Camping Life

My____Went There! #1

Published on by Kathy Baker

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One of the first questions asked of each camper interviewed was-“Did you go with a friend or relative, and did your mother, aunts, or cousins attend?”

Barely a girl asked answered no, because generally girls were influenced by relatives and friends, and it was almost impossible not to know someone. But, if by chance you arrived not knowing a soul, friendships were quickly made.

A letter addressed to me arrived in 1989 from Harriet Crumb, who had camped in 1925. Her dear friend Meg Dahlem had driven down the road to see if Camp Maqua still existed, and was the first camper that I greeted the second summer of our purchase of the lodge. Urged by a close friend, Madelyn Race, they attended together.

“I doubt if you could have found two more enthusiastic persons than Margaret and me. We loved Maqua and everything about it and feel it had a definite influence on our lives,” wrote Harriet, who was not only her friend, but also a distant cousin.

Michele Patterson was eight in 1971 went she spent her first week at camp, influenced to attend by the many stories she heard from her Foss cousins, friends in Bay City, sister Stephanie and mother Nancy, who all attended!

Beth Phillips (1972-78) grew up in Essexville and did not make many friends growing up and kept to herself throughout school, but at Camp Maqua it was a different story. One friendship is still maintained, and ironically she had to go to camp to meet Carol Besaw, who lived only a few miles from her home. Her mother, grandmother and a neighbor also attended.

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Reverse Homesickness–#4

Published on by Kathy Baker

For those girls who were campers and then moved into staffing positions at Maqua, their memories of the girls leaving and their own feelings continued to be strong. They had to say goodbye to campers at every session and watch as girls left with many emotions.

“One cherished memory for me is the sight of the young campers making new friends and bonding through a two-week period, sad to leave each other at the other end. They too had an experience for the first time—very emotional. There were those who really waited so anxiously for their parents to arrive for pick up and it was always obvious to me which parents had a special bond with their girls,” said Judy Moore, who was the assistant director 1970-71. “These young campers had an adventure that asked that they survive without their usual family support and develop these skills. Remarkable, when I think about it!”

The staff of the “Loon” in 1961 penned this paragraph—“Dear Campers, Was it really only two weeks ago that all of us gathered together in the lodge together, watching the Kangaroo Court for counselors? The time has gone by so swiftly, and now we say ‘so long’, but let us not say goodbye. Instead, why don’t we take with us memories made rich by new friendships, made rich by new skills learned, made rich by evenings spent around a campfire. We on the staff will remember the fun we had on cabin day when we got to know each one of you well. We will remember the time when we sang together after meals, and the way Alice would holler “garbage”. Sure, we all know about the dishes and cabin clean-up, but deep inside we all know that these are only a part of camp life. And were they really that bad? We have all enjoyed these weeks. We hope you have, too.”

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Reverse Homesickness–#3

Published on by Kathy Baker

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Margot Homburger (1946-50) signed up for two weeks and asked for more. “At that time, I ended up moving into a different cabin with different girls and then I was just a little homesick, so maybe I was there just a little too long. But, every year I waited for that flyer to come and my friends and I would try to get into the same cabin, but we always made new friends. We used to leave camp in tears and cry all the way to Standish and couldn’t wait to get back the next year.”

Gretchen Jacques (1955) could not relate to the homesick girls and loved the woods and sleeping outside. Although her mother did not like to camp, the family used to rent places on Mullet Lake and continued with two of her sisters buying on the same lake. “As a kid, I hated to leave those places, too. My whole family felt like that. I loved it and hated to leave, just like camp. I called it reverse homesick.”

Pam Hartz (1966-75) loved camp and could not wait to go back each summer. “After eight weeks, I just did not want to leave at all, and I loved being a counselor. I liked that I could be a shoulder to cry on for the girls who were homesick, or had to have braces or whatever.”

“When we left, we would cry all the way home. My Mom called it camp sickness instead of homesickness,” said Betsy Falvey (1968-75). “I was never homesick. Instead I would sit in my room and write letters to my friends and counselors from camp. Honestly, I was more homesick when I went off to college!”

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Reverse Homesickness–#2

Published on by Kathy Baker

546817_3518061000847_1988908728_nOne of the campers from the sixties loved getting away from her parents and was never homesick. “In fact, going to camp helped me feel like part of the group,” she said. (She had been friends with a girl named Kyle Higgs  and their parents were also friends and they were at camp together). “When I told my Mom that there were kids who were homesick and hated the food, she told me that children who were happy at home were never homesick and liked the food. And I believed her!”

Girls who had been away from home, either for sleepovers or extended stays at relative’s homes, usually fared better in the homesickness department. Susan Bradford always felt comfortable at other friend’s homes, maybe due in part to the rigid rules her father imposed at home. She admitted to the usual normal adolescent angst separating from her parents in 1965, but was comfortable being away from home.

Anne Shutt had gone away at the age of six to help her aunt in Massachusetts with her baby, so she was used to being away from home. “I was also an extrovert who easily made friends and loved making new ones,” said sixties camper Anne, who had all brothers.

And then there were the campers who cried because they had to go, then cried because they had to leave—often asking to stay longer or returning the following summers with lengthier stays. Gail Schultheiss was nine in 1966 and very homesick, but the next two summers were double the sessions. Sue Michelson (1963-73) begged her father from the big phone booth in the lodge, but money was tight and she was told no, although she attended every summer from grade school until age twenty-one!

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Reverse Homesickness–#1

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

IMG_0637_2“I loved camp from the first day. I never remember being the least bit homesick, nor did I ever see my sister, except in passing,” said Kay Alcorn, who was bunked in Cabin Two (in the forties) closest to the lodge, with a counselor and seven others in bunk beds. “I got a prized top bunk that summer and every summer thereafter until I was thirteen. The other young girls did get homesick and one or the other of them was always in tears– being comforted by a counselor. I couldn’t understand their feelings.”

“The first year I eventually figured out the other girls with their homesick routines were getting more attention than I was. So, I decided to fake it during siesta one day. I put on a far bigger act than anyone before. I lay in my bunk and wailed. My counselor was rubbing my back and offering treats. Nothing worked, so she sent for other counselors and eventually my sister. Still I howled, mostly with a pillow over my head. Finally, I had to give up. I threw the pillow off and started laughing. I don’t remember their reaction, but I think I felt a little embarrassed by all the concern I’d caused, as well I should have.”

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Homesickness–#6

Published on by Kathy Baker

img_7560-2“My best friend at the time was going with me to Maqua. It was her first time away from home, a fact I could scarcely believe, since she was already fourteen. Her family was somewhat dysfunctional, as I look back on it. Her parents eventually divorced and her father was an alcoholic, so being the typical oldest child, she felt she needed to be home to take care of them. None of the rest of our friends had anything but Ozzie and Harriet households,” said Kay Alcorn, who had camped in the late forties with a great group of girls. (Her friend had a good time by the end of her session.)

Laurie Cone’s older sister Tally was in Senior Village in 1962 when she attended. One would think she would not have been homesick with a sister close by, but her two-week session turned into one when she got a stomach ache and ended up in the infirmary. “I loved it there and didn’t want to go home, or so I told them, “ laughed Laurie. “My parents had a cottage in Oscoda and they had to come pick me up, but the next summer I begged to go back to camp.”

Tally, of course, remembered camp to be a blast and could not wait to get to Senior Village with the older girls. “My sister looked up to me and she was in elementary school when I was in middle school,” said outgoing and independent Tally. “Ironically, Laurie was the one who ended up going for years and becoming a counselor.”

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