Escaping Home–

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Off to Camp Maqua

IMG_0643_2A great many girls found camp to be their escape and distraction from their tumultuous lives at home. Dawn Kober’s father had just remarried a woman she was not fond of, so her grandmother brought her to and from camp in 1977 with her friend Kelly Kirk.

“It was totally foreign to me”, said Elaine Engibous, who had her first exposure to girls who came from divorced families in 1961 and described girls who were there for the entire summer to escape the situations at home.

Anne Duffield (1947-50) attended with her stepsister from their blended family with a lot of illness. “I was glad to be away. It was an escape for me. At home all we had was vacant lots near our home where we played football, baseball and built tree houses.”

There were three kids in Cindy Raposa’s “dysfunctional family” and as the middle child she could not wait to get away from the fighting. “Camp was such a stable place for me. You got up in the morning, you did this and that and there was freedom there. I always considered myself so fortunate to get away.”

“Camp Maqua was like a dream to me”, said Brooke Sauve, who remembered her days from 1949-51 with her friend Linda. “At that time it was unusual for anyone to be divorced, but her Mom was, so she stayed for six weeks while her Mom worked.”

Sally Allen’s parents were also divorced just before she left for camp in 1968. It was also like a dream for Sally. “My house was in a huge upheaval and allowed me to be a little girl again. I was like a wallflower as a child, and I didn’t stir the pot. I was quiet but I had fun with my friends. Later, I became an extrovert, long after camp”, she said, describing the love for Maqua, where she could get dirty.

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Camp As A Life Adjustment

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Off to Camp Maqua

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Many families sent their daughters off to camp during or after moving to the area to make new friends before school started. Marcia Kessler (1959-61) remembered her friend Buffy, who had just moved. Had she met her at school and not at camp, she still would have been an instant friend, she admitted.

For Priscilla (1968) and Amy Johns,their family had been transferred back to Michigan from New York the summer before. “Cilla” went with two friends, Evelyn Biggs and Doris Engibous, and loved it from the beginning, happy to get away from a less than peaceful household. The parents had decided that camp would be a great way to acclimate the two sisters to the move. The sisters had travelled a great deal with family, were very independent and begged to stay extra sessions. “I never looked back”, said Amy, who continued every summer until 1978 between her freshman and sophomore years of college. “It was easier than getting a real job during the summer.”

Kathleen Clement’s family moved to Bay City when she was nine, shortly after her parent’s separation. They lived with her elderly grandfather at the time, and helped to care for him after multiple strokes. “When I got to camp, it was like Heaven! I was never shy and I didn’t want to come home. When my Mom came up on visitor’s day, I hounded her to stay another week, so I finagled three weeks and was happy. I was always good at begging. I don’t know how he afforded it because he had a greenhouse and lost it, but it was the only thing I got to do. I only went the two summers of 1961-62 at aged eleven and twelve, since I helped to take care of my grandfather.”

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Where The Girls Are–

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Off to Camp Maqua

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Girls who came from homes as an only child, homes with all boys or even a house filled with children—the reasons were varied as to why campers loved being with all girls for an extended period of time.

Elaine Levinsohn spent three wonderful summers from 1927-1930 and loved being away from home. She had one brother and no sisters, and like many of the girls camp was appealing because she could be around other girls her age.

“I was the only girl out of four kids in my family,” said Sarah Smith, whose mother Joyce was President of the YWCA board and main fundraiser in the seventies. Her mother had attended Holyoke, which was an all girls’ college, and had valued those friendships. “She sent me on purpose to an all girls camp, so I would understand the world was not all about men!”

Beverley Schlatter (1944) spent four summers there. Her friends had gone and she begged her parents to go. “I had never been away from home and I was an only child, which was a lonely life, since I really had no one to play with. Many of my friends tried to go at the same time as I did, and I begged to go back after my two weeks there.”

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It’s A Tradition!

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Blog, Off to Camp Maqua, Traditions

girls in front of cabin

Some of the girls were dropped off at camp and loved “being free and away from home”, said Carolyn Stanton, who spent glorious years during the late forties and fifties when her parents took their vacation in July. Debi Gottlieb’s parents had a cottage in Tawas, so they would drop her off and go to their cottage in the sixties.

Beverley Schlatter’s parents vacationed at a Sand Lake rental, but would stay on after camp sessions so Bev could bring a friend. Kathy Krohn’s family had a cabin on Point Lookout near Au Gres, where she spent time with other Bay City families who told her family about Maqua.

But for the hundreds of girls heading off to Camp Maqua, it was a genuine tradition in their family. Their grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and siblings had gone and the younger ones counted the years until they could also carry on the rituals, driving north with their families as their siblings were dropped off and picked up. They knew the songs from the car rides, they had seen the photos, heard the stories and now it was their turn!

For Sue Michelson’s family it was just that. Her mother and sisters had all camped there and she bunked alongside girls whose mothers had camped with her Mom! “Do you know what it was like to go there and see my mother’s name written in toothpaste on the ceiling of one of the huts?”

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Kathy’s Musings: Memorial garden and Dorthe’s bench

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: Blog, Buildings and Property, Directors, Counselors, Staff

Dorthe'sMemorialBenchThe wedding arch sits beautifully over Dorthe Balaskas‘  Memorial bench, next to Sandy’s Memorial garden. The garden originally housed the band shell at one time, which no longer exists. Sandy West, Maqua resident, passed away a few summers ago and chimes were donated in her memory. The flowers and ornamental trees are part of the remembrance garden for our loved ones who pass away, which began with Sandy’s plantings.

The arch was made by Kim Gorman, Maqua resident, who fashioned the arch for Kyle and Liz Baker‘s wedding from fallen birch wood. Four other Maqua offspring have married at Maqua, including Brooke and Gage Beauchemin, Ryan and Cara West,and Chris and Lisa LaGerould.

The bench was donated by many ex-campers in memory of Dorthe Balaskas—revered director of camp from 1963-69. It overlooks the lake and campfire pit to the west of the boathouse.

Our group of ten owners take pride in the shared property, which consists of hiking trails, communal beachfront, craft hut, campfire pit and boathouse. Many potlucks, celebrations and campfires have created ongoing memories in this spot.

 

Why Should I Go?

Published on by Kathy Baker Category: 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, Blog, Off to Camp Maqua

2014-09-15 10.32.20Who could have guessed a movie would have such impact on the camping industry, but “The Parent Trap” (released in 1961) starring Hayley Mills as a set of twins, was a preview of a sleep away camp for sixties campers Mary Grego, and sisters Cathy and Debbie Hawkins, who felt the movie prepared them for Camp Maqua in a happy, positive way.

For many of the girls, this camp was THE camp everyone had heard of and “the expected thing to do”, according to twenties camper Mary Jo Stegall. Even Anne Obey, camper and later a counselor in the sixties, felt like it was a tradition, especially for families who had relatives who had previously attended. “While some were being sent of to those rich uppity camps, we middle class folk went to Maqua.”

Carol Requadt (1945) did not have a best friend and although she was on the shy side, making new friends at camp never seemed to be an issue. “I felt like school was boring, the summers were boring and camp was an exciting place to be!”

Parents who wanted their girls to escape the city and broaden their horizons looked at camp as an ideal solution. Ilene Roger’s family wanted her out in the country for fresh air. Sisters Marge and Helen Hasty, whose father was the camp doctor in the forties, were from the small town of Whittemore, only miles up the road. They found the experience a way to “meet peers at a different level”.

Jan Mosier’s father was also a physician (Dr. Dwight Mosier-General Practitioner), who enlisted as a doctor during World War II, and was gone a good deal of the time. Her mother didn’t drive, but she wanted Jan to have the camp experiences, so she wisely signed her up for a stay at home camp in 1946, which led to her full camping days.

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