“My first summer in 1965, I was seven years old and I was in cabin one for two weeks’” said Karen Magidsohn. “Every year after that I would sign up for two weeks, but half way through the session I would call and beg to stay for two more. I can close my eyes and still picture myself begging my parents to stay. The phone booth was a massive dark wood booth with folding doors and the phone was on the wall on a little shelf. Finally, my parents just started signing me up for the whole summer.”
“I continued every summer until I became a kitchen aid at fifteen with Pam Hartz, Katie Ayles, and Jen Woodward. It was 1973 and I was supposed to take driver’s training that summer. The pay for kitchen aid was $100 and that is what I used to take my driver’s class. Pam and I were in the same class and stayed friends our whole life. I can still remember “Beanie” coming to my house to interview me for the kitchen aid job.”
Maggie was from Flint and said she was part of the contingency of little Jewish girls who loved going to Camp Maqua. “That was our life growing up. Going to camp’” she said. “We were either related or we were friends or our parents were friends, and after camp we all kept in touch for awhile.”
KayMary Young was ten years old when she first attended Maqua in 1954, after hearing about the camp from her classes at the “Y”. She was very homesick for her two weeks at camp, having never left home, but stuck it out with the help of some very understanding counselors and a new friendship. I made friends with a girl named Candy, who was in the same cabin,” said KayMary,”but she was so homesick that her parents came to pick her up and there I was. It was not easy after she left.”
“I was a shy kid and didn’t get to know a lot of kids at one time. I was happy with one or two. I was tongue-tied, but it was great to go to camp and meet other kids. Our bodies were blooming and there were girls who could easily talk about sex, periods and their bodies without embarrassment. It was great to see girls sharing and I realized it was okay to talk about those things. Mostly, I liked sitting and listening to the older girls talk.”
“The companionship of women was wonderful. To be that shy as a young girl and be so tongue-tied, but to hear other girls articulate their feelings so well was a good thing. I had the same feelings, but couldn’t express them. Seeing outgoing and smart women who were not afraid to be themselves was great. I was always a tomboy and loved being outside and I enjoyed being with other girls who enjoyed the same things.”
Susan Prieskorn was eight when she started in 1966 and continued until 1972 and has nothing but great memories of her time at Camp Maqua.“I learned a lot, made new friends and was never homesick”, said Susan, whose personality allowed her to easily make friends at camp.
“I wasn’t the life of the party, but I enjoyed doing all the activities. Once I was old enough I stayed for six weeks. I always wanted to be with my camp friends, who I thought were cooler. I always wanted to go and stay as long as I could and I was so excited to get my first footlocker.”
“I was not a shy girl, but I can’t say I was overly confident, or believe I could do anything I wanted to do. I was not a great student and in those days you were taught in school one, meaning everyone was expected to learn the same way. Nobody ever thought I would be as successful as I am. I was not pushed to try for more, they were just hoping I would turn out okay. My mother and my grandmother were both very strong women.”
“I was the only girl out of four kids in my family,” said Sarah Smith, whose mother Joyce was President of the YWCA Board and the main fundraiser in the seventies. “I went to Maqua three summers in a row from 1968-1970 and that first summer I was scared out of my mind!”
Her mother, who had grown up with parents who had gone to college, valued her days at Mt. Holyoke College where it was all girls and valued those friendships. “She sent me on purpose to an all girls camp, so that I would understand the world was not all about men!”
“My Mom told me I could not go with anyone I knew, when I suggested “how about so and so goes with me”. She told me the whole purpose of going to camp was to meet new friends. It was the best thing she ever did for me! I grew up with three brothers and I had to learn to hold my own. With no boys at camp and no competition, I loved it! I blossomed into the person I was to become. There was some great energy being with all females—wonderful camaraderie.”
“My parents were big fish in a little pond where we lived and they knew I needed to be on my own. I think since my Mom wouldn’t let me go with people I knew, she knew I would go into this new group and make friends. And I liked getting to know people who didn’t know my parents! I was proud to be their daughter, but this experience helped me to develop leadership skills. I had an innate outgoing personality and I admired most of the women there who reaffirmed me and were great role models. Growing up, going through puberty, living around older women who had talents that I admired and couldn’t do—it was just a very sweet, soft and lovely time in my life and even more so as a grown woman.”
How easily did you form relationships at camp?