When Elaine Levinsohn (1927-30) camped at Maqua, there were no homes around, just a pretty lake with many trees. “All the girls knew there was a boys’ camp there,” she laughed, as she recalled a vague memory of boating over to the camp, like many before and after her years at camp. As the boating […]
Anne Schupack
Cabin Pranks–
Timeless camp traditions included pranks, which inevitably involved the bed. Pranksters followed their mothers, aunts, cousins and sisters into the antics that were handed down for years to make their cabin mates and counselors lives more interesting. The short-sheeting of beds was the most popular prank over every summer session, which was either taken well […]
Were We A Clique?
Were they a clique if they knew each other? Or were they just friends who happened to all want to go to camp together? Ann Ward (1958-61), Barb Ballor, Rosemary Orgren, Renee Dean and Jan Haynes were known as the Linwood girls, along with a handful of others. “I was fairly quiet until I got […]
Happy Mail!
The mail and packages created as many memories as the camping experiences and many of the girls saved their letters from home. Some, like Janet Dixon (1951-52) had a surprise waiting for her in 1991, after cleaning out her parent’s home. Her father had just died and she came across an envelope marked “Camp Maqua […]
The Little Jewish Girls
The Christian influence of Camp Maqua, which was under the auspices of the Bay City YWCA, did not discourage girls from other religions from attending camp. There were many Jewish girls who attended, and for the most part, the girls felt a sense of inclusion with the services on Chapel Hill. There was also the […]
Sing For Your Supper–
“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”, […]