Nature Directors 1959-67

Published on December 6, 2017November 22, 2017 by Kathy Baker

For many years the nature center was housed in “Dutton”—the original farmhouse on the property by the lake. It was never in great shape, but every year renovations were done to keep the building standing just a little longer. Karen (“Billie”) Kaiser was the first director of nature that was mentioned in archival notes.

Karen applied in her senior year of high school and Camp Maqua made an age exception for her to become the Nature Director from 1959- 1962. With her interest in Biology, she and her father developed the nature center at camp.

“My Dad and I built the cages and I made charts and we were part of the Infirmary in the beginning. It was quite a good program, and every year I directed the nature program and the music at camp. I was a good leader, the kids loved the program, and I loved being with kids of all ages. I was fun and I loved my campers. I have wonderful memories of great kids and even a pet goat named “Daisy’ that belonged to the fella who took care of the grounds—Mr. Watson.”

Passing On The Songs—

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

The legacy of camp songs continued to be passed down through the generations as campers and staff sang the camp songs to husbands, friends, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, patients in their practices or students in their classrooms.

The songs and singing were a standout to Audrey Graff (1948), who taught all three of her children the camp songs and they sang them on car trips. “There was a nice feeling of sitting at those big tables after a meal singing rounds. Or the circle we formed at the end of the day, squeezing hands while we sang “Day Is Done”. I also loved being in my cabin hearing the Loon songs and “Taps” at reveille.”

‘It ws a great time day in and day out,” said Sarah Smith, whose camping years spanned 1968 through 1975. “When I left, I wanted to go back. My husband hears me mention Camp Maqua and when I sing the “Welcome To Camp Maqua” song, he and I both know that the song is hardwired into my brain and he understands. He camped at Bronx House for fifteen years and was a counselor and had all his firsts at camp.”

Nancy Weber (1962) knew all the camp songs from her sister before she ever arrived! “I have a degree in teaching and counseling and I am now a public speaker, but I sang songs to my kids when I was teaching that made me a hit. “Ga-goon went the little green frog one day-ga-goon went the little green frog,” sang Mary, who loved the folk songs from the Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver era. “Different songs for different eras…all those experiences and relationships influenced my career.”

Shirley Colbert (1941) still sings the camp songs to her grandchildren. “One of the best things I ever decided to do was to go back to college and get my teaching certification in reading after raising my three kids,” said Shirley, who already had her degree in journalism from MSU and worked with Scouts and taught in Florida.

Camp Songs Influenced Me—

Published on November 29, 2017November 22, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“It is an amazing thing to look back and have those memories of those relationships, the counselors, the campers, the music—-as you can see from the online songbook that is now being retyped, singing was the thread,” said Pamela Hartz. “In the early years, there was a Christian message to many of the songs, but I recall one called “Watermelon Man”, which I am sure is a pretty prejudiced song. The songs at Maqua shifted naturally with the transitional changing values of society at that time. When I heard those camp songs in later life, the folk music like Peter, Paul and Mary, it was very central to my core. I taught my nephews those songs!”

“My taste in poetry and music was so influenced by my time at camp,” said Betsy Falvey (1968-75). “I still have my dog-eared books of e.e. cummings and “The Little Prince”. The music of Judy Collins was popular and the Moody Blues, but I could hardly stand to hear the song “Tuesday Afternoon” after helping Judy Engibous with her synchronized swimming students at the waterfront, hearing that song play over and over and over again.”

‘I loved singing and still do,” admitted Cindy Knapp. “There are so many of them I still remember and sang with my children and have always sung with my students. One summer when I was back in Michigan, the family was roasting marshmallows over the fire. My cousin Jane Woodworth was there too and I started singing some of the old songs. It was like we were back there again, though I remembered more than Jane. We laughed a lot!”

Linda Greenwald (1948-49) taught music in college and still plays in an orchestra today. “I loved the group singing. We sang before meals, after meals, at bed, in line and at Chapel Hill.” Singing harmony and rounds was bonding time for Tally Cone in the sixties’, who said she would come home from camp singing all those songs in the car. “I probably drove my parents nuts,” she laughed.

Sing For Your Supper–

Published on November 20, 2017November 16, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“The lodge and the food were wonderful,” said Minette Jacques, the skinny kid from the fifties’ who loved to eat. “I loved the backwards meal, where we ate dessert first and all the way back to our salad. And we sang our prayer and the chant of “able, able, get your arms off the table”, when someone had their elbows on the table. I also remember Billie singing “No Man Is An Island” and she led us in the “Johnny Appleseed” prayer.”

“I inherited a good speaking voice,” said Minette Immerman (1938-41), when I complimented her young sounding eighty-two year old voice. “I loved the singing and we sang a lot after dinner in the lodge. I can still remember the lyrics to the last one. Run along home and jump into bed. Say your prayers and cover your head. This very same thing I say unto you, you dream of me and I’ll dream of you.”

Missy Plambeck (1968-78) hated the announcements, but loved the singing after every meal and the song they all sang to Edna the cook. “There were songs on paper on the walls of the lodge, but some we didn’t sing because they were so old. I do remember singing one of them and my daughter asked me how I knew the song. I told her it was from camp and she said not else should know that, since it was a sorority song.”

She was one of many who remembered singing to “Cookie”. Debbie Tweedie (1965-72) said, ”We would make the cooks come out of the kitchen with this song and they would run around the table, and beg Beanie to play her songs and I can still sing the “elbows on the table song”, but, we also had our table responsibilities in the lodge.”

Music, Music, Music—

Published on November 15, 2017November 13, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Picture a sheet music with notes, and then picture the notes of music leaving the page—floating over the camp, through the lodge dining hall, past the flagpole, down to the campfire, back up to Chapel Hill and down through the cabins of all the little campers. Music tied the camp together and those notes were not invisible. They poured forth from every girl who attended camp and they left lasting impressions. The piano, phonograph and music were at home in the lodge, and many girls learned their first tunes there.

The piano was a memory for Kerry Weber (1952), who decided no one knew any other song except “Chopsticks”, but the happy songs remain in her mind. When friends threw her a surprise party for her fiftieth birthday, someone mentioned Camp Maqua and ten girls stood up and proceeded to sing “We Are The Girls From Camp Maqua”.

Barb Ballor (1951-55) asked me to picture five elderly ladies singing as she and her four girlfriends met recently in Florida for a get-together– all in the kitchen singing the same song.

The rendition of one of the Camp Maqua songs came to me from Maribeth Morton (1974-75). “We welcome you to Camp Maqua, We’re mighty glad you’re here. We’ll send the air reverberating with our cheer. We’ll sing you in, we’ll sing you out, To you we raise a mighty shout: Hail, hail, the gangs all here, and you’re welcome to Camp Maqua”.

Mary Jane Keschman (1944-54) hated getting up early to raise the flag, but she loved the evenings at camp when the counselors would begin at the caretaker’s cottage and walk around to serenade all the cabins with slow, sad songs.

You Can Never Have Enough—-

Published on October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Many campers could trace their present day love for all things arts and crafts to their days at Maqua, including Maggie Young, who felt so fortunate to have the exposure during the sixties and seventies. Carol Requadt (1945) could still remember the cedar smell of the craft hut where she loved working with her hands.

Mary Hewes (1946) and MaryJane Keschman (1944-54) loved the traditions at camp, including the arts and crafts. “I remember making Gimp bracelets with four strands of plastic woven together and a leather lanyard that I gave to my brother. We also sanded wooden bowls until they were smooth, “ said Mary. For MaryJane, it was the wooden plate with her mother’s initials and the same Gimp bracelets that were her favorites.

“In the arts and crafts hut, there were work benches and tables in picnic table style”, said Caryl Sue Abendroth, who loved that they could work on their leather keychains, basket weaving or lanyards in the fifties, even on rainy days.

Lanterns and tile ashtrays were the craft of choice for Helen Thompson in 1968. A paperweight with a four- leaf clover embedded inside, formed with a regular three leaf and a single one added, pleased Bev Lemanski’s father in 1945. For Beverly Schlatter, who loved the craft hut in the forties, it did not matter what she brought home to her parents, she just liked working with flowers, stones, glue and scissors.

The little yellow painted bowl, with I LOVE YOU inscribed on it, is still in the possession of Maureen Moore’s mother from the sixties, as well as Patsy Walsh’s little leather woven purse in the shape of a triangle from 1938!

Girls of Camp Maqua

My Book ~ Your Story

1950’s