One of the first questions asked of each camper interviewed was-“Did you go with a friend or relative, and did your mother, aunts, or cousins attend?”
Barely a girl asked answered no, because generally girls were influenced by relatives and friends, and it was almost impossible not to know someone. But, if by chance you arrived not knowing a soul, friendships were quickly made.
A letter addressed to me arrived in 1989 from Harriet Crumb, who had camped in 1925. Her dear friend Meg Dahlem had driven down the road to see if Camp Maqua still existed, and was the first camper that I greeted the second summer of our purchase of the lodge. Urged by a close friend, Madelyn Race, they attended together.
“I doubt if you could have found two more enthusiastic persons than Margaret and me. We loved Maqua and everything about it and feel it had a definite influence on our lives,” wrote Harriet, who was not only her friend, but also a distant cousin.
Michele Patterson was eight in 1971 went she spent her first week at camp, influenced to attend by the many stories she heard from her Foss cousins, friends in Bay City, sister Stephanie and mother Nancy, who all attended!
Beth Phillips (1972-78) grew up in Essexville and did not make many friends growing up and kept to herself throughout school, but at Camp Maqua it was a different story. One friendship is still maintained, and ironically she had to go to camp to meet Carol Besaw, who lived only a few miles from her home. Her mother, grandmother and a neighbor also attended.
“Out of the three Carney sisters, I was the responsible oldest one and then there was Kathy, who was known as “Little Carney” and Susan, who was known as “Baby Bird,” said Ann Carney, who attended 1968-72. “I was probably more serious and introverted than most of the counselors, but I think I learned to have fun and become less serious. I was always the hyper-vigilant one and they were always the flaky ones,” she said of her sisters with a laugh.
There was a third Carney sister, who was fourteen years older than Kathy, who never attended Maqua, but now feels like she missed out on all the camaraderie that had been generated by the Facebook page and the reunion of all the women. “It reminded me of the movie “A League of Their Own”, where all the women baseball players are reunited,” said Kathy, after watching the movie for the second time.
Some sisters, like Mary Jo and sister Judy Rawlings, had enough age difference that they never camped at the same time in the late fifties. Maureen Moore, sister to Anne, was five years younger. “I was the youngest sister and I was dying to go to camp. She was there for the first few years when I started in 1968 or 1969 at the age of eight, and I continued until I became a kitchen aid at fifteen,” said Maureen of her first real job.
Who was your special influence or camp buddy during your years at Maqua?