In The Right Place At The Right Time

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: Blog, Camp Envy, Maqua After Camp, Traditions

It was a cold winter in 1987 and our four children, who were all born in Florida, had never seen snow. The girls were 12 and 10 and the boys were 8 and 6, and they were excited about spending their vacation on the hundred year old Emery Farm. We suited them up in borrowed snow jackets, pants, mittens, boots and hats and headed north to find a foot of snow had just fallen. What could be better than a frozen pond on the property, with snowmobiles in the garage, a hill for tobogganing and friends we had met during the three summers of owning Wicker Hills Golf Course? Even our fabulous babysitter, Cathy Clark of Clark’s Berry Farm, took the kids ice-skating with skates found in local resale shops.

Our previous summer homes had consisted of a rental cabin in 1984 on Sage Lake, which was more rustic than rustic, but fun for the kids for fishing and swimming. The following summer we hauled up a 34 ft. brand new travel trailer and parked it behind the pro shop at the golf course, beside the practice green. The proximity was perfect for cherry and apple tree climbing and picking, earthworm hunting, golfing, and eating our meals at the course. The kids built a tree house and the size of our trailer was perfect for sleeping, so we had all that we needed. Until—our eldest and first born daughter grew to her full height at 5 ft. 10′ and could no longer fit on the fold out beds. Two sisters in one bed and two brothers in the other was no longer an ideal sleeping arrangement.

My husband wandered into the Schofield Real Estate office to say hello to some friends and exited with the plan to go see the lodge that Darlene and Frank Leiva insisted was a gem of a deal. So, after seeing this historical camp, he retrieved me and the kids for a peek and the rest is history. We had three days to get the money to the owners, who now lived in Georgia, and we had no money. We knew a banker in town who wanted the private waterfront parcel, so we sold it to him as the down payment and never worried about the missing piece, as we had lakefront rights through the association on the common area where the boathouse, craft hut and fire pit remained.

The lodge had already been remodeled into a dwelling with two separate living quarters under one roof. The west side had a loft, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen and two porches. It also had the big fireplace and the camp map. The east side had a loft, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a smaller kitchen and two porches. I was attracted to the camp library, filled with old books and the bathrooms with huge windows.

Our partners in the golf course in Hale happened to be my husband’s aunt and uncle from Texas. Aunt Blanche had summered on Sage Lake growing up and when she married Aaron, they would bring their three kids up to enjoy my husband’s family with eight kids on Sage Lake at the family compound of cabins owned by Blanche’s parents and my husband’s parents. What better way to enjoy what they had as children growing up than to recreate that family compound at Maqua?

The Starks family reside on the west side and the Baker family reside on the east side, but we own the entire building on fourteen acres together, which includes the camp-craft hut on the front lawn, and hut one adjacent to the west side where the entrance used to be. We have a door that goes between the two sides and all overflowing relatives can be housed in beds on either side when needed during big family gatherings. The floors still shake when the ping-pong games start up on either side!

The tennis court still exists, but needs repair and is unused. We still hike the horse trails on our communal 64 acres enjoyed by the ten association members. (The subdivision was parceled by Bob and Luanne Sukenik when they bought the camp in 1979. More to come about his story later.) The campfire pit still gets used all summer long, as do the six or seven remaining huts, used for adventurous guests. The camp craft hut is used as a shed for the lodge. The infirmary has been remodeled into a guest house by the owners, who built a new house on the other side of the path. The old house, Dutton, (once used for counselors, sick bay and nature hut), was taken down due to age and decay and replaced by a new log home. The boat house has been renovated and there are photos under “Camp Envy”, as well as the craft hut, which also is used by adventurous guests for camping. Chapel Hill still has a view, but a log cabin sits on that site. The two camp brownies are still in use—one has been converted into a garage for another log home and the one by the lake is in working order with one shower and two separate toilet facilities.

The summers with our families at Maqua have included the births of babies, five weddings, and even memorials for our lost loved ones. We have celebrated holidays with fanfare, potlucks with traditions, unending sunset boat cruises, loon and eagle sightings galore and memories that carry on the traditions that campers enjoyed. (Songs at campfires, marshmallow roasts, Fourth of July boat parades, kayaking, sailing, swimming and more.) I feel envy at never having camped here, but the stories from the staff and campers have made me feel like a part of their history and I am so delighted that my husband was the one who walked into that real estate office one winter day. It was meant to be. And thanks to all of you, your stories have helped me keep it alive!

With A Little Help—

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Cabin Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff, Friendships and Relationships

There were the introverts, the extroverts, those with friends, those who knew no-one, those who did not fit in and those who made themselves at home year after year at a camp that felt like their second home. The staff always tried their best to make the girls feel comfortable, understanding that homesickness and loneliness were a reality for many of the new girls. Event the older giris sometimes struggled, either as a camper or a staff member, to fit in.

“When a new batch of kids came in on Sunday night, I always wanted to put a name to a face, so by Monday morning I would have their names memorized, “said Nancy Sautter (1968-70). “I would walk around during dinner doing this. Of course, some years it was easier because they might return from the previous year. I remembered the confident girls, Jennifer McLogan, B.J. Henderson, Megan Topping and Jan Schreiber. They were all good kids. Jennifer, who always had an air of confidence, later became a broadcaster on t.v.”

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Friends at Home and Camp—

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Cabin Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff, Friendships and Relationships

“I loved camp and went every year until 1941,” said Edna Young,” and my Mom couldn’t understand why I liked it. Every year I stayed longer. I got so I stayed six weeks! I was an only child, so it was fine to be there with girls my own age. There were many girls from Bay City and we would all leave for camp from the Bay City Y.W.C.A. In those days camp was considered expensive. I had many friends who could not go, since it was the Depression, but I got acquainted with many girls from Pontiac, Detroit and Royal Oak. I was also friends with Natalie Seaholm, who was the adopted daughter of the Seaholm family for which the school in Birmingham is named.”

“I was an extrovert, and embodied the song “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, and I wanted to do everything I could possibly do at camp,” said Susan Bradford (1965). “I had just finished sixth grade and was a student leader and my Mom was a teacher. I had two brothers, one older and one younger. They all loved guns and hunting, so it was no big deal for me to pick up a gun at camp and learn riflery. I had friends who went to camp with me and I think I hung out more with people I knew, and I don’t remember any cliques—just the older girls shunned the younger ones to be cool and didn’t want to do any of the baby stuff,” she laughed.

Kerry Weber thinks she might have been one of the youngest girls to go to Camp Maqua in 1952, when her mother talked the powers-to-be into allowing her to attend. “I was seven and I wanted to go because some of my friends were going, but I ended up in a different cabin. I had no problems with homesickness, but some girls did. In fact, when they came to pick my up, I was down a the lake swimming and someone had dumped all my stuff outside the cabin, because the new girls were coming in.”

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Old Friends and New–

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Cabin Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff, Friendships and Relationships

Just the fact that Maggie (Karen Magidsohn 1965+) was at camp for eight years is a testimony to the love she had for her summers. “They were the best summers of my life,” she said. “I developed friendships with girls from school who also attended, but made new friends. Our family was never wealthy, and we would never have done all these activities at home. My parents had a membership at Atlas Valley in Grand Blanc, where I learned to swim. But, I was always the outdoors person.”

Judy Crissey (1954) recalled going to camp with her friend Jocelyn Meagher and said there were never any conflicts with any of the girls there. “We were all young girls —all away from home—hanging on to each other. There was no room for squabbling, just fun. I did have the personality that ran to the cabin on the first day to get the top bunk, though,” she laughed. “I made friends easily, but once we went home, those friendships ended quickly and I never kept in touch with anyone.”

“I do remember one incident as a camper where the younger girls had to dress up as girls and the older girls had to dress up as boys. The “guys” made corsages and had to ask us to dance and nobody chose me. I was ten or eleven and I got my feelings hurt over that one.”

Maggie Young was seven or eight years old when she first attended Camp Maqua in 1962 and did not return until she was twelve years old. It was her first time away from home and she attended with one of her neighbor’s granddaughter–-Beth Van Aacker. (She did two week sessions when she was older.)

“I was very shy, but I fit into the group okay. I was with an outgoing friend, which helped. I know I was on the bottom bunk and Beth was on the top. I’m surprised my parents sent me to camp, but maybe they thought it would break me out of my shell. I remember one girl was a major tomboy who was very pushy, but still nice. I loved the camaraderie. The buddy thing was more than just going into the lake with your buddy.”

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Were We A Clique?

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, Blog, Cabin Life, Friendships and Relationships

Were they a clique if they knew each other? Or were they just friends who happened to all want to go to camp together?  Ann Ward (1958-61), Barb Ballor, Rosemary Orgren, Renee Dean and Jan Haynes were known as the Linwood girls, along with a handful of others.

“I was fairly quiet until I got with my friends,” said Judy Rowden (1949). “Of course, everyone thought we were all a clique, and I suppose we were, but I’d like to think it was because we were all friends at school. We did go our separate ways and chose different activities, though.”

“Dodie” (Dorothy Niedzielski) and I went to camp in 1946 when we were fourteen years old and Ethel Feldman and Mary Lou Winn came in 1947,” said Pat Kula. “The four of us then went when we were in high school the following summer. It was the first time Dodie and I had been away from home without our family. We were social and fun. Dodie and I had taken swim lessons at Handy H.S. when we attended the YWCA Stay-at-Home camp. We had been friends since grade school! We four girls were the clique,” she admitted.

“I hung out in the cabin with friends (1946-47), but I made new friends,” said Dodie Niedzielski. “We were all older, and in fact we probably should have had jobs, but we hung out with the counselors that were our age.”

“One of the mothers in school gave a group of eight of us girls the name “The Dirty Eight” and we are still in touch to this day,” said Bev Lemanski (1945), who said she contacts them more than her college friends.

“The second year when Kady and I were in Hut 3, which was down the steps, all the girls except two were from our street. We called it “The Handy Drive Hut”, and in retrospect we probably ignored those two girls. I have a photo of us in Hut 3 and it probably wasn’t the best idea, even though our parents insisted. None of those girls were really “into” camp like we were, so I guess we were just weird, but it was good to go away and meet new girls, “said Minette Jacques, who camped in the mid-fifties.

Somewhere in the mid fifties, when Connie Cruey was in the fourth grade, she went off to Maqua with her friends Kerry Brown, Mary Obey, Carolyn Park and a few other classmates. “We all grew up together from kindergarten to twelfth grade,” said Connie. “Mary and I even went to the same college. My sister was two and half years younger and the first year she didn’t want to go, and then wanted to go home after she got there. But, we talked her into staying and she was the camper of the session!”

Katie Harris remembered the friends she attended Camp Maqua with in 1951—Elena Fulton, Susie McBride, Kathy Plum and Roberta Wright. Having her friends with her alleviated any homesickness she would have had being away at camp. She recalled one girl in her cabin from Flint, who did not come with friends and she reached out to her. She described herself as a happy, friendly young girl at aged ten, who willingly took part in all the activities.

Anne Schupak attended Camp Maqua for three or four complete summer sessions in the mid to late sixties. She and Sally Hurand were best friends from a tight- knit Jewish community in Flint, but were very competitive with each other. Her parents gave her freedom, but she loved the freedom that came at camp with her separation from her parents and two brothers at home.

“I liked who I was and although I needed them, once I was separated I was fine,” said Anne. “I was pretty full of myself and felt like my parents didn’t know anything. I was stubborn and selfish as a kid—insecure and overconfident at the same time. I was selective about my friends, but also competitive. I did make friends early at camp, but I was less cocky and the more insecure side of me came out at camp, although I knew so many of the girls already.One of my closest friends was B.J. Henderson, but we lost touch. I looked up to the older girls and I always felt like I was sixteen, even though I was ten,” she laughed.

Did you feel like there were cliques at camp?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Shadows–

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Cabin Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff, Friendships and Relationships

All of Helen McLogan’s sisters attended Camp Maqua, but she doesn’t remember if they camped at the same time. “I think of all of the four sisters,” said Helen (1954), “Jennifer had to be the one with the fondest and most memories of Maqua. I always felt like I was in her shadow. She was bigger than life and was one of the famous counselors with her name on the canoe paddles that hung on the mantle of the fireplace. She was charismatic and hilarious.”

Jeanne Kiltie’s parents sent her off to Camp Maqua and she was never homesick a day, maybe due to the fact her sister Susan was also there. One of the years, she stayed for seven weeks!

“I was shy and sensitive until people got to know me, unlike my sister who would be a AA+ compared to my B- in personality, in my opinion,” said Jeanne (1966-71). “One of the best things for me at camp was to get to know new people. I was always a team person, not a one on one type, so there were many team activities at camp and I enjoyed that. I loved that we were always busy and I was also the type that always had to have something to do. When I was a junior counselor, if there were homesick girls, I would take them for a walk and talk to them.”

Jennifer Fenton (1971-78) was not close to her sister Gigi, who was three years older and was at camp at the same time, and felt like she had been sent off and did not enjoy camp like Jennifer. Her sister was the type that liked to be in her room and Jennifer loved being outside. “I was a tomboy and my Mom always butchered my hair. In sixth grade, I looked like a boy. I was not one of the cute girls, but I got along with everyone.”

“I had one sister, Nancy, who had gone before me, but she was mean to me and my friends. My Mom was a lovely person, and I was an obedient daughter,” said Karen Kaunitz (1945), “but my sister was a different story. I remember the older campers, Nancy included, decided to give themselves a Mohawk haircut and shaved their heads right down the middle. There were a handful of them and they all were in the boathouse cabin.”

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