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I really enjoyed Boy Scouts and the activities associated with it.  Meetings were held once a month during the school year in which troop business was discussed, advancements announced, and plans for camping trips made.  During the meeting, groups would break up into smaller “patrols” with my brother and I being in the Raven Patrol.  I was elected the Pack Leader and thus “ran” the pack meeting which we practiced our knots and other things but was often more horsing around than doing business.  We had eight or so boys in our pack which I listed in the inside cover of my handbook (see left).

I remember the Troop going camping several times out at some lake on a farm in the country.  We would plan our meals during the pack meeting deciding who would bring what.  I remember making meals by wrapping a hamburger patty, sliced potatoes, carrots and onion in aluminum foil and freezing.  Come dinner time we would place the foil packet on the fire to cook it.  For meal each camping trip, one of the Scout Leaders would come to our camp to sample a meal.

Larry and David in Boy Scout Uniforms

Raven Patrol Names

One of the things I’ll always remember was the “falling star” prank I did one camping trip.  Dad would go to Camp Blanding to get surplus equipment for his job at the U of F Chemistry department and sometimes would bring home some interesting things, one being a Naval survival light. (I still have two mosquito nets he got) The light was a plastic tube about six inches long which you would open one end and when put in water would power a light bulb.  Well I brought it with me and one night I opened it and threw it into the lake which we camped by.  After it started glowing, I told some of the other boys that I saw a light fall from the sky into the lake.  Soon the whole troop was gathered by the lake point and it and speculating what it could be until on boy was brave enough to swim out into the lake and got it.

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