“I loved meal time with the chatter and clatter and how we all sat with our cabin at one table. We would take turns setting the table, clearing, gathering the dishes into the tub to wash and so much singing and prank playing,” laughed Chris Lambert (1958-65).
The food was unremarkable for Sue Augustyniak (1962-68), and she figured the kitchen would never pass health inspectors during her time there. “Everyone had a job. Each camper was paired with another camper and the counselors would mix us up. Two would set the tables, two would wait on the tables, and two would clean up. We took turns. After our meal, the kitchen staff would bring two buckets of water. One was soapy and one was rinse water. We would wash and rinse ours, plus those place settings from the kitchen staff. In retrospect, I KNOW it would never pass inspection.”
Sue Michelson (1963-73) said in the sixties’, she was still doing dishes in the tubs and a tongue depressor with jobs written on it were handed out to the girls. She believed the Health Dept. eventually enforced dishwashing in the kitchen, despite the fact that Randi Topping was always impressed with how scalding hot the water was.
(There was a mention of washing dishes in the minutes of the camp committee in 1959 criticizing the camp’s methods and for years a dishwasher was on the wish list.)
The lodge, with its massive space for dining, was home to the fireplace, which made it a welcoming and memorable space for every camper. Meals at the long tables were waited on by “hoppers”, and the girls considered it an honor to be chosen. Susan Ruterbusch (1947-52) rotated days with clearing, setting, and “policing the area”.
Carolyn Wait (1955-57) remembered her hopper days, singing “Here we sit like birds in the wilderness waiting to be fed’ and if they were really hungry, they would fill up on ketchup sandwiches.
The food was served family style when Kim Wynne-Parry (1963-68) attended, and Carolyn Stanton said the hoppers would go up to the window to retrieve the food in the forties’. Mary Lou Winn loved the routine of the meal times and the responsibility of helping to clear during the same era.
“There was no starving,” said Ruth Wiesen (1957-59), “ and we could have all we wanted to eat. Every day there were different meals and there were rewards if you were a hopper.”
“We were taught manners,” said Janet Dixon (1951-52). “No elbows on the table, and tear your bread into four squares before eating it.” Lois Levine (1948) learned how to properly pass a creamer, with the handle outwards in order for the other person to have a good grip.
Audrey Graff (1948) loved the bread and butter (with colored oleo to make it more palatable) at camp and also learned to break her bread into quarters and pass politely instead of jamming the whole piece into her mouth. “I didn’t experience some of those things at home,” she said.
Mary Obey, who camped in the fifties’ and sixties’, said if you were caught with your elbows on the table, the girls would break out into a song. “MARY, MARY, STRONG AND ABLE, GET YOUR ELBOWS OFF THE TABLE. THIS IS NOT A RIDING STABLE. THIS IS MAQUA’S DINNER TABLE!”
Food fights were rare, but they happened, and then manners went flying out the window! Cindy Rose (1968-70) remembered sneaking a throw in during her days, as did Helen Johnson, who swears her cousin Ann Niergarth started it. (Ann admitted she might have started that pea fight, which escalated into the entire lodge participating:)
Were you ever a hopper, remember washing dishes at the table, or participate in a food fight?
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