Picture a sheet music with notes, and then picture the notes of music leaving the page—floating over the camp, through the lodge dining hall, past the flagpole, down to the campfire, back up to Chapel Hill and down through the cabins of all the little campers. Music tied the camp together and those notes were not invisible. They poured forth from every girl who attended camp and they left lasting impressions. The piano, phonograph and music were at home in the lodge, and many girls learned their first tunes there.

The piano was a memory for Kerry Weber (1952), who decided no one knew any other song except “Chopsticks”, but the happy songs remain in her mind. When friends threw her a surprise party for her fiftieth birthday, someone mentioned Camp Maqua and ten girls stood up and proceeded to sing “We Are The Girls From Camp Maqua”.

Barb Ballor (1951-55) asked me to picture five elderly ladies singing as she and her four girlfriends met recently in Florida for a get-together– all in the kitchen singing the same song.

The rendition of one of the Camp Maqua songs came to me from Maribeth Morton (1974-75). “We welcome you to Camp Maqua, We’re mighty glad you’re here. We’ll send the air reverberating with our cheer. We’ll sing you in, we’ll sing you out, To you we raise a mighty shout: Hail, hail, the gangs all here, and you’re welcome to Camp Maqua”.

Mary Jane Keschman (1944-54) hated getting up early to raise the flag, but she loved the evenings at camp when the counselors would begin at the caretaker’s cottage and walk around to serenade all the cabins with slow, sad songs.

Counselor Ann Carney (1968-72) said that instead of reveille on some mornings, the staff would play Carole King’s “You Gotta Wake Up Every Morning” full blast to rouse the sleepy heads. A girl with a trumpet in her hand who could play “Taps” was like gold at camp, and Mary Lu Clay (1947-48) had learned to do just that at school and was a treasure for campers.

Reverent songs on Chapel Hill were remembered by Kay Alcorn and Dorothea Kelton from the forties’. One of the songs “High On Chapel Hill” is featured on page 53 in the book “Camp Maqua” and was written by counselor Nadine Bell in 1934.

Vicki Wynne-Parry (1965-68) said the lodge held memories of singing, which she loved, and it was different from anything she had ever done before. She claimed, like many of the girls, not to have a good voice or able to remember all the songs lyrics until they were together to form a united singing brain.

“I remember the lodge where we had our meals and all the singing, even though I didn’t have a great voice,” said Mary Jo Stegall (1933-41), as she sang to me over the phone. (So many of the girls interviewed sang over the phone during their interviews!)

Jeanne Kiltie (1966-71), Julie Hutchins(1960) and Julie Richardson (1966-68) liked the singing, but could not carry a tune. People next to Julie Richardson told her not to sing and Julie Hutchins was told to smile and mouth the words because she had a terrible voice.

“I was a junior counselor the last year I was at camp,” said Laya Hennes(1939+). “I had no real skills in general, but I was good leading the songs.” And like Mary Jo Rawlings, her songs from the fifties’ are still in her head. “It’s amazing how the brain takes that all in at such a young age.”

Did the camp music remain in your memories?