1960’s

What I Missed At Home #1

Published on by Kathy Baker

Aside from the usual bouts of homesickness, many of the girls missed some dramatic events at home or in their hometowns while they attended camp. The girls in hut nine expressed their views perfectly in the last edition of the “Loon” in 1950.

The first thing they would do when they got home; “Run and kiss our mothers, kiss our brothers, get a soda and go to the movies, jump in the tub, take the privilege of a clean bathroom, take a bath, take our dogs for a walk, give our parents the things we made for them, and open the car or bus door and get out.”

Mardi Jo Link (1973-78) missed her brother and her parents and although she was happy to see them, she admitted: “I was so involved in this absorbing place that I was sure home wasn’t continuing while I was there.”

“There was one family event that I missed while I was at camp,” said Helen McLogan (1972-74). “My first niece and nephew came into the family. I was eight and my oldest sister had adopted a little girl in May, unaware that she was already pregnant. My nephew was born in August. I can remember standing at reveille and someone ran out to tell me I had a phone call. I ran into the lodge and all day I was jumping up and down. I was so happy!”

The girls missed their pets and four of the campers had sad stories of their dogs while they were at camp, including Jane McKinley (1956-59). One of the summers when she returned home, she learned her dog had died. “It was a surprise to me, but I didn’t feel guilty that I wasn’t there. In the fifties’ we did not expect our parents to call us at camp. We wrote letters.”

Others like Kim Moore (1967-72) and Jennifer McLogan (1965-71) heard through the mail.  “The last summer Jennifer was at camp, her Irish Setter “Lassie” died. “My sister wrote me a letter at camp and told me that had to put our dog to sleep at sixteen years of age. I started to shake and ran to the pay phone to call home collect. It was very hard for me. I was so sad, but everyone in the lodge cheered me up.”

Kim Moore’s father wrote her a letter one summer to tell her that had put her German Shepherd down. “I had not expected it. I knew he was aging, but I wished they had told me before because I found out the plan was to do it while my sister and I were at camp to make it easier. I know it was a parent’s decision, but it didn’t make it any easier. I just remember for about two days crying at camp and they told me not to tell my sister.”

“The saddest thing that happened to me while I was away at camp was our parents got rid of our dog,” said Debi Gottlieb (1968+). “We had only had it several years, but I guess it was biting. I remember crying in the car when they told us. My feeling was, why couldn’t they have waited till we got home, but our parents felt it was best to do it while we were at camp. I wished I had been there for it.”

What did you miss while you were at home?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Transportation–

Published on by Kathy Baker

Campers had several ways of getting to Camp Maqua, which included the bus that left from the Bay City YWCA or their parent’s vehicles. Once the girls arrived at camp, there was always a necessity to have a camp vehicle to provide transportation to and from overnight outings, emergency trips to the doctor or hospital, trips to church and shopping for supplies for camp.

The notes and minutes from ledgers at the YWCA discussed trucks as early as April 1, 1932. The camp committe had the decision whether to pay a flat rate to the YMCA or hire a truck and that summer they hired a truck on a mileage basis.

May 10, 1935, there was a mention in the minutes that read; “Balcer Brothers Bus Company has agreed to furnish busses for our campers at twenty-seven dollars a trip from Bay City to Camp Maqua.” Members of the camp committee, Mrs. Ramsey and Mrs. Hewitt were given the job of interviewing automobile dealers to secure a loan of a car for the camp season. The result was Mrs. Stegall of Packard Cars made sure Mrs. Ramsey’s car was in good condition and she loaned it to camp, even after two members investigated the loan of a car from a local dealer.

In 1936, the camp committee again discussed a camp car and Mrs. Hewitt suggested a station wagon, which was needed and could be purchased cheaper in the spring. “It is especially needed for transporting the girls to and from church on Sundays,” she said. Minutes in March stated there was still no decision, so the old car was sent to the factory “to be put in first class condition”.

By 1937, a station wagon was to be purchased for $500 in Detroit, “if a satisfactory finance can be worked out”, stated a committee member in the minutes, who also suggested the old camp car be sold for whatever money it could bring, and the March minutes verified the financing was agreed upon and the car was sold.

No mentions of vehicles were made until May 21, 1943, when the first item of business was to repair the station wagon, presumably the one purchased in 1937. “Work on the motor of the wagon has been done by the Travelers Garage at a cost of $68.05. After trying several places to get the woodwork put in good condition, Mrs. Macaulay finally took it to Saginaw to the Wienecke Company. Mr. Wienecke has promised to do a good job on it, the cost around $22. This will consist of almost an entirely new top and woodwork,” the report stated.

In 1945, ideas were discussed by the committee on how best to come up with money for a new station wagon. (Borrow from the finance committee, raise money through teas, bridge parties or food sales, some other money making project or something with the Community Chest, of which the YWCA was a member.)

On October 13, 1953, the minutes stated a station wagon had been offered to camp by Mr. Harry Richard.

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Families Who Felt Like Camp Was Theirs–The Batschke Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

Just as the Williams’ sisters felt like camp was their private playground during pre-camp and pos-campt season, so did Kaye Batschke and her sister Patricia. Their grandparent’s cottage was on Loon Lake, just a few doors down from the Williams’ cottage that stood beside the fence line of Camp Maqua. Her aunt and uncle, grandparents and her own family took turns using the cottage and every third week they would be up on Loon Lake with their families.

*It was the mid fifties, and although I was never a camper there, I was able to watch the fun at camp and when the camp was closed, our parents would let us roam and get out of their hair. We had a little more freedom as kids back then,” said Kaye. “We would run around, take the trails, explore, and even check into the cabins. Sometimes we would use the raft and the dock. Every once in a while the caretaker would chase us off.”

Around this time, the movie “The Parent Trap” was playing in the theatres. “The bunk beds and the cabins always reminded me of that movie. We would pretend we were in that movie. I can remember going into an old house with twig furniture and it had stairs and we played in there one time. (Dutton?) My sister was two years younger than me and Sharon and Denise Williams were around the same age, so we would all play together,” she said.

“I was only in the lodge one time, I think. I was ten or eleven and we were running around playing and I stepped in a ground nest or hive and was stung, so my Mom took me up to the nurse at the camp. She looked at it and rubbed some Calamine lotion on the stings, but told my Mom to watch for a reaction. There were no hospitals close by during that time.”

Born in 1952, she played on the property from the age of five until she turned thirteen, when her parents bought acreage and a hunting cabin. It disappointed her greatly not to have the lake and camp to enjoy, where she had learned to water ski and had been such a great part of her growing up years. “Had I stayed on Loon Lake, I think I would have stayed in a cabin for a sleepover,” she said.

Kaye’s parents, Frank and Ruth Batschke were from Bay City and her mother-in-law, June Harris had worked at the “Y” in the early forties. Her Mom also donated money for a camp scholarship, repaying what someone had done for her years ago.

 

Families Who Felt Camp Was Theirs–The Emmett Williams Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

In 1957 Emmet and Florence Williams made the decision to search for a summer place within a reasonable distance from their Detroit home. They discovered their dream property that year, close to two national forests and an easy three-hour drive for their two daughters Denise and Sharon, who were two and five at the time.

The shell of the summer house was already built, with knotty pine inside, just waiting for installation. Ira Schofield had developed the property, known as Palisades Park, on Hillsdale Avenue, bordering Loon Lake. Emmet, his father and uncle built the first rustic home with a water heater under the sink. Florence remembered boiling water for hot baths.

The last of the knotty pine was taken down in 1986, and the old stove was removed when the family needed extra space. Emmet retired in 1986 and the renovation on the original home was completed in 1987 with heat, insulation, larger closets and an extra bath.

“We loved it,” said Florence. “My husband worked nights and my parents lived in Ohio. We spent three weekends up north and one weekend a month in Ohio. We had no car and no phone.”

Florence recalled the fence between their property and the camp, which stood about 6-7 feet and was of natural wood. The fence stood on the property line and was installed when the camp worried that boys would move in next door to the girls camp. “We could not see over the fence, but from our dock daughters Sharon and Denise learned to swim different strokes, kayak and canoe just from watching the instructors at camp!”

“There were five stations and two L-shaped docks with two rafts. Sharon and I would watch the girls with their instructors in the canoes or playing Marco Polo from our dock,” said Denise.

The Williams’ family could always hear the singing from the campers and counselors as they ate or sat around the campfire, but on rainy days songs could be heard with stomping feet and clapping hands with the children’s voices from the lodge. “We always enjoyed all the activities from our home and it was never too loud or annoying,” said Florence. “It always appeared to be a very well-run camp until the late seventies and it just wasn’t the same with the boys there.”

“The boys would come over from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see on a giant Viking ship, calling to the girls,” she laughed. “The counselors would act nonchalant, but they probably wished for them to leave.”

One day Denise was babysitting at her home and she spotted a huge albino skunk eating baby food out of a jar in the yard that had been left out. There had been reports that the same skunk had been spotted in camp by counselors and campers alike. Denise loved living next to Maqua, but she loved it more when they left and she could ride the horses up to Chapel Hill and walk around the property. “We knew every path like the back of our hands,” she said. “Mr. Watson, who took care of the property used to call us “My girl” and we called him “My man”.

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Others Who Rented Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

A group of men and women were to go to camp June 11, 1934, to clean and open Maqua, according to minutes and ledgers of the camp committee. Following the opening, “The Cigar Factory Girls” were to spend a weekend vacation at camp with a lifeguard on June 18. Camp was to open on June 27, but the counselors and other staff were up there ahead of opening day on June 23 of that summer.

“The committee agreed to allow fifteen business girls to attend Camp Maqua as a weekend trip with a charge of twenty-five cents per girl”, noted the minutes from May 22, 1936. By February 1937, the camp committee discussed keeping the camp open for families after season.

Minutes stated the camp was used for a conference from Michigan Sate University in 1941. By 1957, the camp committee was pondering how to rent the camp to school groups off-season when the lodge and cabins were not winterized.

By 1958 the Bay City Council of Churches and the Sterling High School Band utilized the camp. The band was charged $225 and they had to provide their own Red Cross certified lifeguard and prepare their own meals. It was mentioned in 1959 that the profits were increased by renting to these extra groups, and the structures did not “lie dormant” with no-one using them, so it was in the best interest financially to figure out the best plan.

The camp committee agreed on June 20, 1962 to run a blind ad in the Bay City Times stating that the camp could be rented by responsible parties for groups during the month of August. Various churches used the camp for their retreats in the early sixties, as well as the Oscoda High School band, and the Young Adult Group (the Y-Teens) with payment around $380. There were also mentions of exchange students participating in camp activities though the Council of Churches in the later sixties.

The Camp Maqua committee met on January 15, 1964 and one of the main topics concerned “Family Camp”, which started August 15-24 and was limited to ten families. The fee structure was $50 for adults 17 and older; $30 for children 5-16 inclusive; and $10 for children 4 and under. The camp investigated the type of insurance required for this type of camping and medicals were required. At the end of this camp experience, a letter arrived to the camp committee from Wayne State University in August regarding the creation of a family camp at Maqua.

Other mentions of rental were in 1971, when the Live-Y’ers used the camp and Peace River Lutheran Chruch from Rhodes, Michigan used the property and facilities for $400 and $10 per cabin. The committee restricted the use of boats and campers were restricted to the field, most likely in part to liability with water safety.

The entries found in some of the archival scrapbooks at the Great Lakes Bay Region YWCA in Bay City held pages of articles referring to the Girl Reserves and Business and Emplyoyed girls who would rent Camp Maqua off-season, as well as many other organizations.

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Viking Boats Across The Lake–

Published on by Kathy Baker

When Elaine Levinsohn (1927-30) camped at Maqua, there were no homes around, just a pretty lake with many trees. “All the girls knew there was a boys’ camp there,” she laughed, as she recalled a vague memory of boating over to the camp, like many before and after her years at camp.

As the boating director, Anne Pennington (1964-72) recalled some of the fun on the water on Hawaiian Day when the girls would decorate the canoes and rowboats. The boys across the lake would also decorate their large boat, which she said resembled a Viking ship. The boys tried to throw things from their boat onto the girls’ boat. One summer she was dating Larry Roberts, who was caretaker Homer Robert’s son from the boys’ camp and she enjoyed the mixers with the boy counselors in the pre-sessions the week before camp opened.

“I remember a beauty pageant in bathing suits with a Hawaiian theme’” said Tami Nagel, who camped in the sixties. “Although I can’t remember her name, she had blonde hair and she won something, and I remember the boys from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see coming over.”

Sarah Smith, whose camping years spanned the late sixties to the mid-seventies, had a vivid memory at the end of her camping experience when the boys came over from camp and she was chosen to be the Indian Maiden. “I had dark hair and dark skin, so that’s probably why I was chosen, but I was thrilled since I was a chubby kid.”

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