Chapter Sixteen - Scouting

Chapter Sixteen
Scouting

Both dad and mom were very active and supporting of Gary’s and my activities in the scouting program. I started in the Cub Scouts. Mom was a Den Mother and dad was a Cub Master. What stands out in my memories of my Cub Scout days were the den meetings at our home. We mostly did different kinds of handicrafts. One activity that I remember was making bowls or other decorative items out of the center metal disc of the radio stations radio programs. At that time Hollywood or New York would transcribe on to huge 13” to 15” records the popular radio shows and distribute them to radio stations all over America. Mom got from our local station, WBIW, several of these discarded discs. I don’t remember how, but we strip the vinyl off the metal discs and then shaped and painted them to make our decorative items. I was in my Picasso era at the time; my picture was kind of weird and symbolic.

As I got older I progressed from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and dad progressed from Cub Scout Master to a Boy Scout Master. Some of the things I remember about scouting are the Valley Forge Jamboree, camping and scout camp. In 1950 I was fortunate to be able to go back to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the Jamboree. There were thousands of Boys Scouts and their adult leaders from all over the US in a huge camp at the historical Valley Forge. For some of you younger ones, George Washington and his troops spent an extremely hard winter at Valley Forge early in the revolutionary war against Great Britain. We traveled by train from Topeka to Philadelphia and back which was a long trip. I remember touring Philadelphia seeing the historical sights – Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and others. At the campsite itself, I remember visiting the Texas contingency and coming back home with a pet horn toad. It was a great adventure and made a big impression on a young 13 year old boy.

As a scout troop we were going camping all the time. Often we would pitch tents and cook over an open fire. One time we went camping during the cold weather time and it got so cold overnight that we woke up to eggs that had frozen. I also remember learning how to make a stew in a coffee can and cooking it over an open fire. I tried to re-enact this cooking skill when much later Brad and I went camping up at San Luis Obispo, but it just wasn’t the same.

Gary worked at a boy scout camp a few miles Northeast of Topeka for a couple of summers. I remember the second year he was in charge of the rifle range. That second summer I worked at the camp too in the kitchen. There’s two things I remember about working in the kitchen, washing dishes in a somewhat automatic dishwasher and sheet cakes. The camp had archery, the rifle range, canoeing & swimming at the camp lake and handicrafts. I remember one day a group of us were walking on a path and we came upon a copperhead snake which is one of the two poisonous snakes of the region. We watched it from a respectful distance and eventually we and the snake went our separate ways. I also remember that after having gone swimming in the camp lake coming down with an ear infection. I got pretty sick with a high fever and my dad had to take me to a doctor in a small nearby town. He was able to treat my infection and in a few days I was OK again except that it did scar both my eardrums. So, today I can’t hear some high frequency sounds and have some loss of general hearing. My wife thinks I’m half deaf, but I like to think of it as “selective hearing”. Gramps had “selective hearing”.

I don’t remember if it was at one of our scout meeting or another event that we had a local magician perform for us. He made quite an impression on me and I bought a magic kit. After a good deal of practice I put on a show for the neighbors in a sort of lean-to tent theatre at my friend Penn Morton’s home. It went well but I didn’t pursue a career in magic.

Another event unrelated to scouting but it occurred in the alley behind Penn’s home was having a “ladyfinger” firecracker go off in my hand. In those days there were really no regulation on fireworks. I remember that instead of after lighting the firecracker doing a quick underhand throw, I pulled my hand up and back by my ear to toss it. Well, that took too long and it went off next to my ear. I was fortunate that it was only a “ladyfinger”.

While on the subject of “fortunate accidents” which is a bit of an oxymoron, I fell out of a second story window narrowly missing a concrete driveway. While Gary was in a period of falling out of trees and breaking or spraining an arm, I was falling out of a window. We were visiting relatives in Cherryvale and mom with some others were just returning in a car pulling up the driveway. I came running down the stairs from the second floor and on a landing between the floors there was a window overlooking the driveway through which I was going to look at them driving in but my momentum just kept carrying me out the window narrowly missing the concrete. I suffered a sprained ankle in this “fortunate accident”, but actually I didn’t sprain my ankle falling out the window. Earlier in the day I had been riding behind my cousin Dick on a bicycle and caught my food in the spokes of the rear wheel. We didn’t tell anyone though.

There’s one more “fortunate accident”. One evening I was riding in the back seat of a car with my cousins Albert and Nellie when they went around a corner at normal speed, but the next thing I knew I was sitting on the street. Apparently the car door was not securely closed but I wasn’t hurt. It scared the heck out of my cousins though.

Next chapter we’ll move forward with USAF & the Alamo.