“I am the only girl with three brothers (and a half sister) in my family and my Dad had just passed away in 1969 when I was seven and he died at home,” said Andrea Gale.” We had lived in Caro, but moved to Bay City. I had just moved and didn’t know anyone. It was a difficult time. My Mom probably wanted to get rid of me for a few weeks because I was a bored and a whiney crybaby when she sent me to camp in 1970.”
“I was shy, introverted and sometimes belligerent. I felt painfully alone. My life had changed with my Dad gone. I didn’t open up. I think camp helped me assimilate even though I was a little homesick at first, then not too much after that. I wasn’t forced to go, but I didn’t really want to be with other girls in bunk beds in a cabin. When I went the following year I felt like a veteran.”
“Camp help to socialize me. My Mom remarried a year and a half later, which made it even harder for me. Camp started me with girlfriends and forced me to be with them more than recess breaks at school. I did love the camaraderie and friendships. It was huge for me in terms of socializing.”
“I developed some sharp skills of sarcasm and found a sense of humor, although for some of my targets, I might have been mean when I finally spoke up. Those were my insecurities showing up. I took a lot of solace and shelter in the kind and helpful counselors at Camp Maqua. I’m sure I had quite a bit of social anxiety during that first summer. I was there to make friends and be entertained,” said Andrea, who does not recall many of the activities she may have tried during the three years she attended.
Stephanie Patterson’s mother had gone to camp and it was a family tradition that was encouraged by her grandmother. Her protective father would only allow her only a week that first summer in 1961 when she was ten. “I had been away from home before, but I was still nervous”, admitted Stephanie, who was the oldest of three children. “I called home to ask to stay the second week, but he said no. I really wanted to stay longer.”
All four years she was in a cabin with Sherry Nichols, whose parents were friends with her parents. While at camp she met Barb Baumgartner, who father was a principal in the Port Huron area. They became friends at camp and stayed friends when they ended up in high school together. “Many serious bonds were formed by attending the same session each summer” she said.
“My parents were friends with the bookkeeper (Jim Lesler) at the YWCA and he told them about Camp Maqua, so I went when I was eleven and twelve in 1955 and 1956,” said Pam Wintermute.
“The first summer I went for one week, but I loved it so much that the following summer I went for two. I didn’t know a soul,” said Pam, “but I was outgoing and did dancing and was a secure child. My Mom and neighbor wrote while I was there, so I knew all that was happening at home.”
Pam was also an only child and thought camp was a great experience, “There was nothing bad about it at all. The fact that I was an only child made it even better. I had the chance to spend time with girls my own age. I had missed out on sharing bathrooms and bedrooms and the closeness with other girls,” she said.“I made friends with a tomboy named Frankie while I was in camp, but I never really kept in touch with girls after I left. I had a friend in high school who had gone, Jan Bateson, but she was older and wasn’t there at the same time.”
What did new friendships formed at camp do for your self-esterm?