1970’s

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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Snipe Hunts–

Published on by Kathy Baker

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Just what is a snipe hunt? It is a wild goose chase, a fool’s errand, a practical joke, and it was a favorite game to play on the innocent campers who had no idea how this imaginary task would play out. The inexperienced camper was given instructions on how to capture a snipe, which usually involved making crazy noises, carrying a bag and a stick, and banging rocks in attempts to ferret out the snipe.

Audrey Graff (1948) and Mary Jane Keschman (1944-54) both had funny memories of snipe hunts. “We would round up a new girl and walk out to the woods and tell her we were going to bring back a ground snipe from the woods, and send it her way to catch. Poor girls,” laughed MaryJane,” what we did was just leave them there and they would wait and wait for us.”

“First the camper was given a bag or a pillow case, then taken to the woods. She was told, everyone else will scout around for the snipes,” said Barb Cruey (1956). “She was to call the snipe and it will go in her bag. Everyone then left her and waited. Eventually, the camper returned with the empty bag and was told it was a prank. I don’t remember anyone ever being upset or crying, just feeling silly and couldn’t wait to pull snipe hunting on someone else.”

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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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Eek! Snakes! Lizards!

Published on by Kathy Baker

220px-boa_constrictor_eques_bonte_pl04The girls either learned to have an appreciation for snakes or they left camp still hating them. Maureen Moore (1968-70) learned to appreciate snakes during her trips to the nature hut, but, some girls played with them at camp and later developed a fear, like Karen Magidsohn (1965) or Barb Krohn (1970-72), who just avoided the nature activities.

In Valerie Monto’s (1964-68) neighborhood, there were many empty lots that were not developed, filled with bees and garter snakes. “We were city kids, but not inexperienced with nature. I would pick up garter snakes by the tail and was not afraid. I remember one girl was so freaked out by even seeing them.”

Diane Dudley (1957-63) learned her lesson when she wanted to see what was down inside a log, so she stuck her hand in and came up with a snake bite, featuring three holes on her finger! Carla Wilhelm (1945-49) was taken by surprise when a garter snake bit her, because she had no idea snakes could bite!

Cindy Rose (1968-70) had a vivid memory of standing on a path at Maqua watching a snake eat a frog and that very same scene was a bad memory for Jan Mosier (1947-52). She watched a counselor feed frogs to the snakes and was horrified as the frog slithered down inside the snake’s body.

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Strays and Pets—

Published on by Kathy Baker

2afb7b0a00000578-3180558-image-a-11_1438320338658Chipmunks—those cute little critters that scamper around the camp like little adorable pets—but can create such damage! Randi Wynne-Parry was totally obsessed with them while she was camping 1969-73, and still owns her fuzzy, faded photos of the chipmunks she fed.

Chipmunks would find their way into the huts and create havoc. “One morning we went to breakfast and when we came back, our hut had been ransacked by a chipmunk! We couldn’t figure out how it got in and we couldn’t figure out how it got out, but it made a disaster! We were petrified,” said Brooke Sauve (1949-51), who is still afraid of animals to this day.

Sally Allen (1968-73) felt just the opposite. She loved the nature hut and all the critters. “We were able to get up close and personal with the chipmunks and squirrels. They were captured humanely and let go after two weeks,” she said of the snakes, frog and turtles.

“Those little guys sounded like a herd of elephants in the morning as they crunched the leaves, and we could not sleep through it,” said Carol Wahl (1974-75) of the chipmunks.

Of course, there were samples of nature that were not as large, but brought much interest to the girls. Nature itself was the classroom, as paper wasps’ nests and cocoons from moths and butterflies came under scrutiny, with the intent not to harm them or get stung in the process.

Tricia Sautter recalled a little camper in her second year (1969) who caught a baby bird and it was covered in lice. “When she brought it to the nature center, the whole place had to be fumigated by a company that sealed it up and set off a big “bug bomb”.

“The Farm”, by Brad Funk, was the title of an article in the “Loon” in the late seventies’. “Wednesday, the 6th of July, Maquois started a farm they hope to have finished by the end of the week. Our first animal to join the farm is a goat by the name of Billy. He is presently kept at the nature hut. We hope to have a pen for him at the old horse stable. Also, we hope to add some other kinds of animals, such as a bull calf, two ducks, one rabbit, one pig, two guinea pigs and a pony.”

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Wild Things–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Aside from checking your shoes for Daddy Long Legs, swatting mosquitoes, ducking bees and wasps, hearing the Loons, observing fish and knowing a leech would find you at least once during your camping sessions, there were other wild things that were expected and some not so expected!

Zoe McGrath had been a member of the Bay City YWCA all through high school and loved going to camp from 1956-57. She loved the lake, Loons, canoeing, and camping with bedrolls at the Lumberman’s Monument, and later became the camp nurse in 1967. “One night I woke up in the middle of the night with an animal crawling all over me. It was either a porcupine or a raccoon.”

“There was a huge field on the right side of the camp with trees and fence by the water,” said Penny Mitchell (1951-54). “It was a wide-open property with cow patties all over it. There was a time between sessions, so our counselor had this idea that we should look for porcupine quills. We put potatoes on the end of sticks to protect ourselves if the porcupines came after us, but I think she was trying to keep us busy.”

The year Cynthia Gregory (1960-65) was in Senior Village, the girls did awake to cows that had wandered into camp from a nearby farm. “We were told not to leave, but we pulled the ropes open on the shutters to look out to see them all outside our hut,” she laughed.

unknownNancy Neumyer (1975-78) ran into skunks on the wilderness survival trip. Diane Dudley not only ran into a skunk, but it was a skunk of another color! “I always liked snakes and mice. When I was at camp walking back from cabin seven at night, I saw an albino skunk walk right in front of me. I ran to tell the counselors that I had seen a huge albino skunk and it was unmistakeable! Of course, they didn’t believe me until one of the counselors saw it.”

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