Greetings to all the Wipfer clan!

With the warm weather finally approaching, my thoughts drifted back to days at Kingswood and so I felt compelled to send you all a short note.

Quick recap on the last ten years, I finished up at UVa in 2005 and headed to NY to dive into the banking business (like so many others…) and have generally been here since. After getting married last year (down in Fairhope, AL), my wife and I are looking at our next stop after NY and may find our way back to DC soon enough. In fact, if I find myself with some extra time this summer, I’ll be sure to find my way up Kingswood’s way for a visit (though I keep suggesting to my wife that I’ll might take up my waterski instruction career full-time!)

During my bow and arrow coaching days, while driving through the backroads around Kingswood, I would find often find myself “adlibbing” new lyrics to songs on the radio for Songfest ideas. In fact, I recall a drive Brian Hennessey and I took back from Hanover in which this was about all we did. Well, funnily enough, to this day, I still find myself doing the same thing when listening to music (at the gym, riding the subway, walking to work, etc) and I’ve had a particular song in my for some time that I thought I’d pass along to you. It’s set to Hank Williams Jr’s “If Heaven Ain’t a lot like Dixie.” (hear it here: http://youtu.be/dnjlJZ1yo8g)  I took a crack at new lyrics and can probably come up with a few better ones, but nonetheless here they are. Maybe these can find their way to campfire this summer or perhaps one of the bow and arrow coaches!

“IF HEAVEN AIN’T A LOT LIKE KINGSWOOD”

If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I don’t wanna go
If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I’d just as soon stay home

I am one of the chosen few to be a man at Kingswood Camp,
I’m just alike my daddy’s son, I’m proud of who I am.
I went to a lot of good clinics, and shook old Wipfler’s hand,
If I never see the pearly gates, I’ve sailed across Tarleton!

If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I don’t wanna go,
If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I’d just as soon stay home.
If they don’t have an ice cream clinic, like they do with Jimmy Lee,
Just send me to hell or Walt Whitman, it would be about the same to me!

We’ve got wild JCs and crazy counselors, runnin’ around the camp,
And the arrows will soon fight the bows, and I’ll be happy right where I’m at.
And all these Merriwood camper belles are a Kingswood man’s dream,
They ain’t got wings or halos, but they’re sure looking good to me.

If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I don’t wanna go
If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I’d just as soon stay home
If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I don’t wanna go
If heaven ain’t a lot like Kingswood, I’d just as soon stay home
If they don’t have an Ice Cream clinic, like they do with Jimmy Lee,
just send me to hell or Walt Whitman, it would be about the same to me!