Where The Boys Are—

For decades Camp Maqua girls made jokes about the  Camp Mahn-go-tah-see boys’ camp across the lake; how maybe they would swim over to see them; or the boys would boat over past them, so they could see them. And as many of them that dreamt of that, there were thse girls who said they were […]

The “Loon” Newsletter Over The Years

Copies of the “Loon” in the early years, with their tissue paper thin pages, were preserved in the archives at the “Y”, along with other memoribiia. They were written and published by campers and staff in each session, usually reviewing activities at camp, anecdotes of the day, confessions of the campers, humorous stories, vignettes of […]

Awards And Ribbons–

  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, […]

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 […]

Hoppers and Manners–

“I loved meal time with the chatter and clatter and how we all sat with our cabin at one table. We would take turns setting the table, clearing, gathering the dishes into the tub to wash and so much singing and prank playing,” laughed Chris Lambert (1958-65). The food was unremarkable for Sue Augustyniak (1962-68), […]

Giddy-Up!

Penny Mitchell’s (1951-54) favorite thing to do was ride the horses at camp. It was something that she could do that she hadn’t done before. “I loved horses and camp was my conduit to horseback riding. I never fell off and we even rode bareback, which was very exciting. I can remember riding past the […]