Eek! Snakes! Lizards!

Published on December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Accidents and Illnesses, Blog, Cabin Life, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

The girls either learned to have an appreciation for snakes or they left camp still hating them. Maureen Moore (1968-70) learned to appreciate snakes during her trips to the nature hut, but, some girls played with them at camp and later developed a fear, like Karen Magidsohn (1965) or Barb Krohn (1970-72), who just avoided the nature activities.

In Valerie Monto’s (1964-68) neighborhood, there were many empty lots that were not developed, filled with bees and garter snakes. “We were city kids, but not inexperienced with nature. I would pick up garter snakes by the tail and was not afraid. I remember one girl was so freaked out by even seeing them.”

Diane Dudley (1957-63) learned her lesson when she wanted to see what was down inside a log, so she stuck her hand in and came up with a snake bite, featuring three holes on her finger! Carla Wilhelm (1945-49) was taken by surprise when a garter snake bit her, because she had no idea snakes could bite!

Cindy Rose (1968-70) had a vivid memory of standing on a path at Maqua watching a snake eat a frog and that very same scene was a bad memory for Jan Mosier (1947-52). She watched a counselor feed frogs to the snakes and was horrified as the frog slithered down inside the snake’s body.

Strays and Pets—

Published on December 25, 2017December 20, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Accidents and Illnesses, Blog, Cabin Life, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

Chipmunks—those cute little critters that scamper around the camp like little adorable pets—but can create such damage! Randi Wynne-Parry was totally obsessed with them while she was camping 1969-73, and still owns her fuzzy, faded photos of the chipmunks she fed.

Chipmunks would find their way into the huts and create havoc. “One morning we went to breakfast and when we came back, our hut had been ransacked by a chipmunk! We couldn’t figure out how it got in and we couldn’t figure out how it got out, but it made a disaster! We were petrified,” said Brooke Sauve (1949-51), who is still afraid of animals to this day.

Sally Allen (1968-73) felt just the opposite. She loved the nature hut and all the critters. “We were able to get up close and personal with the chipmunks and squirrels. They were captured humanely and let go after two weeks,” she said of the snakes, frog and turtles.

“Those little guys sounded like a herd of elephants in the morning as they crunched the leaves, and we could not sleep through it,” said Carol Wahl (1974-75) of the chipmunks.

Of course, there were samples of nature that were not as large, but brought much interest to the girls. Nature itself was the classroom, as paper wasps’ nests and cocoons from moths and butterflies came under scrutiny, with the intent not to harm them or get stung in the process.

Tricia Sautter recalled a little camper in her second year (1969) who caught a baby bird and it was covered in lice. “When she brought it to the nature center, the whole place had to be fumigated by a company that sealed it up and set off a big “bug bomb”.

“The Farm”, by Brad Funk, was the title of an article in the “Loon” in the late seventies’. “Wednesday, the 6th of July, Maquois started a farm they hope to have finished by the end of the week. Our first animal to join the farm is a goat by the name of Billy. He is presently kept at the nature hut. We hope to have a pen for him at the old horse stable. Also, we hope to add some other kinds of animals, such as a bull calf, two ducks, one rabbit, one pig, two guinea pigs and a pony.”

Wild Things–

Published on December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Buildings and Property, Cabin Life, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

Aside from checking your shoes for Daddy Long Legs, swatting mosquitoes, ducking bees and wasps, hearing the Loons, observing fish and knowing a leech would find you at least once during your camping sessions, there were other wild things that were expected and some not so expected!

Zoe McGrath had been a member of the Bay City YWCA all through high school and loved going to camp from 1956-57. She loved the lake, Loons, canoeing, and camping with bedrolls at the Lumberman’s Monument, and later became the camp nurse in 1967. “One night I woke up in the middle of the night with an animal crawling all over me. It was either a porcupine or a raccoon.”

“There was a huge field on the right side of the camp with trees and fence by the water,” said Penny Mitchell (1951-54). “It was a wide-open property with cow patties all over it. There was a time between sessions, so our counselor had this idea that we should look for porcupine quills. We put potatoes on the end of sticks to protect ourselves if the porcupines came after us, but I think she was trying to keep us busy.”

The year Cynthia Gregory (1960-65) was in Senior Village, the girls did awake to cows that had wandered into camp from a nearby farm. “We were told not to leave, but we pulled the ropes open on the shutters to look out to see them all outside our hut,” she laughed.

Nancy Neumyer (1975-78) ran into skunks on the wilderness survival trip. Diane Dudley not only ran into a skunk, but it was a skunk of another color! “I always liked snakes and mice. When I was at camp walking back from cabin seven at night, I saw an albino skunk walk right in front of me. I ran to tell the counselors that I had seen a huge albino skunk and it was unmistakeable! Of course, they didn’t believe me until one of the counselors saw it.”

Camping With Critters

Published on December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Buildings and Property, Cabin Life, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

What would camping be without mosquitoes, spiders, frogs, and other creepy crawlies? There were numerous tales of bites and sightings that scared little girls to death, especially in the dark, as they walked to use the “Brownie”.

Marsha Immerman can still smell the “612” insect repellent from the forties’ and fifties’. Sisters Marcia and Kathleen Dworman used to count each other’s mosquito bites in the sixties’. “The mosquitoes bit me all night long, since my bed was right near the screen that had holes in it. I would hide under my sleeping bag, get hot, crawl out, get bit and then hide under it again,” said Kathleen.

“I was eaten alive by mosquitoes,” said Maggie Young, who camped in the sixties’and seventies’ and went home looking like she had chicken pox, since she could not leave them alone. Julie Richardson (1966-68) was allergic to them and would have welts all over her body, but it did not stop her from campfires.

Janet Gehres was the camp nurse in 1961 and felt bad when she led the girls into a swampy area playing hide and go seek. ‘We came back with mosquito bites all over our behinds!”

“We would play capture the flag in the woods and come out itching from poison Sumac. There were mosquito bites and earaches, but that never stopped us from loving the times there. I remember one year we all switched from “Off” to “Cutters” insect repellent. My frames and glasses melted when the Cutters spray got on it. I couldn’t see out of my lenses,” laughed Julie Bernard (1970-78).

There were mosquitoes everywhere and Carrie Norris (1972-73) said she went through so many cans of “Off” that she is quite sure the repellent has caused damage to her. And she was not wild about the spiders, either—nor were many girls!

Andrea Gale (1970-74) admitted she had a deathly fear of spiders and would scream when the Daddy Longlegs were in her cabin. She was not one of the girls to venture out in the middle of the night, for fear of finding them, but she remembered the counselor accompanying the brave girls by flashlight.

Nature Directors 1970-71

Published on December 13, 2017December 11, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1960's, 1970's, Activities and Sports, Blog, Buildings and Property, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

When Joan McKinney arrived in 1970, she took an inventory of the nature hut (Dutton) and its equipment, cleaned it and readied during her pre-camp. She described the surroundings as central to all the cabins and by the water, with a front screened-in porch that faced the water. She kept her reptiles and amphibians there, plus the two bird’s nests to be observed. (Phoebe and Robin)

The main room held sixteen to twenty people or two cabins, blackboard, large work room cabinet to store chemicals and paints, bulletin boards, shelves, racks, tools. equipment, chairs and tables. A small back room held a toilet and an unplugged cooler. The second floor was sleeping quarters for unattached staff. She had a little diagram, which indicated a sink in the workroom that faced the road, and “Dorthe’s Island” to the right of Dutton, which was an outdoor nature terrarium that had been built three summers previously.

Joan’s bulletin boards featured “Animals Around Us” with photos of reptiles, birds and mammals and specimens and explanations of pressed leaves and photos of trees. She conducted nature contests each session, tree identification of twenty-five trees, and competitions between the cabins. Her prizes included penny candy and nature ribbons at the closing ceremonies.

There was also a boa constrictor, mice and a Blanding turtle that Joan brought with her, which the campers cared for over the summer, as well as a painted turtle found at camp. Her father had made a poster on wild flowers entitled “Let them live in your eyes, not die in your hand”, which she thought was appropriate since many of the campers decorated their wishing boats with flowers at the end of the session. Other posters pertained to Smokey the Bear, poison ivy and poison sumac. An assistant was on hand from the first week and they worked together on scheduling lessons and rainy day activities.

Nature Director-1968

Published on December 11, 2017December 5, 2017 by Kathy Baker Category: 1960's, 1970's, Activities and Sports, Blog, Buildings and Property, Camping Life, Directors, Counselors, Staff

Audrey Delcourt was a first-year biology major at Albion College in 1968 and had a few classes in her field when she was hired as the Nature Director. She had relatives in northern Michigan, and had often gone up to Oscoda. She saw the sign as she passed through Hale, and her Mom wrote the camp name down. The director came to her house to interview her and that was the beginning of her north woods adventure!

There were no notes left for her to follow, despite the camp having always had a nature studies program. Audrey made charts and used her own interests and knowledge for the program. There were scavenger hunts, where the girls would run around and find plants on lists, including “Lady Slippers”. “They don’t grow everywhere,” she said, “so I told the girls not to pick them.”

Dissection was also on her program and she believed the girls thought it was fascinating. One of the maintenance staff secured a cow’s head and they dissected the eyeballs. There was also an outdoor site, which was a moat with a little island on the side of the nature cabin.

The second year, Audrey came in as the assistant cook, hoping to try something a little different. “It looked more like perseverance. I got up early for this job. I burned my fingers a few times and decided I needed to change my attitude,” she said. “Then I had fun. Before my attitude change it was just work. I remember bringing my plant press into the kitchen because I needed a heat source to dry my plants. I used a shelf over the huge stove.” (Audrey’s explanation for this fascination was the recent plant course she had at college.)

Audrey received excellent ratings from Dorthe. “Nature went very well this summer. I felt Audrey worked very hard and had planned some new interesting activities for the campers. A great deal of hard work went into the completion of the island started last year. The Nature part of Dutton was always neat and clean at all times and it was a pleasure to visit her classes and observe her in action. She was an asset in many ways to our staff.”

“Audrey was new to Maqua but right right into the spirit of Maqua. She was always interested in the campers and was most effective with them. She ran a good program in Nature and had a variety of activities. She was always on the job and most mature in the way she assumed her responsibilities. She could be called on for extra duty or to help out in the kitchen and she was always a willing worker. She was liked by her co-workers and was indeed an asset to our staff. I found her most cooperative.”

Girls of Camp Maqua

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