Harriet Crumb and her friend Meg Dahlem were the most senior campers I talked to in 1987, long before I thought about documenting the camp history.  She was thirteen in 1925, and attended for five more years, mostly for two weeks every summer. “I was hired out as a kitchen aide, when my two weeks was up, and stayed for two more. “You can see how I loved it,” she wrote of a job that continued as a tradition throughout the camp’s existence.

Some of the most delightful photos of the kitchen aides appeared in the book “Camp Maqua”, depicting the horseplay and sense of fun the girls created out of a job in a hot kitchen with many demands.

Susie Utter (1954-56) recalled a very masculine woman on staff who always ate a red onion sandwich for lunch, but it wasn’t a joke. (“The onion was about one inch thick, on brown bread with a layer of mayo. It was the summer I was a kitchen aide.”)

Kathy Carney’s first year as a kitchen aide in 1970 was so hot, the girls would run cold water over the dishes to keep cool. “The cook was strict and had a fit and told us the camp would have diarrhea if we didn’t use hot water, so I did learn something,” said Kathy, who rose at 5:30-6:00 to butter the conveyer belt of toast with a paint brush.

“We would get up early, maybe even five, and make about four hundred pieces of toast, brush them with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and stick them on a pan and keep them warm in the oven,” said Laurie Cone (1962-68) of their assembly line process.

Her room was in the lodge as a kitchen aide and at fourteen, she was the same age as many of the campers. She worked with Sue Kiltie, Chris Varney and a few others, three meals a day for 120 campers for $50 pay the entire summer. “I bought a Sears sewing machine with my big earnings,” laughed Laurie.

Sue Kiltie had a mention in director Dorthe Balaskas’ 1966 report her first summer on the job as a first year camp aide and Dorthe felt she did “more than her share of work in the kitchen”, and able to handle suggestions and criticism. “Granted there were occasions when the all engaged in horseplay, but this was only their way of living with the job they had to face daily,” she wrote. Dorthe found her personable “and had grown up since her camper days, into a dependable and cooperative young girl she found a pleasure to work with, for she had the feeling for camp and was very much like our old staff.”

“I liked my kitchen aide job and being a junior counselor. I was in the kitchen with Ann Pennington and we kept in touch for a while. I did my duties and I thought of myself as dependable. We were brought up with no brothers, so my sister and I did chores like mowing the grass. I didn’t always enjoy all the responsibilities in the kitchen, but I did them, because that is what you do when you have a job,” said Jeanne Kiltie (1966-71). “I do remember one year there was a cook issue and no-one ate her pancakes or strange sandwiches.”

In 1968, Dorthe described her: “As a kitchen aide, in view of all the circumstances, (a personality conflict) I would say Jeanne did fairly well. She did show the ability to teach younger campers in a games class and rather did an experienced job of it. Jeanne helped out with the younger cabins whenever needed.”

“I went to camp until I was fifteen,” said Cindy Morrison (1968), “but when I turned fifteen, I was too scared to be a counselor in training. I was always a shy girl. But, that summer, I was so bored that I somehow ended up washing dishes free at camp with Jeanne Kiltie—perhaps because Sue was her sister and was a counselor there. Jeanne and I used to have water fights in the kitchen. It was such a fun summer because once we were done with our duties, we could do anything we wanted.”

Pamela Hartz (1966-75) can still remember the lodge. “It was the hub to everything. It was where we ate our meals, planned activities and had our skits. When I was a kitchen aide, I was there 24/7. That was my greatest year. There was some cook who taught us to make yeasty supersized cinnamon rolls. I was a picky eater and that was always a problem, but I knew I could always have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I always ate my hamburgers plain, the oatmeal was ugh, so I ate frosted flakes. I loved salami, but the never had it, only Oscar Meyer bologna. That was about it for the meat,” she laughed.

What horseplay did the kitchen aides engage in when you worked there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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