Some of the girls who owned footlockers laughed as they told me they still owned theirs–a few holding Camp Maqua memorabilia.
Jane Miller had s shiny black one during her years in the late sixties and early seventies ”, and Amy Falk (1971-74) still has her red, white and blue one. Debbie Tweedie’s was light blue and sat at the end of her bunk from 1965-72.
Debbie Hawkins (1960) had a metal footlocker, which was bought just for camp. “It was a big deal to have that footlocker and I remember I had to buy two bathing suits because I swam every day.” Same year camper Anne Marxhausen was pretty sure her Mom packed her footlockers, filled with new clothes, “knowing my Mom, who loved to shop”.
“I laugh now when I think of packing for my camping and what he (my son) has packed for his. He is taking enough for the whole cabin! I had a footlocker and could fit my sleeping bag and pillow in besides my clothes. There is no room in his for either,” laughed seventies girl Karen Selby.
Carrie Norris (1972) was in a cabin with girl who came to Maqua with a footlocker filled with stuffed animals and food. “I have the feeling she came from a house that would equal one on the “Hoarders” television show, judging by the things in her footlocker,” she laughed.
Pat O’Tool (1944-52) is convinced camp taught her leadership qualities. “I was always an organizer and planner and I always packed my sister Nancy’s footlocker to go away because I was more organized. I can remember we had a long hallway in our house and packing those footlockers was always a big thing. Our bedrooms were upstairs and we would line our footlockers up and make piles.”
Karen Kaunitz packed hers with the help of her Mom in 1945 and Pat Rehmus (1962-65) could recall how her trunk sat at the foot of her bed packed with new shorts and bug spray.
“The footlockers were at the end of our beds, which we thought was a big deal to have, and we figured out very quickly to check our shoes, especially in the middle of the night. It did not take us long to realize that Daddy Long Legs liked to go in our shoes!” said Ilene Rogers from the late fifties.
“My Mom packed my footlocker for me and separated week one and week two’s set of clothes by newspapers, with the intent that I would wear the first week’s clothes and when they were dirty, I would go to the second level. Well I never made it to week two. We didn’t bathe much,” admitted Cara Prieskorn (1966-71). “There was always a footlocker competition. I had my Mom’s, which I thought was cool until I saw the black ones the other girls had. They were shiny like patent leather on top, but were crushed the first week with everyone climbing up to their bunks by standing on them. Mine, of course, lasted.”
Elaine Engibous remembered taking her footlocker (1961-63), “because a duffle bag just wasn’t going to get it”, and used it to hoist her tiny self up to the top bunk. “I know my Dad complained because there was a dent in the center of the footlocker when I came back home, but I couldn’t get up there.”
Seventies girl Anne Essau said, ”I know I had a footlocker, which seems ridiculous now. I never spent more than one week session and really a huge footlocker wasn’t necessary, but at the time I felt it WAS!”
Sisters Kayleen and Minette Jacques were in the same hut the first summer. “At the end of our bed was a wooden footlocker, which we still have at Mom’s house. My sister and I were in the same hut twice, so my Mom would divide the footlocker into half with her clothes on one side and mine on the other and wrote on the trunk Kady and Mimi,”said Mimi.” We were close as sisters, but don’t get me wrong we fought and I knew not to wrestle her because she was always stronger. I have a photo of us somewhere with the footlocker and sleeping bags. I loved having that footlocker.”
Who would have known that a footlocker would save the day for Val Van Laan (1965-70), who moved into a hut where many of the girls were already friends. “I guess they decided they didn’t like me. They asked me questions and thought I was a “know it all”. One of the questions was, what is the zip code of Kansas City? And I knew it. They could not believe I knew the answer and I laughed and said I read it on the side of the footlocker. Then they decided they liked me and we became friends.”
Janet Dixon (1951-52) had a plain old suitcase, but a cabin mate from Florida came in with a huge footlocker. Her mother had died and her father was wealthy, and they had sent her for the entire summer, so Janet decided she truly needed a large one for that length of time.
Then there were the girls who did not have a footlocker. Muriel Richert (1956), who came by bus from the “Y,” had “this ugly doctor bag for a suitcase made out of black leather. Everyone else had cute bags.”
Kathy Hall did not head off to camp in 1966 with one. “My parents were not campers. They sent my clothes in beer crates! The beer boxes held twenty-four long necks with either Pabst Blue Ribbon or Altes,” she laughed. “I loved painting them and packing them and they were easy to shove into the back of the car.”
Were you one of the girls with a suitcase, duffle bag, or boxes? Was it source of embarrassment or no big deal?