Dating At Camp–

Published on November 28, 2018November 12, 2018 by Kathy Baker

A rabbit, in front of the Maqua flag, peers through the woods through binoculars toward the Camp Mahn-go-tah-see flag on the cover of a 1951 edition of the “Loon”. The girls would agree—the boys camp across the lake held campers and staff alike at Camp Maqua fascinated and interested for centuries. Meg Dahlem, early twenties camper recalled that they were allowed a great deal of freedom and could cross the lake in rowboats to meet the boys at Camp Mahn-go-tah-see.

There were mentions in the early editions of the “Loon” of spirited battles between both camps, meeting in the middle of the lake with their boats, but it was not just pranks that held the girls’ interests. The mere spotting of a male, whether it be near the shores of Maqua or the shores of the boys’ camp, could draw shrieks and giggles. Many of the staff had boyfriends who were on the staff across the lake. (As early as 1937, the camp committee had discussions about rules for smoking and dating at camp.)

“I remember a boyfriend stopping at the camp and trying to visit me. Because he was with his aunt and uncle, he was allowed to do so, but boy was I the talk of the camp!” laughed Carolyn Waits (1955-57). “We were not supposed to have any visitors, especially boys. It was long before cell phones and he was one of my earliest boyfriends. I can still remember his name—Jimmy Murray. It was cool. All the girls at camp asked me about him.” (She also recalled trying to figure out a way to accidently sail over to Mahn-go-tah-see, but never succeeded. When the girls would row over, they would sing the popular song “Hey Mambo” and substitute “Hey Mahn-go” as they rowed past the camp.)

Nicknames–

Published on November 26, 2018February 8, 2018 by Kathy Baker

Nicknames were a way to make girls feel included with a sense of intimacy and camaraderie. “Magot” (or maybe Maggot) would not be the cutesy nickname a young girl would pick, but Karen Magidsohn won that name. It was very common for girls to be christened with new or short names at camp. Sue Purdue, who taught tennis in 1968, was remembered as one of the favorite counselors with the greatest nickname—Super! (Supercalifragisticexpealadocious was too difficult to spell, so they called her Super or Superdoo.)

Nicknames were especially popular with the staff and in 1966, Karen Boger was Bogie, Lorraine Buban was Collie, Oleta Engel was Lee, Kathy French was Frenchie, Ann Giebel was Snoopy, Carol Griffith was Ginger, Barbara Haggart was Beanie, Linda Harp was Harpie, Emogene Host was Emmy, Mary Laich was Buff, Janet McLeod was Squirt, Ann Temple was Rusty, Ursula Witkowski was Urs, Gretchen Sharpley was Gretty, and Nancy Westfall was Nan.

“Beanie”, as she was known at camp, received her nickname the first summer at Maqua. “I didn’t have a name and I remember Lee, who ran the camp store, came out with the staff and showed us what she was going to sell in her store. Everyone laughed when she pulled out this little green beanie,” she said. “No-one thought it would sell. I came out with one, rigged up with two tongue depressors like a “Beanie Copter” and they sold out!” (If you remember, the Beanie Copter hat was from the Beanie and Cecil show—- an animated color cartoon.)

The “Loon” in 1965 ran an article “How Counselors Got Their Nicknames”. “Frenchie’s last name was French; Bubble’s initials are BUB; Scotch’s name was Ginny, shortened to gin, then scotch; O-B’s last name was Obey; Beanie received her name for wearing a beanie: Snoopy had the name of Napolean, which was Nappie for short, which was associated with the blanket of Linus in the Snoopy cartoon, which was associated with Snoopy; Horse was in a cabin with too many Kathys’ and she liked horses; Peachy’s real name was Gail, but her little charges named her Peachy for no reason; the souvenirs all around the room of Colorado, who was from Colorado, earned her name; Saunders was Candi’s last name: Melba was shortened to Mel; blowing up rafts on vacation earned Windy her nickname; Corky was first named Curly for having curlers in her hair, but she renamed herself; Reb supposedly had a Rebel accent and Smokey wore a fire hat the day she was named.”

Laurie Cone had two nicknames in 1968—Coon and Pinecone! Jeanne Kiltie also was known as Froggy (for her raspy voice) or Little Kiltie, since she was Sue Kiltie’s little sister. Kathy Hall (1966-71) laughed like Phyllis Diller, so she was known as Diller. Quiet Linda Doering was crowned (facetiously) by Beanie and was known as Yakky, while Cindy Morrison (1960) was known as Bug Eyes for her blue eyes and always considered it an endearment.

When Karen Kaiser (1959-62) was asked how she got her nickname, she said there were three girls named Karen in her hut when she was seven and everyone called her friend’s mother Billie and she loved the name, so it stuck. Valerie Monto (1964-68) had a girl from Florida with a southern accent and her nickname was Southern. “By the end of the session, half the camp had caught her accent and it was “y’all this and y’all that”, she laughed.

Sue Wiegand earned her nickname Flash from Beanie. (“I think it had something to do with the fact that I was not particularly quick in the morning. But, as I’ve gotten older, I have actually become a morning person.”) She was also described in a paragraph of the “Loon” in 1968 in an article “The Legend of Flash Gordon”. “Yes, Flash does live and we are proud, yes, very proud, deep down in our hearts that we, the humble staff of Maqua have actually seen her.”

“Camp was just a place where I began to think about my identity,” said Debbie Tweedie (1965-72). “Because my last name was Tweedie, I was always nicknamed Tweetie Bird and my friends would give me gifts of Tweetie Birds. At camp my counselor decided to give me a new name. I was Peanuts. I suddenly realized I didn’t have to be Tweetie Bird anymore, and I did not have to be defined by others. It was a big moment.”

Diane Dudley (1957-63) got her nickname as a small child and it stayed with her at camp. “I was named for my Aunt Doris, who was called Dodie or Dodo and my Mom said when I tried to pronounce my name as a small child, I would say Dodo, so either I mixed it up or it was all I could say. I didn’t tell people at school, but one year a friend came up to me in Cunningham’s Drug store and said “Hi Dodo” and the president of our high school heard it and that was it.”

Karen Cox (1967-69) was nicknamed Cowboy pretty much the first day on the job. Linnie Harris, who was the waterfront director at the time, did not know the names of all the new staff members. Karen just happened to be wearing her plastic “Broncos” spirit hat decorated with flowers by her first assigned roommate at Western Michigan University. “Hey Cowboy”, she yelled to me to get my attention at the waterfront,” said Karen, “and the name just stuck. But many of them just called me C.B. for short.”

“I think my nickname at camp was Charlie,” said Kathy Butsch (1968-74). “I wore this ball cap that was blue with white polka dots. I always hated to leave camp and remember moping on a shopping trip with my Mom when I ran into a friend from camp. Karen Evans. She recognized my hat!” (Just that little incident gave her instant happiness.)

The camp nurse, Carol Hulett was nicknamed Hypo in 1974, and the”store lady” Rhonda Thayer received her nickname from her mother, who was always yelling RhonnyJo!

“One of the girls was nicknamed “Spaz” (Cindy Knapp) because she was always tripping over everything. She had those wooden Dr. Scholl’s sandals and wore painter pants, so of course when we drove back home, I had to get my own painter pants,” laughed Sue West (1975+). “My nickname was “Squat” because I could pee outside without getting it down my leg.”

Cindy Knapp (1968+) had her own version of how she got her nickname. “I earned Spaz after I fell, hurrying to class. I tripped over a root. (I think it was in the path coming down from cabin 6). It ripped open my hands and knees. I went to the Infirmary to get it cleaned out. I remember the nurse working to get the sand out of my hand, while she sang, “Boom, Boom, Ain’t It Great Tp Be Crazy?” Sadly, I was promoted to Super Spaz a few days later when I tripped over a root at the bottom of the boat house stairs and tore everything open again. Thankfully, the Super part didn’t stick, but Spaz did and I was Spaz every summer after!”

What was your nickname and how did you receive it?

The “Loon” Newsletter Over The Years

Published on November 14, 2018November 1, 2018 by Kathy Baker

Copies of the “Loon” in the early years, with their tissue paper thin pages, were preserved in the archives at the “Y”, along with other memoribiia. They were written and published by campers and staff in each session, usually reviewing activities at camp, anecdotes of the day, confessions of the campers, humorous stories, vignettes of the staff and cartoons.

As the years went by, the paper quality was heavier, and different columns were added. In 1947, Carolyn Abbott was the editor with Marge Niedzielski as her co-editor. The July 23-August 6^th edition had a beautifully designed cover by K.J. Carroll, with “The Loon” in birch bark styled letters and sketches inside drawn by Ethel Feldman. At the back of the newsletter was a drawing of the actual camp layout.

Reporters that summer included Betty Miller, Ethel Feldman, Mary Lou Winn, Pat Kula, Barbara Jacoby, Pauline Clark, Judy Alcorn, Lucy Clark and Janice Reid. They created sections on the ideal counselor and camper, a ”What If?” section, jokes and other columns.

Hut Sayings and Expressions–

Published on November 12, 2018October 27, 2018 by Kathy Baker

How many of you could identify the era a girl camped by the expressions, slang or sayings of the times? If you can’t remember some of the famous ones, go to this site for a memory refresher—-http://people.howstuffworks.com/53-slang-terms-by-decade6.htm

Judy Alcorn wrote the famous sayings in 1947 for the “Loon”, which included Dona Johnson’s “We never do that in hut 6”, Nan Kendall’s “Ain’t that quaint?”, Beverley Schlatter’s “Oh Man!”, Pauline Clark’s “Oh, Hegenauer!”, Nancy Hamme’s “Oh, be quiet”, Shirley Blunden’s “Oh, for John Pete!”, Yolanda Erickson’s “Oh, Pot!’, Sara Leet’s “Oh, Corn!” and Jean Sayle’s “Whoop-e-do”.

The hut sayings, according to an edition of the 1949 “Loon” included “Gee Whiz, Bear It Or We’ll Move You Down, Oh Fizz, Oh Norman, Cheese and Crackers, Wa Happened, Baby?, Holy Toot, What’s Up With The Polish, Gotta Go Bim, and Don’t Get Hysterical”.

There were “Famous Last Sayings” in 1950, which included “Vickie, come here”, “Clean up the hut”, “If you go to the Brownie, wake me up”, “Pass the potato chips”, “Anyone got some gum?”, “Run! A motorboat!”, “Get off my bed”, “Sweep the floors before inspection”, “Oh, be quiet”, and “Eek! A spider!”.

The hut sayings were “That’s An Insult”, “Don’t Be Snippy”, “Crumb”, “Jumping Catfish”, “Day Of Sorrow”, “Irma Ohla”, “Very Good”, “We’ve Got A Riot Of A Hut”, and “Hmmm”.

In 1952, the “Loon” listed more hut sayings with “I Yi Yi”, “Wha-chamma-jigger”, “Jeepers”, “Go to the staff table”, “That’s news!” “Hot Spit”, “Bilge”, “Shut Up”, “Taps have blown”, “Roger Dodger”, “You Old Codger”, “Match Me”, “By Gum”, “Ain’t that the peaches”, “Go over to the staff table”, “That’s a failure”, “Remember the golden rule”, “Raise the flag”, and “I’m going to get the hair brush”.

Sentimental Saves—

Published on November 7, 2018October 22, 2018 by Kathy Baker

Many of the special memories from camp were preserved in copies of the “Loon” from the beginning years at camp. Not only were there many copies in the Bay City YWCA archives, but campers saved them and many donated them for reference for the history. Along with the little newsletters, photos from camp (both professional and personal) were saved in albums and many of the girls to this day cannot part with them.

Gail Schultheiss (1966) saved many mementoes, including the brochure that would arrive every year to the campers. Nancy Keeler (1973-74) is still in possession of her newsletters, diary entries, photos and ribbons. Coleen Gasta has her autograph books of all her cabinmates from the early sixties. Carol Wahl (1974-75) has her rock with “Camp Maqua 1974) painted on it and a piece of driftwood. Sue Michelson (1963-73) says her camp rock goes everywhere with her. (“If I move, it moves with me,” she laughed.)

While Karen Magidsohn (1965+) was interviewing with me, she was pulling memoribila from her drawer with excitement, remembering how much she loved her arts and crafts at camp. In her hands was the little decoupage box she had kept and used all these years, and tucked inside was the jewelry from her Mom and the leather bracelet she made at camp.

Having always been a sentimental saver, she finally found all her old photos, brochures, award ribbons and the lifesaving books signed by her instructors from 1968-71. She also saved copies of her “Swim and Stay Fit” program, which logged each segment of her laps to track her progress.

Jane Linder (1956) saved her marksman’s bars from riflery and Kimela Peck (1966-74) saved her medals and certificates from archery and riflery, as did many of the women who shared their stories.

Awards And Ribbons–

Published on November 5, 2018November 4, 2018 by Kathy Baker

Margaret Dahlem stopped on the lodge lawn in 1989, soon after we bought the property. Her trip down memory lane, as a first-time camper in 1925, included the awards when she camped. Her friend Harriet Crumb, who wrote a letter to me soon after, mentioned the same award.

There were competitions between the huts, including a parade of decorated row boats. The winner was awarded the “Bracken Fern Award”. There was also a “Spirit of Maqua” competition, based on the girl who most typified the ideal Maqua camper, with friendly voting that took place to choose one.

The awards were important to many little girls who excelled in a sport or activity that they had never tried before. Many of them saved their awards, ribbons and certificates from camp, as proof positive of their achievements.

Mary Lou Winn camped in 1946 and 1947 and remembered all the awards were presented on parents’ night at the end of camp. For her, it always seemed that the older campers seemed to get more than their share, but looking back her memory might have been tinged with envy.

“We had a three-day canoe trip, which was wonderful. I just remember how exciting it was to do this canoeing and camping. There were girls who were bickering on that trip—just amongst themselves. It was hard for the counselors. The girls were difficult and I always felt my role in life was to keep peace. I was shocked and amazed when I got an award for the “Most Cooperative On The Canoe Trip”, said Ann Ward (1958-61). ““They had never given that award before. I guess I was just a peacemaker. I was never the type that gossiped.”

Girls of Camp Maqua

My Book ~ Your Story

1970’s