jcole12

I have offered to send a copy of Rich Johnson’s memorial service to Cartridge but will be happy to do so for anyone who would want a copy. Just send your email to me and I will send you a scanned copy. Email your request to: pkeypr@msn.com. Jcole12

Rich was my director on Campcraft for two years (67,68) and was also a wrestling mentor for me. We knew each other well. We kept touch over the years. His cousin must have found some of my letters and sent me a copy of his memorial program. If you would like it, let me know and I would be happy to send you a scanned copy. He was a rock for me in my teenage years and key to my development.

I was one CGB staff '66 and '67 with the likes of Dan (Rabbit Ass) Stark, Roy Schermerhorn, Rick McKindoo, Jeff Burnham, Butch Goins, Jim Rumcheck, Tim Ohelker, Wayne Ashe, Rick Johnson, Cecil Piggot, Peter Kleinpaste and so many others that I can't remember. I am the Scoutmaster now of troop 794 in the Denver, CO area. My son just spent his first session at camp in the mountains, is three merit badges and a project away from Eagle. He was asking me about my camp experiences and much to my surprise, I found this spot on Scouter.com. The "CBG 20 years later" write-up was so wonderful. The best summers of my boyhood were spent up at CBG as a scout and on staff. The person describing the OA ceremony was espcially warming as I was on the tap-out team both summers and got to glide up to the bowl in those canoes dressed out in those spiffy buckskins and headresses. I remember catching bass and painted turtles in the lake, sunset yoga at the boat dock with the Jesuit Priest drop out who was running the aquatics program in '66, teaching astronomy merit badge out in the rowboat in the middle of the lake in the middle of the night,lots of nature walks and classes with the scouts, water balloon raids on campsites with particularly obnoxious scouts, lifting weights in the shower room , pink bellies for staff initiation (when that was allowed), skinny dipping on staff point in the evening, bad food and good friendship, my first girlfriend, trips into Aniwa and Birnamwood to do laundry and have some decent food(one time we saw that new musical Sound of Music), Scouts coming in on Sunday and grilling chicken for them on Saturday, Staff competitions with the scouts every Saturday on the lake or in campcraft skills., canoeing down the Wolf River two summers with Roy Schermerhorn , Tim Ohelker , Jim Rumcheck and one of the other directors, a frustrating start in '67 to the nature center that Rabbit Ass straightened out in following years, throwing down mattresses in the lodge before the camp had been set up and having staff wrestling matches, wild and crazy Rich Johnson leading wonderful campfires, Tim Ohelker catching a moth in his ear at the campfire and having to go to the ER to have it removed. I am not sure how it was that we were lucky enough to attend such a camp but my life has been greatly blessed by the memories that I get to ruminate upon from that beautiful place in Wisconsin. Now, as I am again in Scouting, I am crerating new Scouting memories with my son. These are sweet memories; but equally sweet to me are those wonderful summers spent on Baker Lake catching turtles and learning about life.