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.”

Those relationships included the lesbian relationships that A.J. was unaware of in her younger years, but very aware as she became a counselor. “Being a lesbian among girls was more normal back then, but the boys complicated it. As a young girl I didn’t know girls liked girls, but as a counselor I saw the behind the scenes relationships. As far as I knew though, no one ever instigated anything with a camper. I had some good friends at camp that I later understood their sexuality,” she said, who agreed that Maqua cultivated a climate of acceptance.

“ Everyone had these girl crushes, especially on the older counselors, who it seemed were always Phys. Ed majors. One of the sessions we went to another beach, maybe to the right of the camp on Loon Lake. It was a public beach. I think I drank some bad milk or had sunstroke or something and I had to go back to the camp and I remember they put me in L.C.’s’s bed. She was a kitchen aide and I had such a girl crush on her and then I leaned over and threw up in her penny loafers,” laughed C.P. who camped in the late sixties and early seventies.. “I think there were many girls who had crushes on other girls, but no one ever acted on them as far as I knew.”

M.B.’s best friend, in hindsight, cried way too much and was so upset when she left  that it made her uncomfortable, but she was oblivious to most of the girl isssues. Not so for some of the girls, who had some blatant scenarios, including B.F. who camped from 1968-75.

“At the time when I first started camp, I didn’t know what a lesbian was and I was pretty naïve for my age, even though I had a pretty progressive Mom. There were no openly gay women or girls at Maqua, and if they were it was not overt.  But, I had one counselor who was in my cabin when I was a kitchen aide who was sprawled across one of the bunks with the lights out when my friend and I came back from Tawas. Of course we had been drinking (illegally), but we switched on the light and there she was stretched across the bed naked and said “I have been waiting for you.” It is a good thing we had been drinking, We ran out laughing. Then I wondered if I had given off those vibes. She was eighteen and I was fifteen and I was embarrassed for her, but I figured whatever floats your boat.”

One camper had a crush on a counselor, despite not feeling she was gay. She recalled being teased by her cabin mates in a fun way, but pretended to be mad. The counselors heard them all being loud and they came in to yell at them, so they giggled and quieted down.

“I think there was a lot of stereotyping of women as athletes in the seventies and those who we might of thought of as gay were not and some that we never suspected were. I just don’t remember it being any big thing. I stayed in touch with so many of those girls and counselors and lost touch, but it was such a big part of my life. I spent the whole winter just waiting for summer. It is like one of the girls who had to bring her future husband up to see the camp, so he could see what it looked like because it was such a huge part of her life.”

Did you have a girl crush of any kind?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAMP FALLS ON HARD TIMES

Camps across the country were closing in the seventies for many reasons. Some of these camps were positioned in areas that were popular for vacations and second homes. Property taxes had risen and many families began taking family vacations together, instead of shipping their kids off the camps. Camps closed when they could not afford to operate with high bills and lower enrollment. The media was focusing on issues of pedophilia within some camps, which caused parents to tighten the reins on allowing their children to attend.

Judy Alcorn, forties camper and board member at the YWCA, wrote, “It was at the end of their time at camp when it fell upon hard times. There were four women who served on the board who decided to begin much needed repairs and painting. They, along with their husbands, were Marge and Jim Falvey, Georgie and Jim Fenton, Nancy and Bob McAlister and my husband Pat and me,”

“We put hundreds of gallons of paint on all the huts. We called ahead to the hardware store in Hale, which stocked the paint for us. They would have it all shaken and ready to pick up during the weekend. We all cleaned and generally picked up the place. Our kids came with us and we would build a fire in the lodge at the end of the day and sleep in our sleeping bags. Although we worked hard, we had a good time. We used a small fund raising campaign to pay for the paint and the material used.”

“That kept the camp going for a few more years. I am not sure about sharing with Camp Mahn-go-tah-see across the lake. Camp came to an end and we started an agreement with Camp Iroquois, the Bay City YMCA camp, for a few years. Then, that folded as well. It was a sad day when that happened. At that time many sports camps were in business and the competition was too strong.”

Judy was not on the board when it merged with Camp Iroquois, but she recalled the YWCA had turned down the offer to merge at one time, because they were afraid the men would take control. The men felt that Camp Maqua property was better suited to a camp

When the decision was to be made in 1976 between the  Bay City YMCA and the YMCA to merge Camp Maqua and Camp Iroquois (on Sand Lake), David Bass was the camp director at the boy’s camp. He was designated to be the director of the combined effort, but accepted a position in Alabama. Camp Iroquois’ decreased enrollment and the financial situation at both camps was the impetus for the merger, despite Maqua’s higher enrollment. “The plan was to merge the program, but not mess with the assets,” said Delphine Evans, director in 1976.

“Both camps were struggling financially and Maqua had the better physical facility, so the two boards merged their camps, or that was my understanding,” said Amy Falvey, whose parents were huge volunteers at Maqua.

An article in the Bay City Times on September 21, 1979 said, “In an effort to save the camp, it was merged in 1976 with Camp Iroquois, a young men’s camp, and renamed Camp Maquois. Camp Maquois operated for two years on a co-ed status before the decision to sell the Camp Maquois property was made.Officials of the Young Women’s Christian Association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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