“Our family was Catholic and I remember when my parents made arrangements to send my sister to camp (1962) some of their friends worried that she would be “indoctrinated”, said Sue Augustyniak . “They had not started bringing the girls into town to the Catholic Church yet, so she went to the lovely interdenominational service and loved the singing and thought it was better than church. When I went, they would drive us into Hale to mass.”
Sharon Wilcox (1949+) said the Sunday rituals at Camp Maqua remain clear—whites placed at the end of the Catholic girls’ beds, so the counselors knew who to wake up for church—and off they went in a pickup truck, with those left behind marching up Chapel Hill for their service.
Anne Obey (1960-70) agreed that if you were Catholic, you did not get to sleep in on Sunday. She and her sister Mary Obey were raised strict Catholic. “That was the first thing my parents asked when they decided to send us to Camp Maqua—whether we could attend mass on Sundays. Off to the Catholic church we went in the Maqua “Woody” each Sunday,” said Mary.
Mary Grego (1960), Brooke Sauve (1949-51), Barb Ballor (1951-55), Maureen Moore (1968-70), Ruth Wiesen (1957-59) and Cynthia Behan (1945) all remembered bring crammed into the pickup truck or station wagon to go to mass, sometimes in a dress. Many of them wish they could go back in time to experience Chapel Hill.
“I was one of the Catholic girls that sometimes took the girls to church in town, but then other times we would go to Chapel Hill. Sometimes I take the time now, pause and try to figure out how to acknowledge the spirituality of those twenty-one year olds back then,” said Ann Carney (1968-72). (No political correctness or worrying about including or excluding anyone.)
“There never seemed to be any prejudices or discrimination at Maqua, but on Sundays there were distinctions, “said Laurie Cone (1962-68). “The Catholic girls would ride into town for mass with those little triangles on their head and the rest of the girls would walk up to Chapel Hill in a single file. There was to be no talking, and if there was, the counselors would turn around and glare at you. Beanie and Dorthe directed most of the services and they were inspirational, not really religious,There was so much serenity on that hill when we sang. The view of the lake was spectacular, and the sound of the trees and birds was so serene. If it was raining, we had to have the services in the lodge.”
“I was Catholic, so of course we had to go to church,” said Pat O’Tool (1944-52). “The nurse, Sue Parrish, took us in her car and it had a trolley bell on the floor as a joke. We went to St. James in Whittemore and sang hymns, which was a new thing to me, and on the way home I was banging on that trolley bell all through Hale, waking the whole town up.”
“It was wonderful to be with girls of all faiths and even if you were not Catholic, you could pile in to attend mass at the Catholic Church in town, “said Amy Falvey (1969-78). “Even some of the Jewish girls went, so they could find out what it was like! We liked Chapel Hill, but I had my first trip to the Catholic Church while I was there. It was great not to feel pigeon-holed about anything at camp,” said Amy. “Camp was freeing and we were so independent.”
Brooke Sauve remembered getting in trouble for laughing in church, when one of the older girls told on her, but Shelley Harris (1965-75) decided, even though she was Jewish, she would try out a mass, just to see how it was. She went in between sessions with one of her friends. “She invited me to take communion because the give you wafers. I declined. I wonder, would that have made me Catholic?” asked Shelley.
Were you one of the Catholic girls that went to mass? Did you ever feel like you missed out on the Chapel Hill experience?