“There were rules about getting food.,” said Margot Homburger (1946-52). “The camp did not want you to have food in your cabin and I remember one of my friends jumped into my bed because there was a mouse in there. If you got a package, you had to open it at the lodge. My friend and I walked up and her Dad had sent her a package, so she opened it up and it was a man’s shirt, which was in style back then. Neatly tucked in the folds of this shirt in this shirt box was a flat box of candy instead of cardboard. You could eat a candy bar in your cabin, because they knew you would eat the whole thing and not save it,” she said.

“We always looked forward to mail, “said Judy Rowden (1949). “I think my parents were way more lonesome than I was. I used to get care packages from home, but they did not come through the mail like my letters did. The milkman who delivered the milk to Maqua was a friend of my family and he used to bring me the package!”

It was much more fun to get the packages than mail, according to Holly Foss (1966-72), who looked forward to mail call, hoping she would get a package. Lois Levine’s homesickness was eased in the forties by the care packages her Dad packed lovingly from home and Carol Requadt shared the cookies in 1945 sent by her parents.

Sarah Smith (1968-70) always celebrated her birthdays at camp, and her Mom was the type to send care packages. “I didn’t need a thing.  I actually liked the food at camp. But, she never missed my birthday and would send me a care package for my day. Usually there was not much in it unless it was my birthday.”

“If my parents were lucky, they may get one or two letters in the time I was there,” said Lindy White (1970-73). “I remember my Mom sending me a care package while I was there. I don’t recall what was in it, but I’m sure there was candy and/or cookies.”

Michele Patterson’s Mom sent her a box  in the seventies with Chicken in a Biscuit crackers, her favorite Three Muskateers candy bar, a card and a little stuffed animal. (She laughed and said it was a big deal, since she was only there for a week!)

Some smuggled candy into their suitcases. (Forties/fifties camper Sally Harris.) Others never got packages, so they made sure their kids received them when they went to camp. (Jennifer Fenton–1971-78).

Helen McLogan (1972-74) recalled that one girl seemed to get a care package from her Mom every day, which she thought was very unusual. “I wrote and loved getting mail and my Mom would write handwritten notes to me,” she said.

“I was shy”, said sixties camper Cindy Morrison, “but I remember Sue Kiltie and I were always together. I was always in her shadow. Her grandfather lived in Scotland, so he always sent that wonderful shortbread. It was heaven. We got goodie boxes at camp, and my Dad would send me letters with a stick of Doublemint gum in them.”

“I can still remember one of the campers got a package and I thought it was a big deal, so I wrote home asking for a box to be sent to me,” laughed Cara Prieskorn (1966-71), who could not spell package. “They finally figured it out. Both my Mom and my grandmother sent one, but I have no clue what they sent. I know my Mom and grandmother wrote every day that I was at camp and I have saved them all. Getting mail was always a big deal.”

Did you receive care packages? What was packed inside?