Two of the girls who swam in Saginaw Bay had their skills in place for swimming at camp all ready by the time they arrived. Lori Fobear (1975-76) grew up one block from the bay and loved to swim. Barb Ballor (1951-55) summered there.

Other girls either rented summer cabins on lakes or had family who owned summer homes, so swimming became second nature to them. Jodi Tripp learned at her grandparent’s place in the fifties on Lake Michigan in Saugatuck, so she felt like she grew up on the water. Susan Ruterbusch (1947-52) also learned at her grandparent’s home.

Judy MacNichols (1946) added practice to the skills she learned from age five at the “Y” with cottage living, but said she never progressed to the first raft, which was water over her head.

The Hasty family had a cottage on Sand Lake and their summers were filled with family lake activities, so both sisters Marge and Helen learned to swim there. Camp in the forties was their proving ground for the rest of their waterfront experience. Marge even went on to become a waterfront counselor, teaching lifesaving, canoeing, and sailing.

“We were not afraid of the water at all and as soon as school was out, our family drove up north for the whole summer,” said Veronica and Pat Burkhart, who camped in the fifties. Their family had a cabin on Black Lake near Onaway, where they both learned to swim like “little fish” in the water.

“There were two rentals on either side of us, so we always had kids to swim and canoe with. During the polio scare, we stayed up the entire year and went to school in a little one room schoolhouse.”

Carla Schweinsberg celebrated her eighth birthday at Camp Maqua in 1945 and did not miss a summer until she turned fifteen. Her family owned a cabin on a lake in Linwood, not far from the family home in Bay City, where she learned to swim. Attending two-week sessions meant she could throw herself into the water activities she loved and become more proficient. Her only regret came after learning the sailboat and classes were gone by the time she earned her blue cap.

“I swam every chance I got after the first year because it was a rule in our house that while up in Topinabee on vacation, we were not allowed on the dock without a life-jacket until we had our swimmers card and not allowed in a boat without a lifejacket without our lifesaving card,” said Kayleen Jacques (1956-59), who said they always had their life jackets on,

Jean Evans (1933-38) was a sickly child and had pneumonia three times in one year, and the doctor did not think she would make it, so her parents took her down to Florida for the winter. “We stayed a hotel with a pool for three months and that is where I learned to swim. Later, we loved it at the beach all summer long on Saginaw Bay, so I knew how to swim before I went to camp. I learned all the strokes, how to dive and canoes. I was never the fastest swimmer, but I always had the most endurance.”

Did your family rent or own a place near a body of water where you could learn to swim?