1920’s

The “Loon” Newsletter Over The Years

Published on 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 6th 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.

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Hut Sayings and Expressions–

Published on 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”.

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Awards And Ribbons–

Published on 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.”

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Elemental Garments and Hair Don’t Care–

Published on by Kathy Baker

“Every camp session yielded a copy of the goings-on of the campers in a newsletter, aptly named the “Loon”. It was usually a tongue in cheek review of what went on in each hut, activities of the days at camp and humorous stories relaying such things as deep dark secrets, anecdotes of the date and confessions of campers.

An early edition, somewhere in the 1920’s titled “Confessional Edition” and subtitled “A Bugler Bungles” read as follows; “There was only one of us—I—deserted by my family for the summer and was forced to earn money and a summer vacation at the same time. We—I—thought and thought and finally decided on a summer camp—Maqua, it was called. Since I was young and inexperienced, I was not too careful in my choice but then Maqua seemed a fairly nice camp.”

“Sad as it may seem, it was immodest in its attire in this regalia. I stepped out of a hut and behold sunlight, bright as any lily of fair girl—and then—ah then—two males sitting in a car. Two males looked up me and then away, but not before they had completely identified me as the bugler. But I, what could I do? Heaven know how much lower I may descend the stairs of gegradation, but it can be but a little lower. Woe is me!”

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Confusions and Confessions–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

“I was somewhat aware and in denial at the same time, while I was at camp and in those college years, of my sexuality,” admitted L.D, who was at camp in the late sixties. “I had a boyfriend, but wasn’t really all that interested in him. One of the other counselors eventually made me talk about it, but she did it in a nice way. I think they all knew at camp, but I waited several years before I came out.”

For some, like K.M., who was just a hugger during the same era, and had no confusion, it was the summer of awareness for her. “I loved that I could walk around camp with my arms wrapped around another girl or arms linked, appropriately, and no one cared. I could hold hands swinging and feel comfortable. I don’t remember ever having any girl crushes, but I do remember the summer there was a rumor about another girl liking another girl and I just never knew anything about those things. We just never talked about sexuality.”

One woman in the early sixties had applied for the job as a college student from an ad in the Bay City Times. Having passed her water safety instruction classes through the Red Cross, she felt she could write her own ticket for a summer job, knowing WSI instructors “were hard to come by”. Her degree was in physical education from a college in Illinois and she had been a counselor at a Girl Scout camp and a Pioneer Girls camp in the Poconos.

She felt her summer with her waterfront job was fine until the last day, when she alleged her director made sexual advances toward her. She was to help with the last day’s closing-up of Camp Maqua, but told her she refused to help her and if she said one word about it, she would report the incident to the Bay City “Y”. In a second interview, she felt she did the right thing not reporting, as she had not noticed the director had ever been inappropriate with the young girls.

“I didn’t know about lesbianism at that time. I probably should have reported her to the school system in Detroit, where she worked as a physical education teacher, but I never did. She was a cold, strict woman who you could not talk to. I was OK with my decision not to report her.”

She spent six weeks at Camp Maqua and then walked away, but as a professed introvert, she stated she had never been close to any of the other counselors. “The best part of that summer was working with the kids. I lived above the boathouse and would wander around and talk to different groups of kids. It was okay until the last day.”

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Gays And Girl Crushes—

Published on by Kathy Baker

K.W. knew there were crushes on counselors in the sixties and that many of the girls “would show you theirs if you showed them yours and they would giggle and dance around in their underwear, but it was a time when they didn’t talk about women liking women. My friend was a tomboy and there were many tomboys. We instinctively knew who they were and they were the ones we asked to climb the trees to get us things, just as we knew who the girly girls were. By the time I was in fifth grade, girls were popping boobs and getting their periods and we had our medical forms and our check ups and I’m pretty sure the camp nurse was a pretty important person.”

Alternately, J.B. was aware of the strong female friendships at camp, even during the co-ed years and realized looking back around 25% of the women might have been gay, which did not cause problems unless they broke up with each other. “It wasn’t a big deal and there was no sexual tension, but there were the tightest knit friendships made in the shortest amount of time at camp.”

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