KINGSWOOD FOR LIFE

“Photo Stories”

Issue One, April 2018

For the past several weeks, I (Mr. Wiff) have been pounding social media and  “reverse address search” programs to relocate as many old-time Kingswood campers and counselors as I can.  So many of you have been very kind to respond to my request for emails and postal address lists.  I cite several hundred discoveries so far!

First of all it is just fun to reconnect with former campers who made up the “first generation” of the Wipfler Kingswood.  Starting in 1985, we now celebrate our 34th summer at the helm this coming summer.  Indeed, the second generation has commenced with Rob Wipfler being full-time director, operating out of his home office in Lyme, New Hampshire — just a short drive from camp.

All the rest of the Wiff’s are fully engaged in the operation and will not miss a minute of camp once again.  Alice and I are not “retired” so it is difficult to give us a title.  I prefer “Kingswood World View Ambassador” and it is towards this objective that I launch today the first installation of KFL “Photo Stories.”

Over time, I hope to relate the Anecdotal History of Kingswood.  It is a terrific story and hilarious in many regards.  Enjoy these installations — offered whenever I feel up to it — and please do send me your favorite camp memories, even if they are somewhat sketchy.  I’ll research them for you. Bob@kingswoodcamp.com

 

First of all, let’s give credit where credit is due.  Steve Beggs, at left with Mac Wilson and Todd Sabiston, deserves full credit for the name of our alumni association — Kingswood For Life.  Steve was a teacher at the Hill School in Middleburg, Virginia with Rob Wiff, Mike Wiff and Scott Shupe.  They instantly realized that here was a character who would add tons of energy to camp.  Correct!

Steve was the morning inspector for a couple of summers and called himself “The Hammer.”  His signature mannerism was to pound his right fist into his left palm while urging boys to clean up messes.  Not that he was that tidy or disciplined himself.  One hot night, he woke up the entire camp while driving the camp truck down the hill to the waterfront to take a midnight dip in the lake.  A serious hiker of mountains, his standard line to his charges was “Come oooooon.”

Later, as head coach in Bow & Arrow, he concealed himself in a hole beneath the council fire ashes, and suddenly popped out of the ground as a pirate.  Here is that history:

This famous photo was taken in October, 1984, the year before we first opened in 1985.  Here is a link to my Monday Blues Buster report from 2017 on this subject.  /reports/kingswood-history-1984/

Our cook that first summer, 1985, was Bob Edwards of Syracuse, NY.  His “bit” was to walk into the dining room while brandishing a meat cleaver.  “Do you like the food, boys?”  When they answered in the affirmative, he said, “I thought so.”  The food was pretty good that first year, I might add. Bob, Danny Starr, Mitchell Golden and Charlie von Simson

Bob’s wife, Irene, was known as “The White Tornado.”  Pic above is not a bad corroboration, eh?

There will be photos from all the eras, in no particular chronology.  Here I am with General Wesley, “Duff” Rice, my mentor in the early 90’s.  This old Marine is alive and well, while into his 80’s.  He and Bebe live in a retirement community in Northern Virginia made up mostly of service folks.  Duff still plays tennis and water volleyball, sports that he insists allow him to stand there and appear to be participating.  One time, when we were going through the camp re-certification process, Duff bragged that every minute detail had been taken care of.  One of the visiting scorers walked into Hilly 1 and immediately detected a missing smoke detector.  “It’s right there,” said Duff, pointing without looking at the ceiling fixture.  Nothing.  “I just checked it one hour ago,” pleaded the exasperated general.  Seconds later, in walks maintenance man Wayne Houde with the smoke device in his hand.  (“He he”, the way Wayne laughed.)  There have got to be loads of Duff stories to add to this one.  Yours please…

From Doug Crowe:  

Other great Duff story was parents day when the Mom asked his experience with boys camps ? He replied, “I ran a boys camp in CA.”   “How many campers did you have ?”  “Around 30,000.”  (Editor’s note:  Duff was commander of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD “Boot Camp”) in San Diego at one point in his distinguished career.)

 

“Mr. Wiff is going crazy” is the language used whenever I grab a fistful of $5 bills and take a seat behind one of the frisbee golf poles for one of my hole-in-one giveaways.  Here Nick Scrivens cashes in on my largesse.  A guy can get hurt in this game, as frisbees tend to fly all at once and in all directions.  The very first time we did this promotion, I announced no time limit on the difficult “signature hole,” number 7, from Echo Rock down the hill to the post next to the old Guides Lodge (now the Wipfler cottage) next to the lake.  One Tyler Mazey, still quite young, perhaps 11 or 12, must have walked up and down that hill 100 times with a lone purple disk that fell agonizingly short in every single toss.  When darkness descended, Tyler got his flashlight to illuminate the scene.  I remember observing him from a perch by my cottage window.

I’ll conclude each issue of “Photo Stories” with a plea to the readership to comment on photos like this one and the next.  Is this a Bow & Arrow introduction, or something more sinister?

And, what in the heck is going on here?

See what I mean?  The Anecdotal History of Kingswood is a story screaming to be told!