“The lodge and the food were wonderful,” said Minette Jacques, the skinny kid from the fifties’ who loved to eat. “I loved the backwards meal, where we ate dessert first and all the way back to our salad. And we sang our prayer and the chant of “able, able, get your arms off the table”, when someone had their elbows on the table. I also remember Billie singing “No Man Is An Island” and she led us in the “Johnny Appleseed” prayer.”

“I inherited a good speaking voice,” said Minette Immerman (1938-41), when I complimented her young sounding eighty-two year old voice. “I loved the singing and we sang a lot after dinner in the lodge. I can still remember the lyrics to the last one. Run along home and jump into bed. Say your prayers and cover your head. This very same thing I say unto you, you dream of me and I’ll dream of you.”

Missy Plambeck (1968-78) hated the announcements, but loved the singing after every meal and the song they all sang to Edna the cook. “There were songs on paper on the walls of the lodge, but some we didn’t sing because they were so old. I do remember singing one of them and my daughter asked me how I knew the song. I told her it was from camp and she said not else should know that, since it was a sorority song.”

She was one of many who remembered singing to “Cookie”. Debbie Tweedie (1965-72) said, ”We would make the cooks come out of the kitchen with this song and they would run around the table, and beg Beanie to play her songs and  I can still sing the “elbows on the table song”, but, we also had our table responsibilities in the lodge.”

“Having our meals in the lodge was always a highlight because we were able to sing, eat and sing some more, “ said Susan Bradford, who still could visualize her camp counselor “Cowboy” with her guitar in the sixties’, wearing a western-style hat and boots, leading a rousing song session. “We often sang the Johnny Appleseed song as the blessing before the meal.”

Kim Wynne-Parry attempted a song from the sixties’ at camp, and could not recall all the lyrics, but knew it was a toast of sorts. Beanie was the recipient– there would be hand clapping and banging on tables and it always ended with the word “overdone”.

Some, like Anne Schupak (1966) said it became especially lively in the lodge after dinner, where some of the wilder songs would erupt. Maybe, it was the same one Valerie Monto penned to me from her time in the sixties’—a song that I thought was an original to my all girl’s college!

“I’m a beaver, you’re a beaver, we are beavers all. If you ever need a beaver, just give a beaver call”, which was followed by sticking your teeth over your bottom lips, making a beaver sound. “We couldn’t figure out why this song shouldn’t be sung away from camp, but now I realize how suggestive it was,”laughed Valerie.

Lin Harris also laughed out loud as she began to sing some of the old sixties’ songs during our interview and realized there were double meanings to many of the old songs that were sung with the young kids, using adult lyrics.

‘There was always a counselor with a guitar and I think one of the Falvey sisters played,” said Kellie Moore (1970-77), who loved the singing and music. I think Shelley Harris sang some “Cabaret” song after dinner in the lodge and we always had songs for our birthday.”

Kay Alcorn loved the non-stop singing in the forties’, especially the rounds after the group meals in the lodge. “White Coral Bells”, and “Down By The Old Mill Stream” were two, and then there were the nonsense songs such as “Old King Cole” and “John Jacob Jinglheimer Smith”.

For some, the songs with hand motions, like “Boat Man”, “Up In The Air Junior Birdsman” and “Rufas Rafas Jackson Brown” held a larger appeal, and were the easiest to recall at the Maqua reunions. How the girls loved re-enacting those songs!

Every era had its favorites and the “Loon” would devote whole pages to camp songs, or print the hit parade of the summer. (1950 featured “Swing Along”, “You Can’t Get To Heaven”, “The Mountains High”, “Brandy”, “The Buffalo Song” and “Saraspunda”. 1966 featured “Hiroshima”, “Mandy”, “Today”, “Blowin’ In The Wind” and many more.)

What songs do you remember from your meals?