Camping With Critters

Published on December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 by Kathy Baker

What would camping be without mosquitoes, spiders, frogs, and other creepy crawlies? There were numerous tales of bites and sightings that scared little girls to death, especially in the dark, as they walked to use the “Brownie”.

Marsha Immerman can still smell the “612” insect repellent from the forties’ and fifties’. Sisters Marcia and Kathleen Dworman used to count each other’s mosquito bites in the sixties’. “The mosquitoes bit me all night long, since my bed was right near the screen that had holes in it. I would hide under my sleeping bag, get hot, crawl out, get bit and then hide under it again,” said Kathleen.

“I was eaten alive by mosquitoes,” said Maggie Young, who camped in the sixties’and seventies’ and went home looking like she had chicken pox, since she could not leave them alone. Julie Richardson (1966-68) was allergic to them and would have welts all over her body, but it did not stop her from campfires.

Janet Gehres was the camp nurse in 1961 and felt bad when she led the girls into a swampy area playing hide and go seek. ‘We came back with mosquito bites all over our behinds!”

“We would play capture the flag in the woods and come out itching from poison Sumac. There were mosquito bites and earaches, but that never stopped us from loving the times there. I remember one year we all switched from “Off” to “Cutters” insect repellent. My frames and glasses melted when the Cutters spray got on it. I couldn’t see out of my lenses,” laughed Julie Bernard (1970-78).

There were mosquitoes everywhere and Carrie Norris (1972-73) said she went through so many cans of “Off” that she is quite sure the repellent has caused damage to her. And she was not wild about the spiders, either—nor were many girls!

Andrea Gale (1970-74) admitted she had a deathly fear of spiders and would scream when the Daddy Longlegs were in her cabin. She was not one of the girls to venture out in the middle of the night, for fear of finding them, but she remembered the counselor accompanying the brave girls by flashlight.

Nature Directors 1970-71

Published on December 13, 2017December 11, 2017 by Kathy Baker

When Joan McKinney arrived in 1970, she took an inventory of the nature hut (Dutton) and its equipment, cleaned it and readied during her pre-camp. She described the surroundings as central to all the cabins and by the water, with a front screened-in porch that faced the water. She kept her reptiles and amphibians there, plus the two bird’s nests to be observed. (Phoebe and Robin)

The main room held sixteen to twenty people or two cabins, blackboard, large work room cabinet to store chemicals and paints, bulletin boards, shelves, racks, tools. equipment, chairs and tables. A small back room held a toilet and an unplugged cooler. The second floor was sleeping quarters for unattached staff. She had a little diagram, which indicated a sink in the workroom that faced the road, and “Dorthe’s Island” to the right of Dutton, which was an outdoor nature terrarium that had been built three summers previously.

Joan’s bulletin boards featured “Animals Around Us” with photos of reptiles, birds and mammals and specimens and explanations of pressed leaves and photos of trees. She conducted nature contests each session, tree identification of twenty-five trees, and competitions between the cabins. Her prizes included penny candy and nature ribbons at the closing ceremonies.

There was also a boa constrictor, mice and a Blanding turtle that Joan brought with her, which the campers cared for over the summer, as well as a painted turtle found at camp. Her father had made a poster on wild flowers entitled “Let them live in your eyes, not die in your hand”, which she thought was appropriate since many of the campers decorated their wishing boats with flowers at the end of the session. Other posters pertained to Smokey the Bear, poison ivy and poison sumac. An assistant was on hand from the first week and they worked together on scheduling lessons and rainy day activities.

Nature Director-1968

Published on December 11, 2017December 5, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Audrey Delcourt was a first-year biology major at Albion College in 1968 and had a few classes in her field when she was hired as the Nature Director. She had relatives in northern Michigan, and had often gone up to Oscoda. She saw the sign as she passed through Hale, and her Mom wrote the camp name down. The director came to her house to interview her and that was the beginning of her north woods adventure!

There were no notes left for her to follow, despite the camp having always had a nature studies program. Audrey made charts and used her own interests and knowledge for the program. There were scavenger hunts, where the girls would run around and find plants on lists, including “Lady Slippers”. “They don’t grow everywhere,” she said, “so I told the girls not to pick them.”

Dissection was also on her program and she believed the girls thought it was fascinating. One of the maintenance staff secured a cow’s head and they dissected the eyeballs. There was also an outdoor site, which was a moat with a little island on the side of the nature cabin.

The second year, Audrey came in as the assistant cook, hoping to try something a little different. “It looked more like perseverance. I got up early for this job. I burned my fingers a few times and decided I needed to change my attitude,” she said. “Then I had fun. Before my attitude change it was just work. I remember bringing my plant press into the kitchen because I needed a heat source to dry my plants. I used a shelf over the huge stove.” (Audrey’s explanation for this fascination was the recent plant course she had at college.)

Audrey received excellent ratings from Dorthe. “Nature went very well this summer. I felt Audrey worked very hard and had planned some new interesting activities for the campers. A great deal of hard work went into the completion of the island started last year. The Nature part of Dutton was always neat and clean at all times and it was a pleasure to visit her classes and observe her in action. She was an asset in many ways to our staff.”

“Audrey was new to Maqua but right right into the spirit of Maqua. She was always interested in the campers and was most effective with them. She ran a good program in Nature and had a variety of activities. She was always on the job and most mature in the way she assumed her responsibilities. She could be called on for extra duty or to help out in the kitchen and she was always a willing worker. She was liked by her co-workers and was indeed an asset to our staff. I found her most cooperative.”

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.

The Music Is Tucked In My Heart–

Published on November 27, 2017December 3, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Sheryl Biesman, contacted me after googling Camp Maqua, ( after finding the article from the Bay City Times), and belongs to a writers’ group and has always been interested in writing. Some of her writings are centered on camp memories.

“I wrote about the music, because the camp songs were trapped inside my head. It was a time in my life that music influenced my life. I have been searching for a cassette tape that I captured as a twelve-year old at the final ceremony. I love to record everything. (Photos, music, etc.) When I listened to it, I realized someone had whispered in it—hope to see you next year,” said Sheryl, who realized that it would never happen since the camp closed. She carried the memories and songs and friendships in her mind, as well as her pen-pal relationships.

With her career in marketing and degree from U of M in communications, Sheryl was an early adopter of technology. When camp closed in 1978, the internet was already in process, with e-mail not far behind in 1995, according to Sheryl. “There were twenty years with music in my head. Napster rolled around and I searched and found the songs from camp. It was my first experience hearing them since camp and it was incredible. With YouTube, I could see many of the songs being sung. Hundreds of camp songs. There was nothing I could not find on YouTube. It was a major revelation when I googled this wacky song by Tom Lehrer in 1962, who turned out to be a folk artist who sang this song “Rickity Tickity Tin”, It was also a revelation to me that all these songs we sang at camp were covers for popular songs like Peter, Paul and Mary’s songs. I can remember a Spiders Web song, but I can’t find the origin.”

Girls of Camp Maqua

My Book ~ Your Story

1970’s