Songs from the Vista Vault!

If you’ve ever been a camper or counselor at Rio Vista or Sierra Vista, you know what the Vista Spirit is all about!

♫♪ The Rio Vista Spirit, it is the best! ♪ ♫

and…

♪♫ Sierra Vista, we got it all, HEY! ♪♫

But if you’ve been here for a long time, you also know “The Cat Came Back… the very next day…” and “Country Roads, take me home….”

A sweet and long-time friend just sent me 21 Pages of Vista History! I’m going to post some songs on here for you to enjoy and will post more later. Some of you will have to get some tissue, because you’ll be swept back in time… to a place where the Guadalupe was your swimming pool and Sundays meant Becky’s famous cinnamon rolls for breakfast and fried chicken for lunch! Where you felt like you were “home” in the middle of the beautiful Texas Hill Country with your 2nd family.. your Vista family! I can still remember singing some of these songs in the dining hall. I remember some of my HEROS leading the songs from the front (Susan Bernstein and Megan Ross!!) and feeling like I was on top of the world when they would grab me by the hand to have me help lead with them. It’s amazing to now be able to see the older campers loving and encouraging the young’ns the way those heroes of mine did. They have no idea what an impact they have on those precious Fort and Hawks campers. It melts my heart. MAN, I love camp! Okay, so enough about that… here are a couple Vista Oldies! Enjoy!

The Cat Came Back
Old Mr. Johnson had troubles of his own
He had an old yellow cat that wouldn’t leave home
And he tried and he tried to give the cat away
So he gave it to a man who lived far away
But the cat came back the very next day
Yeah the cat came back
You know we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
And he just wouldn’t stay away
So he sold him to a man who lived in LA
And he put him out to play on a busy freeway
And cars swerved to the left and the swerved to the right
And forty-seven cars piled up that night
But the cat came back the very next day
Yeah the cat came back
You know we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
And he just wouldn’t stay away
So he sold him to a boy for a ten dollar note
And he took him to the river in his little paddleboat
And he tied him to a rock that must’ve weighed ten pounds
Next day they dragged the river for a boy who’d drowned
But the cat came back the very next day
Yeah the cat came back
You know we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
And he just wouldn’t stay away
So he sold him to the butcher who lived down the street
And he put him in his grinder to grind him up for meat
And he ground and he ground ‘til he heard a terrible shriek
And all the meat in town tasted furry for a week
But the cat came back the very next day
Yeah the cat came back
You know we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
And he just wouldn’t stay away

Sardines
Sardines, yeah
And pork and beans, yeah
I had a friend, yeah
Who’s in the pen, yeah
And what’d he’d do, yeah
Nobody knew, yeah
And on the roof, yeah
100 proof, yeah
And on the table, yeah
Black Label, yeah
And all you need, yeah
Is sardines, yeah
AND PORK AND BEANS, yeah
And Coca-Cola, yeah
And Grape Soda, nooooooooooooo