Camping Life

Nurses, Doctors and Patients–#5

Published on by Kathy Baker

Bunk Bed/Interior of Cabin“There were some wacky nurses during my time,” remarked one of the counselors (1968-72). “They were either overly attentive and responsible or had short Infirmary hours that let everyone know not to bother them, and there were wacky accidents that occurred while at camp that landed girls in the Infirmary or hospital.”

Kim Wynne-Parry (1963-68) recalled her sister Vicki, who was only six and her accident.“She fell from the top bunk bed when some girl bounced her off onto her head. They came to get me and rushed her to the emergency room in Tawas. I was traumatized and cried and cried and cried. When she got back to camp, they had her in the Infirmary and I would visit her there. I just remember Dorthe Balaskas comforting her and me and feeling very protected.”

Vicki recalled how she ended up in the hospital on the first night of camp. “A somewhat mean-spirited and spoiled girl named Janet—I can still remember her and I think her Dad owned a car dealership in Lansing—bounced me off my bed by kicking me on the top mattress. I just remember “Beanie” (Barbara Haggart) taking me under her wing. She may have even given me one those beanies that put the tongue depressors on it to make a beanie-copter. Everyone worried about me, except me.” (After the incident with the fall from the bunk, Janet became her nemesis and she tried to beat her in every activity she took, but felt like it was her competitive spirit, since she was a good loser.)

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Nurses, Doctors and Patients-#2

Published on by Kathy Baker

IMG_6530Lurking in the background during her days at camp in 1945, Carol Requadt recalled the silent fear about water and polio, despite the fact that it was not certain how it was contracted. “Since I was at camp during the days of polio, there was a generalized fear and slight paranoia about catching it. I knew a few who got it, but it was not talked about too much and I was never afraid of catching it as a young girl.”

“There was a girl who did not feel well for three days, and no one knew she was in the early states of polio,” said Carol Sue Abendroth (1953-54). “I heard later in high school that it was what she had, but she survived with only a limp.”

The camp personnel committee was responsible for hiring in 1958 and met on February 27, 1958. Their notes indicated Elizabeth Loessel was hired as the nurse with a salary of $270, plus room and board with a room for Margo and a period of camping for Sandra. (Were they daughters?) Nancy Griebel was hired for the final period.

In 1960 the nurse was a retired public health nurse by the name of Margaret Conley, followed by Janet Gehres in 1961. She was recruited for the camp nurse position by director Alice Bishop, who was taking anatomy classes at Michigan State University with Janet. Although she did not have her Michigan nursing license, the YWCA paid for her to get it, so she could take the position. (She was from Reading. Pa.)

“I went home and got my shorts and stuff ready and headed to camp. I lived in the Infirmary, which was in the middle of camp, and was the only building with a bathroom in it. I was pretty much on duty twenty-four hours a day. There were a lot of girls with allergies that summer and they all brought their bottles along with them, but I don’t recall giving any injections. I think they did that before they got to camp,” said Janet.

Alice Bishop had notes in her director’s report that summer relating to the program presented by the Michigan Tuberculosis Association. They presented a program, complete with songs, about TB for the campers to acquaint them with the disease. Although there was no indication that TB was a scare, public awareness about this disease was important.

Janet Gehres filed her nurse’s report at the end of the first session. She indicated that ninety-one campers came to camp and checked through the Infirmary with pre-camp medical sheets, personal medications collected and all girls weighed in. At the end of the session, they were weighed in again and it was noted; “Many of the girls gained weight, apparently satisfied with the menus offered them.”

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Nurses, Doctors and Patients-#1

Published on by Kathy Baker

Off to camp went the girls, with their injection records up to date, physicals performed and armed with whatever medications they may need for their stay. Although the staff always included medical personnel, there was no way a summer camping session could maintain a clean slate of minor medical maladies, and sometimes even some major ones.

There was always a sick bay of some sort, whether in Dutton or in the new Infirmary and it was always staffed with a health official.As early as June 26, 1935 there was a mention in a news article about medical staff at the camp. The article was partially cut off, but mentioned Dr. Lorna Feng as the camp physician. (The piece noted her interest in art, literature and poetry; her position as an intern at Grace Hospital and that she was one of fifteen children educated abroad.)

Dorothy Bonnen, who camped in 1942, said “Dr. Vail’s wife was our nurse and she volunteered her time at camp with her five year old little boy with her around as she did her job. She used to be the person who inspected the cabins for tidiness.” (It is unclear if her husband was the doctor on call.)

There were also unexpected injuries that demanded immediate attention. “The mouse that Pam Farley hit with a broom during the day came out limping at night and she said ‘poor mouse’ and picked it up,” said Pat O’Tool (1944-52). “It proceeded to bite her and she had to be taken to West Branch to the doctor for a tenanus shot.”IMG_6155

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Hear Our Voices! #2

Published on by Kathy Baker

IMG_0674_2Session one in 1949 posted an article about a newly organized council. “For many years there has been in existence a council composed of camper representatives, but this year the two councils have worked cooperatively on many problems,” it stated. The council first periods was composed of Lucille Harding, Jerry Fleming, Helen Hasty, Nan Lipscott and Bertie Van Welt, and represented a “wide diversion of interests”, attempting to be fair and objective with their decisions.

The agenda listed items such as setting up camper schedules, dealing with grievances, settling counselor problems, presenting questions of procedures at staff meetings and store hours. Their goal was to “widen opportunities for campers and extend the democratic system at Maqua” and they agreed that the first meeting was considered a success.

In 1950, the Camper’s Council consisted of Joan Beers, Janice Cameron, Karen Temple, Connie Fisher, Eileen Salmond, Pat Hubbard, Nancy Kula, Judy Harrison, Janie Hale, Judy Waldorf and CIT’s Judy Alcorn and Ann Malloy. Counselors Ann Hayden and Shirley Piguet joined “Dicky” the director planning the morning and evening programs and the frog races.

Hut 1 in fourth period of 1950 housed all the CIT’s and they joined the council, along with Louise Kibble, Karen Temple, Jan Mosier, Mary Brown, Alicia Roberts, Frances Kendrick, Mary Calopsis, Sylvia Jones and their director “Dickie”. They planned all the evening programs, which included a baby party, a water pageant, a chuck wagon style dinner “in true Western style”.

The councils were still operating in 1952, according to articles in the “Loon”. Mary Day, Mary Neal, Ann Martin, Lynne Brown, Sally Macey, Penny Nickel, Roberta Richardson, Nancy Penoyer, Rosemary Michaels and Mary Jane Keschman planned a square dance, a taffy pull, a silent meal, a treasure hunt and another chuck wagon dinner.

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Hear Our Voices! #1

Published on by Kathy Baker

536959_3518063120900_948563058_nThe overall condition and set up of the camp season differed from year to year according to the needs of the campers and staff. Each director came in with new ideas, the camp committee meetings entertained and implemented best practices according to the financial situation and staff they hired and for the most part Maqua hummed like a well-oiled machine for all involved.

Humorously, with tongue and cheek quips, the campers were allowed to vent and express their desires with ideas that they felt would improve the camp. Some were serious and others just plain funny, but I am fairly certain they felt “heard”.

The “Loon” publication of 1950 listed “famous recommendations” from each hut, which appeared during each session of camp. The July issue wanted stairs for their bunk beds, softer mattresses, colored caps for further areas of the lake, a diving board on the green raft, showers, reading lamps over their bunks, more “Brownies”, screens fixed, nails for their clothes and (wait for it)—hut nine wanted an escalator to the lodge!

In August, the list continued in the same vein–hot water, rafts out farther, better stairs, bed lights, dock extended to the shore, water taps in the huts, an iron and ironing board, and for the staff to wash their own dishes.

The more hilarious suggestions were—“Stumpy wanted a whole new camp, Bobbi wanted a narrower lake, Dickie wanted to buy all the land from her to Hale Park and Betty wanted waiters instead of hoppers”, (Good luck with all that!)

July 10-24, 1952 brought suggestions to “keep huts closed up, paint the huts, be able to dunk the counselors, noisy the first night, then quiet, bigger swimming areas, mouse traps, lock on Brownie doors, fix the roof, more men and move the raft out farther”.

The famous recommendations continued into 1952 and included “taking the writing off the walls of huts, cut down the jungle in front of hut 2, escalators, hot water, fix the leaks, fix the bunks, get the mice out, Brownie in the hut”.

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“Camp Maqua Revisited”

Published on by Kathy Baker

IMG_5796Over the years-and there’ve been many since then, At least once a summer I reminisce when, My friends and I would pack up our trunks, and come to this place and Pick out our bunks. “What do you want” bottom or the top? Nobody really cared, We were there, up for the dare, And ready for fun–nonstop! Revelry in the morning—raising the flag, and maybe a bra or 2, Then choosing of activities, Oh soooo many, What’s a girl to do? Arts & Crafts, canoeing, or maybe learn to shoot a gun, Swims in the lake, (don’t forget the buddy system) or stepping on a snake, Or riding a horse, and the singing of course. WHATEVER you chose–it was FUN! I never minded the food too much, I’ll eat pretty much anything to this day, But I do remember a food fight HAHA Much to the directors dismay. The infirmary, the brownie, nature hut and yes, camp store, Our cabin with the little shelf, that held our toothpaste and more, Thad we’d use, when we found an empty space to write our names upon the Rafters, A reminder to all, that we were here, And to all who would come soon after. But the Lodge was my most favorite place, with the cookies and if lucky–mail, And everywhere you looked a smiling face—attached to a pig or pony tail. That place where we got our bellies fed, Sang silly songs that got stuck in our head, Then reluctantly trounced off to bed—Taps and giggled until the last goodnight was said…..Then did it all over again. These are just some snip its of my Camp Maqua memories, With a big heartfelt THANK You to Kathy for allowing this possibility, to go back in time–once again. <3 Written by Ann Niegarth Laskowski as she returned for the Centennial Reunion