Just the fact that Maggie (Karen Magidsohn 1965+) was at camp for eight years is a testimony to the love she had for her summers. “They were the best summers of my life,” she said. “I developed friendships with girls from school who also attended, but made new friends. Our family was never wealthy, and we would never have done all these activities at home. My parents had a membership at Atlas Valley in Grand Blanc, where I learned to swim. But, I was always the outdoors person.”
Judy Crissey (1954) recalled going to camp with her friend Jocelyn Meagher and said there were never any conflicts with any of the girls there. “We were all young girls —all away from home—hanging on to each other. There was no room for squabbling, just fun. I did have the personality that ran to the cabin on the first day to get the top bunk, though,” she laughed. “I made friends easily, but once we went home, those friendships ended quickly and I never kept in touch with anyone.”
“I do remember one incident as a camper where the younger girls had to dress up as girls and the older girls had to dress up as boys. The “guys” made corsages and had to ask us to dance and nobody chose me. I was ten or eleven and I got my feelings hurt over that one.”
Maggie Young was seven or eight years old when she first attended Camp Maqua in 1962 and did not return until she was twelve years old. It was her first time away from home and she attended with one of her neighbor’s granddaughter–-Beth Van Aacker. (She did two week sessions when she was older.)
“I was very shy, but I fit into the group okay. I was with an outgoing friend, which helped. I know I was on the bottom bunk and Beth was on the top. I’m surprised my parents sent me to camp, but maybe they thought it would break me out of my shell. I remember one girl was a major tomboy who was very pushy, but still nice. I loved the camaraderie. The buddy thing was more than just going into the lake with your buddy.”
“As I got older I made plans to go back with the same girls who were not always from my city,” said Holly Foss (1966-72) “Sometimes they were daughters of my Mom’s friends. We would try to be in the same session and kept in touch through mail during the year. I was never homesick and remember being on the bottom bunk the first year. My sisters Marcie and Gretchen all went together, except for my first year. I always loved being in the cabins with all those girls and one counselor. I always looked up to my counselors and remember one–Trish Sautter, who played a guitar. It seemed like all my counselors could play a guitar.”
“One of the girls at Camp Tyrone loved horses and had talked to me about Camp Maqua. Her name was Laurie Cullen. I remember my Mom telling me to be nice to her because she was the odd man out in our cabin, but we became friends. Despite the fact that it was more money, I decided to go to Maqua the next year”,said Jennifer McLogan (1965-71).
“The first summer I was there almost all the girls were from Flint. Imagine my surprise when I walked down the path and heard “Jennifer?” and I turned and said “Cullen?” and there was Laurie Cullen! We had independently switched, without any communication from each other. It was fate! We regained our friendship at camp. We loved the counselors “Beanie”, “Kiltie”, “Pennington”, and “Chops”, and our director Dorthe, who used to put on Johnny Mathis records in the lodge”, reminisced Jennifer.
Linda Greenwald (1948-59) took her Japanese roommate with her one year from college. “She was like a foreign exchange student at camp. When we had nights off we would drive through upper Michigan, “said Linda, who was aware of the stares from strangers upon seeing an “Oriental”.
Although Mary Jane Keschman (1944-59) knew many girls from school in Bay City, she loved meeting new girls. A self-professed loner, she was not the type that felt comfortable in big groups, but loved all the fireside activities at camp. Were you more apt to stay within your comfort zone of known friends or make new ones?