Mowglis Memories: Ep 104 Jim Kingsley: Turning Points and Traditions at Mowglis

Ep 104 Jim Kingsley: Turning Points and Traditions at Mowglis

Podcast Link: https://feeds.podetize.com/vIUN2HITt.mp3

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/_fh49whkw-o

Jim Kingsley is a Mowglis enigma. While there is no doubt that he is a Mowglis man through and through his presence at Mowglis came in fits and starts. Few of us can say that we were there from the start . . . not the camp's start, but our own. Jim Was.

Chapel of the Woods, Camp Mowglis

Jims dad Darwin P Kingsley was assistant Director at Mowglis under the Colonel after World War II and when the Colonel finally decided to sell Mowglis (it was a privately owned company back then) Colonel turned to Jim's dad.

Jim describes playing on the rocks outside of the Jungle House as a toddler as if he was in the "Valley of Giant Boulders"

Milestones are kind of his thing when it comes to Mowglis, beginning with Colonel Elwell selling Mowglis to his dad, a reverent passing of the torch; then his father's traumatic decision choosing between the life of a camp director and a career in more traditional education. Finally, Jim witnesses the transition from private company to the Holt Elwell Memorial Foundation - securing Mowglis future.

But Jim was witness to more than the milestones, he was also a keen observer of Mowglis traditions and he remembers them with an acuity that is remarkable. They are the stuff of future Mowglis Trivia quizzes - What exactly was the "mines report?", and, perhaps even the story of a patent opportunity missed - when porchball games built in the Mowglis Craftshop - became the "invention" of someone else: Fooseball.

Mowglis in the Clouds
Signed Originals Unsigned Open Edition Prints

He foldly recalls learning to play Cricket with Mr. Farouqi and following Mr. John Harmon the Tripmaster on the trail.

His sons Julian and Owen are both Mowglis men blazing their own trails these days.

Today he lives in Portland Maine.

Jim Kingsley -

JKINGSLEY(at) maine.rr.com

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