Friendships and Relationships

A Well-Organized Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

Barb Ballor was eight years old when she first attended Camp Maqua. “It fostered kindness to others. I was so sad when it was no longer a camp. It was such a well-organized camp. There was a camp nurse in attendance. Older girls were encouraged to help. And the staff were careful not to let the boys from the boy’s camp too close,” she said. “Everyone had fun!”

“Camp Maqua, that lovely spot just north of Hale, Michigan, is a place where one can be at her best,” stated a newspaper article from June 1929. “ It is the place away from the complex grind of everyday things—almost a fairyland. A blue lake nestled among silver birch trees; comfortable huts and a cozy lodge; joy of creating things with one’s own hands; joy of being natural; friendships that are sacred; all of these things dear to the hearts of real lovers of nature are found at Camp Maqua.”

“I liked my counselors and everyone at the camp. They were very good to us. They accepted everyone and always appeared to be fair and impartial. I never remember anyone, even the cooks, becoming angry or impatient or ever raising their voice. They were exemplary models of good behavior, said Janet Dixon, of her camping years during the early fifties.”

“The camp was very well organized and very well run. The staff knew how to keep children busy and out of trouble. I liked the regimentation, but it was because it was tempered with variety, choices, and enough free time. I loved learning new things, and, especially, the chance to taste independence. I don’t know how they did it but I know they did it well! in 62 years, I have never forgotten my experiences there.”

Hut five was interviewed in August 1950 and the girl’s answers were published in a copy of the “Loon”, “What do you think of Camp Maqua?” and the comments ranged from “Camp Maqua is worth saving because it is educational”, “You can’t compare Camp Maqua with any other camp because Camp Maqua is the best”, “Camp Maqua is more fun than any other camp I’ve been to”.

“It’s a great camp. You learn many new activities and you have the opportunity to meet other girls,” wrote Jean Jahnke, who was the reporter and was from Bay City. She said she wanted to tell those who had been there before and the ones that were there for the first time that they made the camp what it was and the counselors did a “swell job”.

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Sing-y-swim-y Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 


Shelley Harris spent ten years at Camp Maqua, half as a camper and the other half on staff, including a stint as Program Director. As a fourth grader in Flint in 1965, she was excited about the idea of going to camp after her cousin had been the previous year. Just hearing that there was horseback riding was enough for Shelley to think camp would be “cool”.

“Maqua was huge to me—I really considered it my home, while Flint was just the place where I lived. It was a “sing-y swim-y” camp and everyone had to swim daily regardless of weather, except in storms. I was a song leader when I was on staff, and lived in Dutton.” (She still remembers all the lyrics to all the camp songs!)

“There was a huge group of Jewish girls, including myself, that went together from Flint every year. We never felt any religious pressure or prejudice and loved the weekly procession up to Chapel Hill wearing our Sunday whites for a very ecumenical service. After lunch at the lodge, we would all change our clothes. Only the Catholic girls rode into town for mass.”

It was the year of “I am Woman” sung by Helen Reddy and that is exactly how Shelley felt about her camp experience and how it influenced her life. As a young girl growing up with brothers, she felt like she was “home” at camp with all the girls out of doors. She had a great appreciation for the rough and tumble life at camp.

“I felt like I do anything. We did not need boys to have fun. We sang with girls, danced with girls, played with girls and the girl counselors did all the work loading and unloading when campers arrived. We didn’t care what we looked like and we became very self-sufficient. I felt like I could do anything without a guy.”

She went with friends, made new friends and still stays in touch with her camper buddies. When her Mom would ask why she wanted to go to a “dumpy Camp”, she would respond that it was the spirit of Camp Maqua and the nurturing of the counselors.

“ I did stuff that stayed in my heart. For years I used to dream about Maqua—-well into my thirties, until one night I had a magnificent fireworks-laden dream about a huge celebration on the lake with canoes, islands, flowers, music, and glitter. That was the last dream I had about it. I guess I was saying goodbye to that era of my life. That’s how important it was to me. I’m now in my late fifties, but Maqua is still in my heart”.

(And I might add…….her name is penned on many of the counselor canoe paddles that still grace the lodge wall.)

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Sadness For End Of Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 

 

Camp meant freedom from family, the chance to make new friends and the opportunity to learn new skills often not offered at home. For many girls who did not experience the pang of homesickness, leaving camp held true sadness.

For Harriet Crumb, it was the best experience! “You can see I loved it. In 1929 I went for one week—to take and pass the tests for my American Red Cross Life Saving badge. I was a big girl then, of course, and the next summer when I couldn’t go at all, I thought the world had come to an end. Other girls seemed to be able to take it or leave it, but from the first I was hooked and in some form have enjoyed camping ever since.”

Sue Augustyniak lived in Bllomfield Hills and camped 1962-68 at Maqua. “Our parents wanted us to become independent and they encouraged up. We felt like we could do anything. We mastered skills. We expected to do well and we did. Saying goodbye on the last day was always a sad day.”

Kim Moore was nine years old when she attended Camp Maqua for the first time in 1967 and continued every summer until she turned fifteen when she ended her camp career as a kitchen aide. “It was a huge part of my life—one of the best parts of my life. I would cry at the end of the session because I didn’t want to go home. I felt so grown up at camp and so safe and independent.”

“There was a two-week block in July when I went to camp and loved it,” said Kathy Butsch, who was ten in 1968 when she first attended and camped until 1974. “I was always sad and depressed to leave camp because I was leaving all my new best friends”

“One cherished memory for me,” said Judith Moore, assistant director in 1970-71, “was the sight of the young campers making friends and bonding throughout the two-week period, so sad to leave each other at the end. They too had an experience for the first time and it was very emotional. There were those who waited so anxiously for their parents to arrive for pick up and it was always obvious to me which parents had a special bond with their girls. These young campers had an adventure that asked that they survive without their usual family support and develop these skills. Remarkable when I think about it.”

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Why I Did Not Return To Camp #4

Published on by Kathy Baker

Families members passed away and families moved, so those events affected the decisions of girls to return to camp. Others had to earn money instead of camping, and then some were fortunate enough to take advantage of other opportunities with travel.

Jane McKinley attended camp 1956, 1957, and 1959, but her parents moved to Portland, Oregon in 1958, so she missed that summer. She had her first flying experience when she returned the following summer, and it was the first time she had ever flown on her own. She stayed with the Utter family until she went to camp and to this day wishes her sister, who was ten years younger, had taken the opportunity to attend Camp Maqua.

“I was the youngest of five, but the only one to go to camp,” said Rosemary Orgren (1956-58). “My friends were at camp. They were my tribe. It was probably helpful because I was shy through high school and college. It was good to be in an environment where you either curled up in a ball or you were friendly. It was a good time for girls. It was good for me and I felt like all the experiences were also good. My parents moved me in the seventh grade to Detroit, and I don’t remember any particular reason why I didn’t go back. I guess I felt I had outgrown it.”

As one of the youngest campers in 1965 at the age of eight, Debbie Tweedie camped long enough to become a C.I.T. and left only when her family moved. Gretchen Jacques, attended as a young teen from 1952-55, and made it to C.I.T. status, but for some reason lost interest.

Kimela Peck was eight in 1966 and attended for eight more years and despite her desire to become a counselor, felt the need as an only child to earn money and go on to college. Her father died when she was six and her mother was raising her on her own.

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Mixed Reactions–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

Born in Flint, Sheryl Biesman was eight years old when she camped for the first time in 1973 and it closed before she could ever have a leadership position in 1978. Karen Selby was one counselor she could remember from that “wholesome camp” that closed with little fanfare to the campers who were there the last year, including Sheryl.

As part of the transformation from a girls’ camp to co-ed, Sheryl was thirteen and just becoming interested in boys. “My initial feeling was, they are invading my space,” said Sheryl, who recalled one drama girl moment when one of the boys liked someone else. “But, I don’t have strong memories of interacting with the boys at camp.”

“It was a very sad time for me. After the camp closed, I tried to go to another camp with my friend Diane. I remember I hated it. I only went one summer and it wasn’t Camp Maqua. We had to wear white. I was so distraught. I kept searching for something I had lost and was so disappointed. I am sad it didn’t work out. The experience taught me leadership. Many of my Jewish friends went to Jewish camps in Maine and elsewhere and had good experiences and ended up staying friends with people they met there. I guess I was just so emotionally attached at age thirteen to Maqua—“

“My Mom thinks I started going when I was eight, so that would be 1972, through the end, although she doesn’t remember me going that many years. I remember the last couple years were co-ed, “said Beth Phillips, who was disappointed that the boys were now a part of the camp, but admitted there were some cute counselors, and one in particular that took them on a nature hike in the woods.  “We took a trek through the backwoods that led to a secret area, which was off to the side of Chapel Hill. The counselors always tried to keep the boys and girls apart, and the boys had the cabins down the hill, while we were all up top. There were different activities when the boys came, but before that, we just used to sit at the campfire and holler at the boys across the lake.”

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Culture Of Change—

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

 

 

“I liked boys as a teen, and it wasn’t a dramatic change and it wasn’t better or worse, it was just changed. It had always been run by women and instead of strong, confident women, there were men in charge,” said Julie, who remembered Joe’s smile as he barked orders authoritatively.

Julie Bernard (1970-78) was not the first camper to talk about the change of culture at camp once it became a co-ed camp.  She recalled staff Joe Liberati, John Myers, and Ken Dike while she was there, who had positions as assistants or directors during this transitional time at camp. (When she looked back at those times with an adult eye, she viewed some of the behaviors by some of these young men as (perhaps) inappropriate, but did not go into detail.)

She described those last years at camp like the videos of today—instead of girls gone wild, it was campers gone wild. Couples sneaking off together; girls smoking in the Brownie–painting their nails after telling someone they were showering; and boys trying to “hook up” were a few of her memories of the changes from the uninhibited days of no bras and all girls. There were still dances with the boys, but they were not the boys from across the lake or Camp Iroquois, now they were at camp.

There was a huge uproar when one of the male directors (Ken or Joe) installed pins in the camp fireplace, by drilling holes into the rocks for rock climbing. Julie remembered the carabiners and ropes swinging from the beautiful lodge fireplace as they practiced their climbs and repelling.

“I have phenomenally good memories of Camp Maqua,” said Nancy Neumyer (1975-78), but, the dynamic of the camp changed when the boys came. It made me more self-conscious and I felt like I couldn’t be myself. At that time, I was at a Catholic all girls school and I was extremely shy, and it wasn’t that I felt negative about the boys there, but it was more difficult to be there when the boys were there. I never went back after my last year. I think the director’s name was Mel and there was a senior counselor from Chicago, and he was Hawaiian.”

“Even raising the flag in a mixed camp worried me. I was worried about my hair, blemishes, how I looked and if anyone would see me crying over a song we sang. I was fourteen and fifteen. I do remember that there was less structure that year and rules were more relaxed and we went down to the lake after hours, but there was no more freezing bras and sending them up the flagpole for pranks with boys around.”

Brooke Sauve (1949-51) sent her daughter to camp in the mid-seventies, and still has the letter she wrote begging to come home because she hated it so much. “When I was at camp, it was very organized and we were all kept busy with activities. She said all she did was lay around on her bunk. I guess you didn’t have to do activities if you did not want to. It was different. Everything had changed.”

What culture of change did you observe with the introduction of male staff and campers?