When Beth Phillip’s parents drove her to camp in their pick-up truck (1972-78), there was a certain point where she would get so excited, because she felt like she was almost there. As they neared US 23 there was a pink tent and that was the landmark she waited to see!
“My Mom and Grandma would always drive me up there for sessions and my Dad would always pick me up and drive up to meet my Mom at our cottage near Harrisville,” said Jenifer Penzien (1969-71) of their yearly summer ritual.
For Maggie Young (1962), it was an adventure. “Even travelling in my Dad’s 1961 Corvair was an adventure. It ended up being my first car.”
“My family was not wealthy, and we didn’t even have a television until 1956,” said Ellen Hydorn (1954) whose aunt shared her vacation home in Tawas with the family,” but the rest of the girls I went up with were all fairly wealthy. I remember my Dad drove me up in the old Cadillac.”
Carol Requadt’s brother was in Camp Iroquois on Sand Lake in 1945 and when both camping sessions were over, their parents would pick them up and head to their rental cottage, which was also in Tawas. She was not alone in that double pick up, as many of the campers had brothers attending nearby camps.
“My aunt and uncle used to take me and my sister on a trip out east to visit relatives in Newport News. We would get back from that two-week trip, wash our clothes and repack for our trip to Camp Maqua,” said Deb Wilkinson (1964-65). “The anticipation of packing our footlocker and getting ready for the trip up M-13 seemed to take so long though Kawkawlin, Linwood, Standish and then we would get to the light in Hale and turn left and we would arrive! My Mom drove us up, but I remember one year her friend had a 1966 Thunderbird and the Rolling Stones were playing “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” and the second year “Windy” by the Association was playing. That’s how I remember the two summers I went to camp—by the music. I can still remember how excited we were, singing in the car “We’re going to camp, we’re going to camp!”
“The first year I went, Cindy Raposa came with me,” said Susan Kiltie (1960-68). “My Dad and Cindy’s Dad were friends, so they would drive us up, drop us off and do their own little adventure. You were supposed to get to camp between two and four, but they always dropped us off early.”
“My parents drove me up to camp when I was ten,” said Cara Prieskorn (1976),”and we parked by the side of the road and ate sandwiches out of one of those pink coolers that had nowhere for the ice water to drain. Who parks beside the road to eat?” she lamented.
For Maureen Moore, (1968-70), the singing of camp songs started on the way to camp, along with the ritual of her parents asking if she wanted to eat at Frankenmuth before camp or after camp. “It was usually after,” she laughed,” since we could not look at another hot dog.”
Many of the girls and their families developed little traditions and rituals that continued summer after summer. “There was a regular rhythm to our camp experience,” said Sue Augustyniak (1962-68). “Our parents would drop us off and on the way home we would go out of our way to have fried chicken at Frankenmuth.”
For most, the tradition was on the way up to camp. Cindy Naylor’s Mom used to stop at Wheeler’s in Standish in 1967. Cathy Hawkins’ family had a younger brother and sister who accompanied her and sister Debbie on the trip north in the early sixties and would stop to eat at Iva’s for chicken dinners. Susan Bradford, who attended at the same time as the Hawkin sisters also stopped at Iva’s.
“Every year I would have an asthma attack from excitement before I got to camp. We would stop at Burger King in West Branch for me to breathe and calm down,” laughed Missy Butsch, who camped from 1969 until the final year of “Camp Maquois”.
“I can still remember the drive up to camp. It was a family tradition to load up our heinous trunks, stop at Dog N’ Suds for hamburger and fries and head up the dusty road to camp. I was always wondering who was coming back year-to-year. I had this overwhelming sense of coming home,” said Amy Johns (1967-68).
Kerry Weber and her Mom had their routine every year going to camp by eating at a place in Hale in 1952 and Dana Foote (1974-77) and her Mom would have a little vacation on the way, stopping at a trampoline park, “which had the trampolines at ground level over a hole in the ground” before stopping to get Superman blue ice cream.
“I remember the first year I went to Camp Maqua. I think it was 1957 and I would have been twelve or thirteen. I brought along some friends of mine—Martha Virtue and Lois McGee, but we did not end up in the same cabin,” said Jody Tripp. “My parents would drive me and my brother up to camp and we would have a two-week break and then they would drive back and get us. One night at the dinner table in a restaurant on the way home, she (Mom) announced she pregnant with my little brother!”
“I do remember the sun was always shining once we got past Bay City. We were from Birmingham,” said Julie Hutchinson,” and we would be in the back seat yelling– “the sun is shining, the sun is shining”.
When Holly Foss (1966-72) drove up with her parents on the road trip north, she said she could remember that when they hit the dirt road, she finally knew she was at camp!
That pretty much summed up the feeling most girls felt on their scenic drives north to a pretty special place…………..music, traditions and a feeling of leaving home and coming home in the same day, no matter how they arrived. Did your family have a tradition on the way up?