“I was the youngest of the three sisters, and although I don’t remember ever being at camp with them, I do remember them going to camp. It was a natural thing for me to go there,” said Barb Krohn, who knew many of the Saginaw girls who attended from 1970-72. “I was excited, because I knew what I was going to, after dropping off and picking up sisters year after year with my parents.”

Karen Short’s sister was at camp in the forties at the same time, but she could never spot her. “Everyone was busy in their own age group. You even sat at your dining table with the girls in your group,” said Karen of her time at camp that seemed to vanish quickly. “It was not like the children of today. I think we were easily amused.”

Doris Engibous was twelve years old when she packed off to camp for the first time in 1966, and despite the fact her older sister Elaine and younger sister Judy had attended, “Neither of them became as obsessed as I did,” she said. (Her friend Beth Holder went one year, but never returned.)

Doris camped for four years, but missed one when her family was transferred to Switzerland with Dow Chemical in 1971. It was the only summer she missed, which would have been the summer she would have been a kitchen aide. She was a counselor for two years between her junior and senior year and admitted, “I could never get enough of it.”

Minette Jacques was only seven in 1955 when she slipped past the age requirement of eight, since her sisters Gretchen and Kayleen were at camp. Kayleen was in the same hut the first summer, which Minette described as a little “un-nerving” due to an incident where her sisters disowned her for three days. “We had a taffy pull and I guess all the sugar made me thirsty because I drank so much water that I wet the bed.”

Girly-girl Linda Greenwald also slipped past the age requirement with her tomboy sister Lucille already at camp in 1938. Linda was seven and Lucille was ten and she realized she was one of the youngest girls at camp, if not the youngest!

Julie Richardson is quite certain that her sister’s friend Susan Kiltie encouraged Mary Richardson to apply for a counseling position in arts and crafts in 1968. By that time Julie had already camped two summers. “I liked that my sister was at camp. It was cool to say my sister is a counselor and I still had fun with her there,” she said.”

How many with sisters enjoyed the experience? Was it more fun to go with a friend? Or make new friends?