Directors, Counselors, Staff

Cabin Days and Themed Events

Published on by Kathy Baker

The daily activity schedules were usually confined to Mondays through Fridays, allowing the weekends for schedules planned by campers and counselors. It is unclear when this format began, but it was a great way to expose campers to as many activities as possible. The first week was all the different activities (in the sixties’), and the second week campers chose which activity they wanted and would sign up in advance.

On Saturdays, campers had “Cabin Day” where staff and campers carried out  the plans that their cabins had pre-planned on Wednesay. Some cabins took alpine hikes, had cookouts in Primitive, picked strawberries or made dinner in Hale Park. Some elected to sleep in, skip breakfast, go to Lumberman’s Monument or take an overnight canoe trip.

The evening programs were always popular and a paragraph from the “Loon” in 1966 read: “The 4th dawned dark and dreary this year. Classes went on as usual. For the evening meal, we dressed up in patriotic costumes and had a picnic on the volleyball court. We ate tasty hot dogs, smothered with mustard, ketchup and dill pickles. Costumes were judged in categories of the prettiest, funniest and most original.”

There was Gypsy Night, Christmas in July, Western Day, camp fairs, and Circus Nights with counselors as ringmasters for the circus acts. “I remember someone making a wanted poster during the western event, and she was wanted for taking a bath,” laughed fifties’ camper Janet Dixon, who felt like those events encouraged the girls to be very creative.

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Games and Activities In The Rain–

Published on by Kathy Baker

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For the most part, it seemed that there was always someone singing or playing the piano in the lodge. Sometimes, aside from the pre-planned programs, the weather would force a change in plans for camp activities, whether it was games or overnights. It was never boring, by any stretch of the imagination.

“Lodge Transformed as “Unfair” Weather Pushes Maqua Fair Indoors” was the heading of an article on July 13, 1965 in the “Loon”. The weather was unpredictable, but caused no worries for the girls who set up water fights, a spook house, a jail with slaves, dice throw, ball throw, peanut roll, sponge throw, golf, a piñata and a fortune teller.

“The whole camp would sometimes be in the lodge or outside playing capture the flag, running races, or having a big sing-a-long, depending on the weather,” said Judith Moore (1970-71). “Some nights we would take the girls out and sleep out under the stars. I can remember two little hot bodies sliding into my bag one night. It was just too open for some of them. Some nights I would stay up with the counselors and we would build a fire and stay up till one or two in the morning, just talking,” said Judy.

Sue Robson remembered one night all the girls camped under the stars in the field. (She laughed as she recalled one of the counselors had a son named Hans, but she nicknamed him “Horkie”.)

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Skits and More Skits!

Published on by Kathy Baker

551108_3521088956544_1823756764_nBarb Haggart and Sue Wiegand created many program skits. “You could say I was the creator and she acted upon it, but she was a funny girl,” said Sue (1966-67). “She could make a fool of me and herself. We were like Laurel and Hardy—a good team. She was the assistant director at the time. I was a terrible singer and my fear was that “Beanie” would make me sing the “Froggie” song, but I learned that it was okay to do stupid things and I learned to laugh at myself. She loved to laugh!”

Lines were remembered by Laurie Cone (1962-68)—“What kind of pepper does youz want? TOILET PEPPER!” and pillow case people in a talent show or skit was a memory for Jennifer Fenton from the seventies’. Cindy Eigner (1967-68) had a memory of her in a skit in the lodge playing a dead bull on the ground with her feet in the air.

“There was one skit where girls came in and would be asked,”Where did you get your pants?” and the other girl answered “J.C.Penny” and then the same was asked of the girl about her shirt and another girl about the shoes and the answer was always the same. J.C. Penny” laughed Debbie Tweedie (1965-72). “All of a sudden a girl appeared in nothing but her underwear and all the girls asked, “Who are you?”, to which she answered, “J.C. Penny”.

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Skits!

Published on by Kathy Baker

KayMary Young (1951) recalled a round of singing where everyone got in on the act by adding “One dark and stormy night” to the song. She giggled remembering someone playing a villan and another playing the widow who couldn’t pay the mortgage, ending with a kiss and much clapping.The skits in the lodge at night were enjoyed by the staff and campers alike.

The “Wild Bill Hiccup” skit was remembered by many campers, especially Pat O’Tool and her sister Nan, (who camped in mid-forties’ and well into the fities’) and practiced their skit feverishly before the big production. (Pat and Nan can be seen on page 101 in the book “Camp Maqua’, dressed in their outfits in front of the “Dirty Dan Saloon”.)

The skits were always fun for Marcia Michelson (1963+) and one special memory was of one of the counselors tying herself to another to form one heavy woman, with hands reaching from behind to apply make-up.

(There was only one girl–Kim Wynne-Parry (1963-68) who admitted she did not like participating in the skits. “I know others liked them, but I would rather write them or decorate around them, but I am pretty sure I ended up being in at least one.”)

Judy Engibous (1973-75) loved the puppet shows and skits in the lodge. One night as the counselors prepared to get their skits ready, Judy took a seat in the front row. One of her new friends at camp had saved her a seat, but because of her insecurities, she had a Nicholas Alexander book in her hand, (probably to heighten her look of intelligence she admitted. ) The skit began with a bag filled with objects. The counselor had to reach her hand into the paper bag, and create a skit out of whatever was in her hand.  It happened to be a stick.

“It’s a stick. It’s great stick. It’s a wonderful stick. You can do all sorts of things with this stick,” fumbled the counselor, attempting to come up with something clever. Suddenly, she reached down and pulled Judy out of the front row.

“I was a sticky mess, covered in some tangy taffy all over one of my hands,” laughed Judy. “I’m in my impressionable years and I am supposed to bail out this counselor? She was expecting ME to get her out of this mess? I grabbed the stick with my hand that was not covered in taffy and threw the stick across the room and yelled “FETCH” Well, I brought the house down!”

“No-one was expecting this from me. I had just spent two weeks as a wimp and now I was getting compliments for being cool.  It even rated a mention in the camp newsletter. I finally felt like I was recognized for being me”, said Judy. “I also remember about ten years later I was still a nerd, but someone noticed I had waited a period of time after one of their remarks before I said something funny and they told me I was funny. I told them I already knew I was! So, I guess camp helped me become comfortable with myself. It was an empowering place.”

Her sister Doris (1966+) loved Laurie Cullen and Jennifer McLogan doing “Daddy Cool”, which she agreed held the same fascination as ‘Beanie” playing “Montague”. Page 103 of the book “Camp Maqua” featured this pair, who later passed on their roles to Doris Engibous and Priscilla Johns.

Did you enjoy being a part of the skits or would you rather watch?

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Hunts, Captures and Elves–

Published on by Kathy Baker

92e496f841cd77b903d37c58319b6865The A-Z Scavenger Hunt in 1947 utilized a paper bag, white paper and a crayon with the directions for collecting items from nature with each letter of the alphabet. (Usually q,u, x, y and z were difficult, ( “But to my amazement,”  noted the “Loon”,”Cabin B did get all of them!~ Many of the girls came up with the argument that everything came from nature in the beginning and as a biology major I agree, but for purposes here, it must be nature as we find it out of doors or on their person.”)

On Monday the juniors had a scavenger hunt and the hut winners received camp stickers. They had to find a purple sweater, ten empty bullet cartridges, a striped sock, an Eversharp pen, a snail shell, a bar of Lux soap, a piece of green Kleenex, a picture of Guy Madison (actor), a signature of someone over twenty, a four leaf clover, a flowered kerchief, a yellow flower, a nail, a piece of flowered stationary, an out of state letter, an ID bracelet, an orange pencil, and a needle and blue thread.

Every year had its own brand of activities, either dreamed up by the program/activity director, or a tradition that had been passed down through the ages. In 1950, the “Loon” noted there was a fashion show, backwards day, talent scouts, story telling, a P.J. party, and a scavenger hunt.

Geraldine McDonald camped in 1954. “There were several parties in there. I remember one where they blindfolded us and we had to stick our hands into the bag and guess what was in there. I felt slimy worms or nightcrawlers in the bag, but it was really just spaghetti. There were skits and scavenger hunts that started in the main lodge. We had to hunt for these treasures and it was all about nature. We had everything, except the lightning bug, so one of the girls put on a white shirt and we tucked a lit flashlight up her shirt!”

Judy Crissey also camped in 1954 and loved the scavenger hunts. “We had a small group and followed all the clues, all outdoors, of course. I was probably not very good at it, but ii is one of my best memories.”

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Programs and Activities 1947

Published on by Kathy Baker

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The “Loon” captured the types of activities the campers enjoyed in 1947, but the older scrapbooks had wonderful photos of young campers dressed in gauzy scarves, with fun activities from the twenties’ and thirties’.

The “Evening Program” section started out on Wednesday with games. Paired by twos and armed with slips of paper with articles written on them, the girls had to find the members of the other team with the matching article-((i.e. salt and pepper, pen and ink) The second game consisted of finding as many things in the lodge that started with the letter F. On Thursday, the seniors had a free night and the juniors played the lodge game with the letter S. On Friday, the juniors played games in the lodge while the seniors played baseball, followed by a group singsong around the piano.

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