Helen Johnson’s first year at camp was 1968 at age seven, and she followed in the footsteps of her mother and aunt, Ellie and Nora Goddeyne. “It was only fitting that my cousin and I would go there, also. I’m not sure how many years I attended, probably five or six, and I’m not sure why I stopped going. I would go with my cousin Ann Niergarth and neighborhood friends Katie Easton and Susan Adams.”
Cindy Knapp also went with her cousin Jane Woodworth in 1968, and felt like Maqua brought out the best in everyone. She seemed to be assigned to the same cabin with friends she met at camp, who all ended up becoming staff.
In 1963, at seven years of age, Debra Osher headed to camp with her cousin Judy, who was two years older. Only slightly homesick, knowing her cousin was there, she hung out with Jan Schreiber and her friend Marcia Michelson, whose sister Nancy was also at camp. Somehow all these relations made camp less frightening for Debra.
“One of the years, I went with a younger cousin, but I liked going the same time each year to see the same girls, even if we weren’t in the same hut,” said Cynthia Gregory (1960-65). “I never kept in touch with them, but it was fun to see them year to year. I didn’t make friends that I kept, but I truly loved it all.”
Pat Purcell’s second or third cousin worked in the kitchen in the fifties and was older by a few years. “When I walked past the kitchen, I would peek in and say hi to be cool. I wanted her to think I was cool,” laughed Pat.
“We lived in Ypsilanti and my cousins Anne and Polly had gone to Maqua five years earlier,” said Susie Utter (1954-56). “I was two years older than my sister, but we went together. For the first few years we went for two weeks, but that last summer I went four. I was not homesick, but my sister was. I was more gregarious and independent. It was interesting that I was much more outgoing at camp that I was at home. My sister and I had polio, and I can remember being at home, wearing those big brown shoes and having a hard time, plus I was overweight as a child.”
Relationships with sibings could go in either direction, either a blessing or a curse. For Pat O’Tool (1944-52), she admitted that everyone at camp noticed how she dominated her sister, so they separated them. “I think it was the best thing that ever happened. My sister developed her leadership skills and went on to become a C.P.A. and a leader in her own right at college. Dorothy Dickie was our director and she noticed that we were always in the same hut, but she also realized my sister had leadership qualities.”
Kathy Hall’s (1966-71) only sister Jennifer was in a different cabin and she was happy about that arrangement, as she liked to make new friends. “I was outgoing, but not sports driven. I just liked hanging out with people and kept in touch with many of the girls I met there for a long time, but lost touch. (I would still love to find my friend Jane Bowman,” said Kathy, who could still remember her friend’s address!
Carol Levine, sister of Lois, was also forced to go by her Mother, who was the bookkeeper of the YWCA, Beatrice Levine. “I went for three God-awful sessions in the summers of 1955-1957. I was lucky the first time to be assigned to a hut with girls from Washington School. One of the girl’s Moms was my Home Economics teacher and at least I had familiar faces in my hut. Ironically, I was in with the same girls every summer”, she said.
Her cousin Barbara Beerman was also sent to camp at the same time and disliked the experience as well, so cousin Barbara called home and her aunt and uncle (who were Carol’s parents) drove up to pick her up and left Carol there! “Because she was a niece, they took her”, said Carol, “ and I was so pissed.”
Did you attend camp with a cousin or sister?