The sun smiled on us for our big celebration, with over eighty former campers, staff, residents, and their families, plus volunteers from the Plainfield Township Historical Commission. The guests enjoyed guided tours around the lodge, property walkabouts, and visits to three huts. The archives were on loan from the Bay City Historical Museum and were […]
Cindy Knapp
Camp Strengthened Young Women–
Ask Cindy Knapp, shown above, (1968-71)— there was no question that her time at Maqua influenced who she was as a person. ‘I loved my summers there, treasure the memories and friendships that were formed, and am grateful to have had the opportunity. Maqua helped give me confidence and taught me a lot about leadership. […]
Mixing With Mahn-go-tah-see
Some years there was fraternization with the boys’ camp and other years there was no social activities between the two camps. Marge Hasty (1946) had memories of meeting the boys by sailboat in the middle of the lake to pass “sneaky mail”, and said many of the counselors had boyfriends across the lake and this […]
Maqua Declares War–
“One of the years I think some of the pranks got out of hand with the boys from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see. We had never had any official activities with them, but this one summer there was a mixer, so we got to know some of the boys. We would wave to them when we saw them […]
Nicknames–
Nicknames were a way to make girls feel included with a sense of intimacy and camaraderie. “Magot” (or maybe Maggot) would not be the cutesy nickname a young girl would pick, but Karen Magidsohn won that name. It was very common for girls to be christened with new or short names at camp. Sue Purdue, […]
Hut Happenings–
From the fifties to the seventies, the “Loon” newsletter included the activities each session from each hut. Each cabin would contribute a few sentences, and the compilation of the different years added up to a diary (of sorts ) for the camp experience. There was backwards day, tin can stove making on the rifle range, […]