Reverse Homesickness–#3

Published on December 14, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Margot Homburger (1946-50) signed up for two weeks and asked for more. “At that time, I ended up moving into a different cabin with different girls and then I was just a little homesick, so maybe I was there just a little too long. But, every year I waited for that flyer to come and my friends and I would try to get into the same cabin, but we always made new friends. We used to leave camp in tears and cry all the way to Standish and couldn’t wait to get back the next year.”

Gretchen Jacques (1955) could not relate to the homesick girls and loved the woods and sleeping outside. Although her mother did not like to camp, the family used to rent places on Mullet Lake and continued with two of her sisters buying on the same lake. “As a kid, I hated to leave those places, too. My whole family felt like that. I loved it and hated to leave, just like camp. I called it reverse homesick.”

Pam Hartz (1966-75) loved camp and could not wait to go back each summer. “After eight weeks, I just did not want to leave at all, and I loved being a counselor. I liked that I could be a shoulder to cry on for the girls who were homesick, or had to have braces or whatever.”

“When we left, we would cry all the way home. My Mom called it camp sickness instead of homesickness,” said Betsy Falvey (1968-75). “I was never homesick. Instead I would sit in my room and write letters to my friends and counselors from camp. Honestly, I was more homesick when I went off to college!”

Reverse Homesickness–#2

Published on December 12, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

One of the campers from the sixties loved getting away from her parents and was never homesick. “In fact, going to camp helped me feel like part of the group,” she said. (She had been friends with a girl named Kyle Higgs and their parents were also friends and they were at camp together). “When I told my Mom that there were kids who were homesick and hated the food, she told me that children who were happy at home were never homesick and liked the food. And I believed her!”

Girls who had been away from home, either for sleepovers or extended stays at relative’s homes, usually fared better in the homesickness department. Susan Bradford always felt comfortable at other friend’s homes, maybe due in part to the rigid rules her father imposed at home. She admitted to the usual normal adolescent angst separating from her parents in 1965, but was comfortable being away from home.

Anne Shutt had gone away at the age of six to help her aunt in Massachusetts with her baby, so she was used to being away from home. “I was also an extrovert who easily made friends and loved making new ones,” said sixties camper Anne, who had all brothers.

And then there were the campers who cried because they had to go, then cried because they had to leave—often asking to stay longer or returning the following summers with lengthier stays. Gail Schultheiss was nine in 1966 and very homesick, but the next two summers were double the sessions. Sue Michelson (1963-73) begged her father from the big phone booth in the lodge, but money was tight and she was told no, although she attended every summer from grade school until age twenty-one!

Reverse Homesickness–#1

Published on December 7, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“I loved camp from the first day. I never remember being the least bit homesick, nor did I ever see my sister, except in passing,” said Kay Alcorn, who was bunked in Cabin Two (in the forties) closest to the lodge, with a counselor and seven others in bunk beds. “I got a prized top bunk that summer and every summer thereafter until I was thirteen. The other young girls did get homesick and one or the other of them was always in tears– being comforted by a counselor. I couldn’t understand their feelings.”

“The first year I eventually figured out the other girls with their homesick routines were getting more attention than I was. So, I decided to fake it during siesta one day. I put on a far bigger act than anyone before. I lay in my bunk and wailed. My counselor was rubbing my back and offering treats. Nothing worked, so she sent for other counselors and eventually my sister. Still I howled, mostly with a pillow over my head. Finally, I had to give up. I threw the pillow off and started laughing. I don’t remember their reaction, but I think I felt a little embarrassed by all the concern I’d caused, as well I should have.”

Homesickness–#6

Published on December 5, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

“My best friend at the time was going with me to Maqua. It was her first time away from home, a fact I could scarcely believe, since she was already fourteen. Her family was somewhat dysfunctional, as I look back on it. Her parents eventually divorced and her father was an alcoholic, so being the typical oldest child, she felt she needed to be home to take care of them. None of the rest of our friends had anything but Ozzie and Harriet households,” said Kay Alcorn, who had camped in the late forties with a great group of girls. (Her friend had a good time by the end of her session.)

Laurie Cone’s older sister Tally was in Senior Village in 1962 when she attended. One would think she would not have been homesick with a sister close by, but her two-week session turned into one when she got a stomach ache and ended up in the infirmary. “I loved it there and didn’t want to go home, or so I told them, “ laughed Laurie. “My parents had a cottage in Oscoda and they had to come pick me up, but the next summer I begged to go back to camp.”

Tally, of course, remembered camp to be a blast and could not wait to get to Senior Village with the older girls. “My sister looked up to me and she was in elementary school when I was in middle school,” said outgoing and independent Tally. “Ironically, Laurie was the one who ended up going for years and becoming a counselor.”

Homesickness–#5

Published on November 30, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Knowing your bunk-mates or having a friend or relative at camp during the session was often the best security blanket needed for first timers who felt the pangs of homesickness.

Marcia Michelson had three older sisters in camp in the early sixties and made good friends while there. Sisters Barb and Sue Utter convinced Jane McKinley in the mid-fifties to attend. Mickie Kessler’s parents could not afford to send all their daughters at the same time, so at age six in 1941, Mickie sat at camp and cried her eyes out.

For Kellie Moore, who loved camp from day one her first year (1970), she thought it would be double the fun if she brought a friend. It turned out to be the worst summer, because her best friend was so homesick that she returned home. Kellie camped another six summers!

Seventies camper Helen McLogan was the youngest of six girls and one boy and left for camp kicking and screaming, despite her sisters having gone to Maqua. “I was homesick. I did not want to go to camp and leave my friends behind. I loved my summers in my neighborhood. I had seen Maqua when I accompanied my best friend’s mother to pick her up on the last day. Dana Foote, who I ended up at camp with,” she said.

Bonnie Kessler idolized her older sister Judy, despite the year difference in ages. Known as “Tagalong Tulu”, she wanted to be wherever her sister was and followed her to camp in 1947 at the age of nine. “I lacked confidence. I continually followed Judy’s footsteps and her presence at camp prevented me from becoming homesick. Whatever Judy wanted to do, I wanted to do. But, I was never in the same group as my sister and that was probably a good thing.”

Having a friend helped Linda Doering adjust when she was a camper at a different site, which in turn allowed her to draw on her experience of fright and homesickness when she took over a cabin of fifth graders in the early sixties at Maqua. Bonnie Schlatter also dealt with a frantically homesick child in the seventies, but acted like the big sister to handle her situation as a first time counselor in 1975.

Homesickness–#4

Published on November 28, 2016February 21, 2017 by Kathy Baker

Susan Ward managed to convince her parents in 1961 to take her home when she attended camp by herself, but the following years were more enjoyable when her sister also camped. Many of the campers had their fears eased by the mere presence of cousins, sisters or friends, despite many of them not sharing cabins. Just knowing they were at camp quelled that lonely ache of a new place.

That was not always the case. Mary Jo and Judy Rawlings went off to camp together in the late fifties and sister Susan in the early sixties. All three girls shared similar bouts of homesickness. Coming from a close-knit family unit, (where their father loved having his three girls by his side), made it difficult for Susan and Judy, who shared a similar personality that tended to be shy. They both remember Mary Jo crying from homesickness.

“I would get teary-eyed just about dusk, right after mealtime, every night. I didn’t go to a counselor, but dealt with it and each morning I would wake up and it was all okay. Just that time of the night was tough,” said Judy. “We were always taught to keep a stiff upper lip in our family, but honestly even when I spent the night at neighbor’s houses I would sneak back home in the middle of the night.”

For sister Mary Jo, she learned that she could survive anything for a short time. “It was about endurance and trusting people. I wasn’t made fun of or embarrassed or ridiculed when I was homesick. I learned compassion and how to be a team player.”

Girls of Camp Maqua

My Book ~ Your Story

1960’s