Friendships and Relationships

Nicknames–

Published on by Kathy Baker

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Nicknames were a way to make girls feel included with a sense of intimacy and camaraderie. “Magot” (or maybe Maggot) would not be the cutesy nickname a young girl would pick, but Karen Magidsohn won that name. It was very common for girls to be christened with new or short names at camp. Sue Purdue, who taught tennis in 1968, was remembered as one of the favorite counselors with the greatest nickname—Super! (Supercalifragisticexpealadocious was too difficult to spell, so they called her Super or Superdoo.)

Nicknames were especially popular with the staff and in 1966, Karen Boger was Bogie, Lorraine Buban was Collie, Oleta Engel was Lee, Kathy French was Frenchie, Ann Giebel was Snoopy, Carol Griffith was Ginger, Barbara Haggart was Beanie, Linda Harp was Harpie, Emogene Host was Emmy, Mary Laich was Buff, Janet McLeod was Squirt, Ann Temple was Rusty, Ursula Witkowski was Urs, Gretchen Sharpley was Gretty, and Nancy Westfall was Nan.

“Beanie”, as she was known at camp, received her nickname the first summer at Maqua. “I didn’t have a name and I remember Lee, who ran the camp store, came out with the staff and showed us what she was going to sell in her store. Everyone laughed when she pulled out this little green beanie,” she said. “No-one thought it would sell. I came out with one, rigged up with two tongue depressors like a “Beanie Copter” and they sold out!” (If you remember, the Beanie Copter hat was from the Beanie and Cecil show—- an animated color cartoon.)

The “Loon” in 1965 ran an article “How Counselors Got Their Nicknames”. “Frenchie’s last name was French; Bubble’s initials are BUB; Scotch’s name was Ginny, shortened to gin, then scotch; O-B’s last name was Obey; Beanie received her name for wearing a beanie: Snoopy had the name of Napolean, which was Nappie for short, which was associated with the blanket of Linus in the Snoopy cartoon, which was associated with Snoopy; Horse was in a cabin with too many Kathys’ and she liked horses; Peachy’s real name was Gail, but her little charges named her Peachy for no reason; the souvenirs all around the room of Colorado, who was from Colorado, earned her name; Saunders was Candi’s last name: Melba was shortened to Mel; blowing up rafts on vacation earned Windy her nickname; Corky was first named Curly for having curlers in her hair, but she renamed herself; Reb supposedly had a Rebel accent and Smokey wore a fire hat the day she was named.”

Laurie Cone had two nicknames in 1968—Coon and Pinecone! Jeanne Kiltie also was known as Froggy (for her raspy voice) or Little Kiltie, since she was Sue Kiltie’s little sister. Kathy Hall (1966-71) laughed like Phyllis Diller, so she was known as Diller. Quiet Linda Doering was crowned (facetiously) by Beanie and was known as Yakky, while Cindy Morrison (1960) was known as Bug Eyes for her blue eyes and always considered it an endearment.

When Karen Kaiser (1959-62) was asked how she got her nickname, she said there were three girls named Karen in her hut when she was seven and everyone called her friend’s mother Billie and she loved the name, so it stuck. Valerie Monto (1964-68) had a girl from Florida with a southern accent and her nickname was Southern. “By the end of the session, half the camp had caught her accent and it was “y’all this and y’all that”, she laughed.

 

 

Sue Wiegand earned her nickname Flash from Beanie. (“I think it had something to do with the fact that I was not particularly quick in the morning. But, as I’ve gotten older, I have actually become a morning person.”) She was also described in a paragraph of the “Loon” in 1968 in an article “The Legend of Flash Gordon”. “Yes, Flash does live and we are proud, yes, very proud, deep down in our hearts that we, the humble staff of Maqua have actually seen her.”

“Camp was just a place where I began to think about my identity,” said Debbie Tweedie (1965-72). “Because my last name was Tweedie, I was always nicknamed Tweetie Bird and my friends would give me gifts of Tweetie Birds. At camp my counselor decided to give me a new name. I was Peanuts. I suddenly realized I didn’t have to be Tweetie Bird anymore, and I did not have to be defined by others. It was a big moment.”

Diane Dudley (1957-63) got her nickname as a small child and it stayed with her at camp. “I was named for my Aunt Doris, who was called Dodie or Dodo and my Mom said when I tried to pronounce my name as a small child, I would say Dodo, so either I mixed it up or it was all I could say. I didn’t tell people at school, but one year a friend came up to me in Cunningham’s Drug store and said “Hi Dodo” and the president of our high school heard it and that was it.”

Karen Cox (1967-69) was nicknamed Cowboy pretty much the first day on the job. Linnie Harris, who was the waterfront director at the time, did not know the names of all the new staff members. Karen just happened to be wearing her plastic “Broncos” spirit hat decorated with flowers by her first assigned roommate at Western Michigan University. “Hey Cowboy”, she yelled to me to get my attention at the waterfront,” said Karen, “and the name just stuck. But many of them just called me C.B. for short.”

“I think my nickname at camp was Charlie,” said Kathy Butsch (1968-74). “I wore this ball cap that was blue with white polka dots. I always hated to leave camp and remember moping on a shopping trip with my Mom when I ran into a friend from camp. Karen Evans. She recognized my hat!” (Just that little incident gave her instant happiness.)

The camp nurse, Carol Hulett was nicknamed Hypo in 1974, and the”store lady” Rhonda Thayer received her nickname from her mother, who was always yelling RhonnyJo!

“One of the girls was nicknamed “Spaz” (Cindy Knapp) because she was always tripping over everything. She had those wooden Dr. Scholl’s sandals and wore painter pants, so of course when we drove back home, I had to get my own painter pants,” laughed Sue West (1975+). “My nickname was “Squat” because I could pee outside without getting it down my leg.”

Cindy Knapp (1968+) had her own version of how she got her nickname. “I earned Spaz after I fell, hurrying to class. I tripped over a root. (I think it was in the path coming down from cabin 6). It ripped open my hands and knees. I went to the Infirmary to get it cleaned out. I remember the nurse working to get the sand out of my hand, while she sang, “Boom, Boom, Ain’t It Great Tp Be Crazy?” Sadly, I was promoted to Super Spaz a few days later when I tripped over a root at the bottom of the boat house stairs and tore everything open again. Thankfully, the Super part didn’t stick, but Spaz did and I was Spaz every summer after!”

What was your nickname and how did you receive it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hut Happenings–

Published on by Kathy Baker

From the fifties to the seventies, the “Loon” newsletter included the activities each session from each hut. Each cabin would contribute a few sentences, and the compilation of the different years added up to a diary (of sorts ) for the camp experience.

There was backwards day, tin can stove making on the rifle range, a banquet with entertainment, a historical parade and bragging rights from Hut 7 in 1950 when the entire cabin earned their blue caps in swimming. One hut hosted a fortune telling booth at the camp carnival in the lodge during another session that summer, while another had the distinction of having no Bay City girls in their hut.

There were cracker box sessions, where you could ask the counselor anything, and pennants for neat tables, hours of canasta on rainy days, scavenger hunts and marshmallow roasts. Girls bemoaned the fact they couldn’t get fires started on their cookstoves, or laughed when they had to sidestep cows on the path to Hale Park for their outing.

Some huts that summer bragged about the fact they all took tap dancing or arrived on the same bus to camp. Others were sad that their frogs did not win the frog contest, due to not being in top shape. Rain spoiled some activities, but inside the chains were finished for the Christmas in July tree. Jean Robinson’s mother had a cake sent up for her birthday to share with her cabin mates, and Jan Mosier and Shirley Miller won prizes for being the best dressed babies on Baby Night.

Gab sessions, tales of the Moms who attended, singing, hut rearranging, and gossip about the girls who were on a diet, counselors who missed their beaus and the girls who fell asleep early were topics in the newsletters. The girls wrote about how well they made friends and how energetic and contented they were.

In 1951 two campers from a hut had to have shots at the doctor’s office and when they stepped outside one of their friends was spotted riding a spotted black and white mare named Belle! One hut never had to get acquainted with each other, as they already knew each other! Others wrote of eating dinner in their canoes. Another hut had seven counselors in training—Ann Gunn, Pat O’Tool, Pat Parsons, Karen Temple, Jean Robinson and Judy Miller—all involved in creating the 16-18 ft. birch front gate sign.

Hut 9 had a “Hate Hut 9 Day” in which they said nothing but nasty things to each other, followed by a “Love Hut 9 Day”, where they expressed nice things. One hut in 1952 could not get over their counselor nonchalantly picking up spiders. Hut 2 laughed about going home with Texas accents with Chris as their counselor, while Hut 10’s claim to fame was three CIT’s—Nan O’Tool, Marsha Immerman and Shirley Blunden.

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Journey Of A Camper On Drugs

Published on by Kathy Baker

D had fond memories of her seven summers as a camper at Maqua in the mid-60’s. After the first few years, she would stay for all four sessions. Her last summer at camp was spent as a kitchen aid in the early 70’s. She described herself as mischievous back then, but she got along with everyone. She still had friends who were campers and could not wait to return the following year.

“For some reason, the new director took an instant dislike to me. I do not know if it was my personality or something else she had heard. During a break between sessions, ten of us went back to M’s cabin where we all smoked marijuana, some for the first time. I’d tried marijuana previously and even had some at camp with me, but never smoked it in camp.”

“When I applied to be a junior counselor for the following season, the director denied me. I was devastated. I adored going there. I had the best childhood and Maqua was a big part of it. The relationships were so great and even the staff didn’t snub us as kids. I loved that we were doing stuff all the time. I had wonderful relationships with Dorthe and Beanie and others, and stayed in touch with many of them. Those relationships were a uniting force.”

“Maqua was life transforming for me. It was like a little dream come true. Going to the reunion in 2012 was very healing for me. I realized then what a loss I’d been carrying around all these years. I had assumed I would be coming back as a junior counselor after the summer as a kitchen aid. When I was denied, I felt like my arm had been chopped off. We all had so much in common and it wasn’t anything to do with our parents being friends or our friendships back home. It was about the special camp relationships.”

“The denial of the junior counselor position coincided with the beginning of twenty-five years of active addiction. By the age of fifteen, besides marijuana, I had already experimented with many different types of drugs. When I told some of the staff at the reunion, they told me they wished they’d known, so they could have helped. But, no one could have helped at that time.”

“Despite my addiction, I was always a good student. After receiving my Bachelor’s degree, I moved to California and tutored math at a community college for a while. Ultimately, I went to law school in California, still heavily into drugs, but I took the bar exam and passed it. I got high right after my swearing in.”

“Staying in school seemed like the easiest course since my parents were willing to continue paying for everything. I did use my law degree and ran a clinic for substance-abusing women, and also worked for the local Family Court restraining order clinic. I won awards for my pro bono work. I was telling myself I was a functioning addict until one day I realized I’d made an oversight in a situation that could have affected someone else’s life. So, I stopped practicing. My fallback was to return to school again for my Masters in Public Interest Law.”

“In the early 90’s, my father passed away. Because my Mom and I were so close, I moved back to Michigan. I was struggling, so I entered into grief therapy, which ultimately turned into substance abuse therapy. Eventually, I went to inpatient treatment at Hazelden and got clean. Now I am doing what I always wanted to do.”

“I have my masters in social work, work as a substance abuse therapist and most importantly, I’m in recovery. I just celebrated twenty years clean. Looking back over those twenty-five years of active addiction, there were many difficult times. I spent time in jail and came close to death several times. Basically, my life at that time was about using.”

“The trajectory of my life has been unusual, but I feel that I somehow landed on my feet. I believe I am more whole as a person and I understand that life is about relationships. It came full circle at the reunion and I realized the friendships I developed while at Maqua truly helped to shape my life.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bra Or No Bra?

Published on by Kathy Baker

Every girl probably remembers the first time they had to change in front of someone other than a sister, step into a communal shower after a gym class, shop for their first bra, or the shock that someone could be the same age as flat-chested you and have the hugest breasts you had ever seen!

“I had never spent the night at anyone’s house. I knew no one,” said Geraldine Padgett (1954-56). “I had no friends at camp and the other girls were not from my area. One of the biggest things for me was changing clothes in front of girls! In those times, you didn’t even lounge in your pajamas and we showered alone. I had never dressed in front of people and I was very modest.”

“I do remember, just as my friends did, that we all wanted to be around when one girl was putting on her bra. Her boobs would fall into the cups and then she would just snap it on and pull up the straps. We had never been around girls who were not modest. I think we bothered her “laughed Dorothy Niedzielski (1946-47).

Pat Kula said the memory of her early forties bra story at camp still brings howls of laughter to her bunkmates that witnessed the same act of the girl with the biggest boobs stepping into her bra from the floor. There was not much room for privacy for the girl who was cups ahead of her flat-chested roommates!

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Confusions and Confessions–

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

“I was somewhat aware and in denial at the same time, while I was at camp and in those college years, of my sexuality,” admitted L.D, who was at camp in the late sixties. “I had a boyfriend, but wasn’t really all that interested in him. One of the other counselors eventually made me talk about it, but she did it in a nice way. I think they all knew at camp, but I waited several years before I came out.”

For some, like K.M., who was just a hugger during the same era, and had no confusion, it was the summer of awareness for her. “I loved that I could walk around camp with my arms wrapped around another girl or arms linked, appropriately, and no one cared. I could hold hands swinging and feel comfortable. I don’t remember ever having any girl crushes, but I do remember the summer there was a rumor about another girl liking another girl and I just never knew anything about those things. We just never talked about sexuality.”

One woman in the early sixties had applied for the job as a college student from an ad in the Bay City Times. Having passed her water safety instruction classes through the Red Cross, she felt she could write her own ticket for a summer job, knowing WSI instructors “were hard to come by”. Her degree was in physical education from a college in Illinois and she had been a counselor at a Girl Scout camp and a Pioneer Girls camp in the Poconos.

She felt her summer with her waterfront job was fine until the last day, when she alleged her director made sexual advances toward her. She was to help with the last day’s closing-up of Camp Maqua, but told her she refused to help her and if she said one word about it, she would report the incident to the Bay City “Y”. In a second interview, she felt she did the right thing not reporting, as she had not noticed the director had ever been inappropriate with the young girls.

“I didn’t know about lesbianism at that time. I probably should have reported her to the school system in Detroit, where she worked as a physical education teacher, but I never did. She was a cold, strict woman who you could not talk to. I was OK with my decision not to report her.”

She spent six weeks at Camp Maqua and then walked away, but as a professed introvert, she stated she had never been close to any of the other counselors. “The best part of that summer was working with the kids. I lived above the boathouse and would wander around and talk to different groups of kids. It was okay until the last day.”

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Gays And Girl Crushes—

Published on by Kathy Baker

K.W. knew there were crushes on counselors in the sixties and that many of the girls “would show you theirs if you showed them yours and they would giggle and dance around in their underwear, but it was a time when they didn’t talk about women liking women. My friend was a tomboy and there were many tomboys. We instinctively knew who they were and they were the ones we asked to climb the trees to get us things, just as we knew who the girly girls were. By the time I was in fifth grade, girls were popping boobs and getting their periods and we had our medical forms and our check ups and I’m pretty sure the camp nurse was a pretty important person.”

Alternately, J.B. was aware of the strong female friendships at camp, even during the co-ed years and realized looking back around 25% of the women might have been gay, which did not cause problems unless they broke up with each other. “It wasn’t a big deal and there was no sexual tension, but there were the tightest knit friendships made in the shortest amount of time at camp.”

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