Margaret Dahlem stopped on the lodge lawn in 1989, soon after we bought the property. Her trip down memory lane, as a first-time camper in 1925, included the awards when she camped. Her friend Harriet Crumb, who wrote a letter to me soon after, mentioned the same award. There were competitions between the huts, […]
Cara Prieskorn
From Alcohol To Drugs—
“I remember one year there was a girl with the last name of Polk and we got her really drunk and she had a bad reaction to the alcohol,” said Mardi Jo Link (1973-78). “We had to walk her around so she wouldn’t pass out. We were so afraid and said, “Oh, God, I hope […]
Fads and Fashions–
Driven by her friend’s parents, Molly Appleford (1946) had her suitcase packed with shorts from Best and Company in Grosse Point. “They had buttons down the side and I loved them. So did Marsha Immerman, who thought they were so “in”, so I bought her a pair,” said Molly. Tucked in with those coveted shorts were […]
Elemental Garments and Hair Don’t Care–
“Every camp session yielded a copy of the goings-on of the campers in a newsletter, aptly named the “Loon”. It was usually a tongue in cheek review of what went on in each hut, activities of the days at camp and humorous stories relaying such things as deep dark secrets, anecdotes of the date and […]
Jewish Girls In A Christian Camp
Chapel Hill was a quiet place, with a vision of a spot in the clearing of the woods bearing a cross on a platform. It took years for Sheryl Biesman (1973-78) to realize that YWCA on the podium stood for Young Women’s Christian Association. She was Jewish, but felt no prejudice and if there had […]
Cliques–
“You could tell there were cliques or groups, but it was never in a mean way. It was usually the Saginaw girls, the Bay City Girls, the Detroit girls—and they were usually in the same hut, so they just hung out together,” said Deb Wilkinson (1964-66).” I do remember the girls from the wealthier families […]