benefits of camp, but “simple, plain food of sufficient variety and excellent quality—milk and cream from an improved farm near the camp, and fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs—from neighboring farmers”. There was a dietician on staff and health standards of the day were followed.

On June 12, 1933 in the minutes and ledgers of the camp, a notation read: “The Bay City Dairy offered to supply milk at seven cents a quart with free trucking of meat, vegetables, etc. to camp”, but a few days later the committee decided to continue buying their milk from Mr. Webb.

In the mid to late-thirties’, committee members investigated raw milk and what methods should be utilized to comply with state regulations. “The need for pasteurized milk has become quite a necessity—that being the only thing that has dropped the camp health record,” stated the minutes about an item they felt needed to be settled.

Dorothy Fowley (1927) recalled her Principal at Central High School, Mr. Oman, delivered milk to Camp Maqua and Camp Mahn-go-tah-see as a summer job, and she and her friend Marie Eaton would accompany him.

In 1960 the committee met in June to discuss food orders, as well as meat servings, cereal orders, surplus cheese orders and the purchase of a meat slicer. The 4-50 extra portions of meat per meal was from Peet Packing Co. The camp had rented a food locker in Hale, and Alice Bishop (director) wanted to utilize it more frequently. (She had just returned from the National Camp Association, which dealt with food and vendors.) It also appeared that Gage Company submitted menus for a two-week period in 1961.

Food staples, kitchen supplies and appliances were always in demand and at times the camp went over budget. Dorthe Balaskas wrote in her 1966 report, “ Once the orders are submitted, the director does cost comparisons to find the best prices—The director was also responsible for food orders, but menus from previous years were submitted to the head cook, approved by a dietician and submitted to food companies. “

Food was often re-ordered, but any unopened cans or food could be returned for credit or a refund and the frozen items were stored at the “Y” in Bay City. She was very conscientious about waste.

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