Shelley Harris spent ten years at Camp Maqua, half as a camper and the other half on staff, including a stint as Program Director. As a fourth grader in Flint in 1965, she was excited about the idea of going to camp after her cousin had been the previous year. Just hearing that there was horseback riding was enough for Shelley to think camp would be “cool”.
“Maqua was huge to me—I really considered it my home, while Flint was just the place where I lived. It was a “sing-y swim-y” camp and everyone had to swim daily regardless of weather, except in storms. I was a song leader when I was on staff, and lived in Dutton.” (She still remembers all the lyrics to all the camp songs!)
“There was a huge group of Jewish girls, including myself, that went together from Flint every year. We never felt any religious pressure or prejudice and loved the weekly procession up to Chapel Hill wearing our Sunday whites for a very ecumenical service. After lunch at the lodge, we would all change our clothes. Only the Catholic girls rode into town for mass.”
It was the year of “I am Woman” sung by Helen Reddy and that is exactly how Shelley felt about her camp experience and how it influenced her life. As a young girl growing up with brothers, she felt like she was “home” at camp with all the girls out of doors. She had a great appreciation for the rough and tumble life at camp.
“I felt like I do anything. We did not need boys to have fun. We sang with girls, danced with girls, played with girls and the girl counselors did all the work loading and unloading when campers arrived. We didn’t care what we looked like and we became very self-sufficient. I felt like I could do anything without a guy.”
She went with friends, made new friends and still stays in touch with her camper buddies. When her Mom would ask why she wanted to go to a “dumpy Camp”, she would respond that it was the spirit of Camp Maqua and the nurturing of the counselors.
“ I did stuff that stayed in my heart. For years I used to dream about Maqua—-well into my thirties, until one night I had a magnificent fireworks-laden dream about a huge celebration on the lake with canoes, islands, flowers, music, and glitter. That was the last dream I had about it. I guess I was saying goodbye to that era of my life. That’s how important it was to me. I’m now in my late fifties, but Maqua is still in my heart”.
(And I might add…….her name is penned on many of the counselor canoe paddles that still grace the lodge wall.)
Ellen Hydorn was part of the “Fifth Street Gang”. Four of the girls went to Camp Maqua and the other girl had a mother and two daughters who attended, and they all lived on Fifth St. in Bay City. She attended for the first time in 1954 at age eleven and was very homesick, but all her friends were going.
The singing, campfires, going into the lodge and the “general energy” of the camp stayed with Ellen. Coming back to camp last summer with her four friends was a “sensual” experience, which awakened new memories—waiting for the announcements after a meal, drinking the snack drink they called “Bug Juice”, which she described as a green lime Kool-Aid type drink, and singing the little “Ditty”-“Here We Come Like Birds In The Wilderness”. There were also memories of helping in the kitchen and her job as a server or hopper, the wishing boat ceremony where she would be so emotional to leave at the end of camp, and the cute skits from the counselors.
Mary Obey attributed her minor in recreation to her love of the outdoors, her fun nature and her experiences at Camp Maqua. “They instilled a sense of responsibility and respect for nature and people. I’m sure at the time I didn’t realize that, but when I look back at the duties and the activities, I know that is where I learned those values.”
Her college years started at Central Michigan in 1967, where she majored in social work and minored in recreation. One summer she decided to be a counselor at another camp in Cadillac and it was such a disappointment to her. “It was not Camp Maqua. It almost hurt to be there. I missed Maqua so badly, that every weekend I would drive the hour and a half or so to go back to see my friends!”
Sue Michelson knew of families who had been transferred out of the country and Camp Maqua was so important to them that when they were home for the summer, their kids attended! Were you aware of the reputation of the camp before you attended?