We are following the lead of several communities here in the Upper Valley by postponing part of our July 4 celebration due to what amounts to a misty day. A general improvement is expected so that tonight after dinner we can do the evening portion of our big day while saving the remainder of the festivities until tomorrow, when much better weather is forecast.
I did not see any disappointment in boys’ faces this morning at breakfast. Many of them probably do not even know today’s date and are happy to go with the flow, whatever that entails once we get rolling. Seriously, when one thinks about it, he can argue that every day is a July 4th of sorts here at Kingswood. Boys have a great deal of freedom within the boundaries of our simple rules and regulations. We set up our program so that they nearly always have choices in each time block. Plus, we care about the quality of the summer for all the campers, not just a select few of favorites.
However, I must tell you that very quietly on the side, the staff has been planning quite the brouhaha for tonight and tomorrow. I am personally involved in a zany horse race card featuring four relay races involving mixtures of older and younger campers. Each heat will be a match race between two groups of six, running laps back and forth across Mem Field. Promoted as Paul Revere’s wild ride to warn the colonists of the arrival of the British, our British staff will try to disrupt the proceedings. That’s enough for now, but maybe we will post a special photo album later on this evening. Note the “maybe” but do check in after dark.
The photo albums posted already today reveal some really good clinics. I walked around just to see how the counselors were handling such lessons as putting up tents, rugby, guitar, chess and boxing, to name a few of the offerings. I was proud of the good teaching going on as the lead clinicians were well prepared with lesson plans and nobody was standing around being bored while standing in a line awaiting his chance!
In Sara’s album, towards the end, you can see some soccer being played on the tennis courts. That ball is a heavier version of a regular soccer ball and the game is called futsol which requires cleverly designed ground passes. Her very last pix revealed the outcome of Des’s boat-building clinic and you can see that some of the craft actually floated.
In my album, you can see the current posts on the bulletin boards beneath the Dining Room. Inspection grades get the most “Buzz” and I will tell you more about this in another report.
And, as per the title of this blog, it must have felt like July 4 to quite the number of boys lucky enough to be at this place at this time.