Beware and Be Aware!

Published on August 7, 2017August 1, 2017 by Kathy Baker

The elements, the wildlife, other campers on the river and unforeseen circumstances forced campers and counselors to remain on guard at all times. But, adventures were adventures, and unexpected incidents occurred, which were handled as they arose. Some were fun, some were funny and some were dangerous, but all were memorable.

“My most vivid memory of camp was in my last year (1962) of the overnight canoe trip,” said Ilene Zacher, who began attending Camp Maqua in 1959 at the age of ten. “I was with all my cohorts paddling the AuSable. I think they had bussed us to Grayling. It was a backpack type of trip. We embarked upon the river, pitched our tents, prepared our food, hiked the woods and learned about the flora and fauna. It was mostly about survival skills. We had to dig our own latrines, which was interesting and a first for me. I was awestruck by the AuSable and the high cliffs. The worst part of the trip was a thunderstorm with lightning. Our counselor would not let us stop. We were on schedule and she was going to stick to our schedule. Of course, no one got hit by lightning, but I just remember how scary it was.”

Anne Obey, (camper and counselor from 1960-70) had memories of a “heinously awful lightning storm” that sent everyone running to some stranger’s cabin, thankful that no one was home to see the campers trespassing and the raccoons that ate their breakfast.

Floating Food and Bug Sandwiches–

Published on August 2, 2017July 31, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“I can remember piling eight kids and two staff members into an open truck with all the food and supplies and they would drop us off at Rollways. I look back now that I am a Mom and think—there were no cellphones, no place to contact anyone in an emergency, “ said Laurie Cone, (1962-68) who figured there had to be a ranger station somehwhere—“and driving in an open truck with deer possibly jumping out in front of us? I guess times were different. It was not a litigious world. It was a simple time and we didn’t know any better.”

Tracy Topping (1962-63) also remembered piling into the pickup truck with a “gaggle of girls” singing “We Are The Girls Of Camp Maqua” on the way to the river. “I don’t think that water in the river ever got above our knees and it was slow moving, but if you had too much in the canoe, it would get stuck. I can still see the string of hot dogs all hooked together that came floating down the river. We tried to save the food. I guess one of the canoes had capsized.”

Her sister Randi was at the front of the canoe line, when her sister was at the back. “We all witnessed the giant sausage links floating by our canoes. We were quite impressed that they floated and we tried to catch them,” she laughed, recalling how they were careful to duck the giant tree limbs in the current as they tried to catch the lost food.

Many girls, like Sue Purdue (1964-68), were city girls and took very few trips growing up. “I was very rugged and would not have known camping was in my blood, had it not been for Maqua. One year I was on one of those three or four day camping trips, which I did every session. We didn’t have tents, just sleeping bags. My cousin Laurie was a kitchen aide at the time and had packed the food. There were thirteen of us and she packed enough for six. Also, since there were no coolers, we had something with sour cream and it was in our stew or some dish. All I remember is I threw up all night, but she didn’t know.”

Keeping Safe and Dry—

Published on July 31, 2017July 31, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“I do remember spending a night at Rollways State Park. I was just too cold to sleep,” said Ann Meisel (1962-66). “Now I would just ask if there were any more blankets, which I’m sure were available, but I was too young and shy to know how to deal with grown-ups, so I just suffered.”

Ann later took a three-day canoe trip, where the girls were driven to Grayling. “It was truly a rough and hard adventure. We did not have good camping gear back then and it rained and my sleeping bag got soaking wet. We learned how to maneuver the canoes to sleep under them. There was also an accident with a canoe and three girls had to be rescued, which made people in charge quite frantic. I think they tipped in some rapids and some items were lost. One of the girls who was rescued later showed us her lace panties and said she did not know whose panties she had on,” laughed Ann.

The canoe rental place happened to be next door to a house that looked terribly familiar to Ann. She was certain that the people that cared for her father’s mother in her dying years lived there, and had taken her grandmother from Bay City to their retirement home on the AuSable in Grayling.
“I was frantic, ran up to the door and banged. An older lady answered and I shouted, “I’m Ann Mesiel and I think you took care of my grandmother! They remembered me, and still had one item from my grandmother. It was a gold bangle, oval shaped, with Matie inscribed on it. I wore it for the next twenty years,” said Ann, who considered those trips to be the coolest thing she ever did.

It Was A Big Deal!

Published on July 19, 2017July 10, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“I loved the canoe trips down the AuSable and made two or three trips as a camper. It was a real big deal to me,” said Priscilla Johns (1968+). “We took our backpacks, (which were considered cool back then), and our sleeping bags and would throw it all in the back of THE truck,” she laughed, as she recalled the girls standing up or bouncing down the highway. “We would camp overnight and on the river, if we lost sight of one of the canoes we had some chant we called back and forth between us. We even had some canoe songs we sang, like “my paddles flashing bright.”

It was a big deal to Dawn Sohigian (1966-74) who learned to canoe at camp. “I was excited when I was finally old enough to go on the canoe trips, which I loved. I kept thinking—when is it my turn—and then felt like such a big girl when I went on one.”

Kathy Butsch rembered the landmarks on the river– Steven’s Bridge, Jolly Redskin Canoe Livery, and coming out at Lucerne. “It was a big deal that we were older than our sisters and could go on the canoe trips. We were super close as siblings, but there was always this big drama as we left to go on the trip. The canoe trip was the highlight of the summer, but the trauma was trying to pass the swim test.”

“I loved the canoe trips, both as a camper and a counselor,” said Jodi Tripp (1957+). “We spent three nights on the AuSable, and then one year we were on the river up near Grayling. It was a faster section of the river. We got rained out the first night and we were all sopping wet. We ended up staying where they stored the canoes to dry out and had to stay an extra night–sleeping out in the open in our wet sleeping bags. We were freezing, but sang a lot by the campfire.”

Jane McKinley (1956-59) learned to canoe at camp and loved to swamp and bounce on them, but loved the three-day trips on the AuSable, despite getting totally soaked. It appeared that she was always close enough on the river to walk for hamburgers and milkshakes, which was a nice change from campfire food.

“One canoe trip down the AuSable as a C.I.T. was so much fun,” said forties’ camper Marsha Immerman, who loved the singing back and forth, the view of the canoes in a single file and the “bobbing” that pitched them into the water. The food was not to her liking, and she was not alone.

Calling All River Rats!

Published on July 12, 2017July 9, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Elanie Engibous (1961-63), decked out in her prescription sunglasses, loved the canoe trips down the AuSable River. “I can remember eating red licorice and making Kiltie laugh so hard she would pee in the boat and we would have to stop and clean it out! There was a “hi-low-eenie-meenie” song that we hollered to connect to each other,” laughed Elaine.

“We would spend the night and would be so sore from paddling, and then we would sleep on the ground, but loved it. We were always so hysterical. We would be gone from camp for three days and wonder what we missed, but it was clear when we heard the other girls describe the canoe trips that we had to go. It was awesome. We had the food up in the trees to keep the bears out and we would get so burnt on the rivers—some girls would even blister.”

“The canoe trip were another level of independence, “said Doris Engibous. “I remember coming around the bend in the river on one trip and we were young and we spotted older kids skinny-dipping. It was the first time I had seen breasts and genitalia out in the open!”

The famous boat call. Valerie Monto (1964-68) remembered it and also had several versions of the call and the answer; “high-low-eany-meany-i-ki-oo-chow-chow-pea-wa-wa” or “hi-lo-eenie-meenie-caw-caw-um-chaw-chaw-e-waw-waw”, followed by “eany-einy-ony-ony-you-ho” or “hecta-minika-anika-zanika-boom-de-ada-yoo-hoo”.

Jeanne Kiltie (1966-71) loved the three-day canoe trips. “No showers, but bathing in the river. I can remember one girl was sick and they had to come get us, but another trip it poured like crazy and we took our sleeping bags and all crammed into the bathroom and slept there! How crazy was that? And I can also remember them telling us all to prop our aluminum canoes against the tree with a tarp over us! It was lightning and we were under a metal boat! When I look back, I wonder sometimes,” she laughed. “Then there were the raccoons that broke into our food and counselors were all yelling for us to save it all. As an adult now in a boat, there is no tipping in my boat!”

Kim Moore became an expert canoeist at Maqua (1967-72) and felt like she knew what she was doing and felt very confident. She packed for trips as a kitchen aide, “even though I am left-brained and not very organized. Someone would inevitably come to my rescue to help me pack in an organized way. I would say, somebody help me and I think Cindy Knapp was the one.”

The second year Sue West (1976) took thirty girls on a canoe trip on the AuSable for five days with counselor Gail Savage. The girls had received a week of intensive canoe lessons before the trip. “We put in the water on a beautiful sunny day, but it poured down river a few miles. We slept in puddles that night. We went back on the river the next day, still soaking wet, but we had to stop and call camp to come get us. Our sleeping bags were like baggies holding the water in.”

“My whole life I dreamed of going back and drifting down the river again, so I took a vacation one year with a friend, and it was just the same dream I remembered,” said one of the sixties’ campers whose memories of the river still cause deep nostalgia.

Do you remember the boat call? What is the version you recall?

Take Me To The River!

Published on July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 by Kathy Baker

The trip scheduling was not always perfect since there was lack of transportation and conflicts with canoe areas, according to notes left by the program director Toni Young in 1966 (for canoe overnight trips), but those trips remained the epitome of fun and adventure for girls of every decade.

A sample sheet was attached in the report with Gayla and “Squirt” from cabin seven leaving at 5:15 for Rollways, followed by dinner there, a clean up and explore time at 7:30, snacks at 8:45, taps at 9:30 and pick up and returned to Maqua at 8:15 the following morning.

There were near drought conditions that summer with a fire ban in place. Combined with “not too enthusiastic or inexperienced staff, very few cookouts were taken and just as few sleepouts,” wrote Toni. “Most of the cookouts were taken in conjunction with overnights, thus killing two birds with one stone.”

Four firebowls were available in camp in Senior Village, waterfront, and primitive. The one in primitive was only used when they were gone on a trip and the one between the lodge and the archery field wasn’t used at all that year.

Anne Obey was the campcraft packer, so the counselors were only responsible for the cooking utensils, tarps and hatchets from the campcraft hut and first aid kit from the nurse. Ann had impressed her director very much with her mature manner and how well she handled her responsibilities. “I could not have asked for anyone who gave willingly and actually showed loyalty and love for Maqua and its campers as Anne” she wrote in her report in 1966.

Girls of Camp Maqua

My Book ~ Your Story

1960’s