I Was That Girl—

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

I was the nerd, the pale, buck-toothed, self-conscious, freckle-faced redhead, who befriended another little red-headed camper named Lillian, whose Mom was a cook and a single Mom at a time when single Moms were uncommon. (Ann Meisel 1962-66

I was the little girl, who had a wake-up moment at camp, when the third-grade girls thought I bragged too much about my archery. While pretending to be asleep, they talked about me and my friend Heidi Dean stuck up for me, insisting I was a nice person, which cause me to love her and become humble at that moment. (Debbie Tweedie (1965-72).

I was the middle child between two brothers who felt like staying in the cabins was a wonderful experience because it was like a slumber party all the time. (Pat Purcell, fifties).

I was the camper who came back a second year, but was more homesick than the first and was saved by my counselor Mary Jane Keschman and two weeks with horses. (Judy Crissey 1954+).

We were those girls who came to camp and found friendships that allowed us to be ourselves.

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Forming Bonds Beyond Home–

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

“I am the only girl with three brothers (and a half sister) in my family and my Dad had just passed away in 1969 when I was seven and he died at home,” said Andrea Gale.” We had lived in Caro, but moved to Bay City. I had just moved and didn’t know anyone. It was a difficult time. My Mom probably wanted to get rid of me for a few weeks because I was a bored and a whiney crybaby when she sent me to camp in 1970.”

“I was shy, introverted and sometimes belligerent. I felt painfully alone. My life had changed with my Dad gone. I didn’t open up. I think camp helped me assimilate even though I was a little homesick at first, then not too much after that. I wasn’t forced to go, but I didn’t really want to be with other girls in bunk beds in a cabin. When I went the following year I felt like a veteran.”

“Camp help to socialize me. My Mom remarried a year and a half later, which made it even harder for me. Camp started me with girlfriends and forced me to be with them more than recess breaks at school. I did love the camaraderie and friendships. It was huge for me in terms of socializing.”

“I developed some sharp skills of sarcasm and found a sense of humor, although for some of my targets, I might have been mean when I finally spoke up. Those were my insecurities showing up. I took a lot of solace and shelter in the kind and helpful counselors at Camp Maqua. I’m sure I had quite a bit of social anxiety during that first summer. I was there to make friends and be entertained,” said Andrea, who does not recall many of the activities she may have tried during the three years she attended.

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Four Girls Find Friendship–

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

“My first summer in 1965, I was seven years old and I was in cabin one for two weeks’” said Karen Magidsohn. “Every year after that I would sign up for two weeks, but half way through the session I would call and beg to stay for two more. I can close my eyes and still picture myself begging my parents to stay. The phone booth was a massive dark wood booth with folding doors and the phone was on the wall on a little shelf. Finally, my parents just started signing me up for the whole summer.”

“I continued every summer until I became a kitchen aid at fifteen with Pam Hartz, Katie Ayles, and Jen Woodward.  It was 1973 and I was supposed to take driver’s training that summer. The pay for kitchen aid was $100 and that is what I used to take my driver’s class. Pam and I were in the same class and stayed friends our whole life. I can still remember “Beanie” coming to my house to interview me for the kitchen aid job.”

Maggie was from Flint and said she was part of the contingency of little Jewish girls who loved going to Camp Maqua. “That was our life growing up. Going to camp’” she said. “We were either related or we were friends or our parents were friends, and after camp we all kept in touch for awhile.”

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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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