Camporee Memories

[RememberSchiff]

The Camporall topic started to stray into past camporee memories, and so tell us your thrilling tales of camporees of yesteryear.

 

 

Back in the 60's, our District organized 3 outings a year - a Fall Camporee, Klondike Derby, and Spring Camporee. Some were located nearby, but the more popular, were 100+ miles away in other states, definitely out of District and Council. Adventure.

 

Memories:

I remember at the Hickory Run (PA) Spring Camporee, the dinner cooking fire (wood on the ground) was started.  We told a tenderfoot to fetch a "smoke shifter" from another troop. Off he and a buddy sprinted. Hah, hah. Our SM shook his head but did not spoil our fun. The terrain was such that we older scouts could observe our two tenderfoots going from one troop campsite to another. Hah, Hah, Hah. But our attention was soon redirected to meal preparation when our tenderfoots returned - WE GOT IT!

 

We turned around to see two scouts holding a large gizmo, what we all assumed was a Smoke Shifter. Our SM shook his head. Never seen a smoke shifter like that. Looks like a moonshine shifter. Whatever that meant. It was all metal - 3 legs which supported a platform with a duct work flue. Now this was some reality check,  All us old scouts knew smoke shifters didn't exist like unicorns and sky hooks but there it was.

 

Dinner would have to wait. All hands worked on getting this smoke shifter working.  Smoke filled our campsite instead of shifting to Troop 154! Our SM bellowed Open the flue. Well that didn't work either but we were determined. Our SM got out a Coleman stove and started cooking HIS dinner which smelled good. Our determination lost to our hunger. As it got dark, we started cooking Our SM said something about it taking us a long time to start a cooking fire. 

 

Our tenderfoots returned the smoke shifter. The owners asked did it work ok. Our scouts said no. The owners apologized for not telling them that it only shifted smoke downwind.

Edited June 11, 2017 by RememberSchiff

[MattR]

I remember running around for smoke shifters and sky hooks. I tried to restart it and got a "that's hazing" lecture. Everyone is my troop would like to keep it going, though. We sat down at one point and talked about the rules of when to let the scouts in on the deal.

[Stosh]

Self standing tents took all the fun out of campsite raids at camporees.

 

Patrol tents - huge military tents were all 8 boys could fit comfortably in it.  They were the wall tent style.

 

We always got to do the mess-kit cooking if we wanted to at camporees.

[Oldscout448]

Ahh smoke shifters !    I was sent for a left handed model.  But was told it was needed to cook the Snipes we would catch later that night.

 

We rarely used the wall tents, mostly it was pups, campers,and overnighters.  All of which needed a number of guy lines  which was always bailing twine.  So the great thing, if it wasn't raining, was to wait until the other  troop/ patrol was fast asleep and then sneak up on their tent and carefully scrape the twine with a knife blade thinner and thinner until only a few strands remained.  Then creep back to your own tent and wait for the next puff of wind which would bring the whole tent down on the unsuspecting suckers  fellow scouts.

 

then the hardest part laughing in total silence!

Edited June 11, 2017 by Oldscout448

[Oldscout448]

I remember running around for smoke shifters and sky hooks. I tried to restart it and got a "that's hazing" lecture. Everyone is my troop would like to keep it going, though. We sat down at one point and talked about the rules of when to let the scouts in on the deal.

I have gotten the same lecture for having the scouts sing a little song to reclaim their lost items when camping.   None of the scouts ever seemed to mind.

 In fact they just love it when they can catch me leaving something behind!

 Then it's " Oh Mr. Ooooldscout!  I wanna hear ' I'm a little teapot'"   and I look up and the whole troop is standing there grinning and little Tommy Tenderfoot is holding my candle lantern.   

So I sing and we all laugh, and I get my lantern back.   

Again

Edited June 11, 2017 by Oldscout448

[Stosh]

I have gotten the same lecture for having the scouts sing a little song to reclaim their lost items when camping.   None of the scouts ever seemed to mind.

 In fact they just love it when they can catch me leaving something behind!

 Then it's " Oh Mr. Ooooldscout!  I wanna hear ' I'm a little teapot'"   and I look up and the whole troop is standing there grinning and little Tommy Tenderfoot is holding my candle lantern.   

So I sing and we all laugh, and I get my lantern back.   

Again

 

Hazing?  Naw, I sing along with them.  Always better as a duet with the SM. 

[sst3rd]

At the peak of our district's camporees, I remember as a new SM, seeing troops camped out on both sides of the main dirt road from one end of the camp to the other. Specifically, I remember friday night setting up camp, and then the adult leaders would venture from campsite to campsite (asking permission to enter before hand of course) seeing old friends and sharing cups of coffee. Friday night also allowed the scouts to roam to different troop sites to visit friends, and often hear somebody say "I  didn't know you were a scout". Maybe you didn't advertise you were a scout, but to see your friends from school involved was cool.

 

Yeah, this was the 60's and 70's. We have poorly planned and attended camporees now, and I don't hear the excitement in the scout's voices anymore. I guess if your troop runs a great program, camporees don't really matter anymore.

 

Personally, a well planned and exciting camporee has its place even today.

 

sst3rd

[Cambridgeskip]

Back in my days when I was Cub leader......

 

First weekend of June was always district cub camp weekend. Friday and Saturday evenings, after the cubs were all in bed, the leaders from the various packs would gather round a fire somewhere.

 

One year, for reasons I can't recall, that fire was in an alter fire with the legs having been removed so it was flat on the ground. It was a relatively small event one year and I was able to get quite close. Sinking quite comfortably into my camp chair I stretched out my legs (I am 6'2" so there's plenty of leg to stretch!) and it was the perfect distance to rest my feet against the side of the alter fire, something which felt quite pleasently warm. Some minutes passed and while talking to someone next to me I smelt a smell. An 'orrible smell! It was the smell of burning rubber! At the same time I realised my feet had gone from pleasently warm to unpleasentyl so! Yes, you guessed it, the souls of my trail shoes were now smoldering nicely.

 

Some ridiculous dancing around and they stopped smoldering leaving some foot shaped scorch marks on the side of the alter fire. I wasn't allowed to forget that for a while

 

Another memory.... this time when I was a Venture Scout. Each year my venture unit was asked to run some of the events at a district scout camp. On the Friday night after set up that meant the scouts rotating through a series of bases that involved various relatively basic scout skills. One of those was a scavenger hunt which we had created. Now traditionally we would include a couple of joke items on that list. Something like tartan paint or a glass hammer etc. One year though we included a pair of the campsite warden's underpants. Never for one moment thinking any scout would take it seriously.

 

Later that evening a 17 year old me along with 3 others from my unit were getting a dressing down from our venture scout leader following an incident where the warden and his wife looked out into his back garden to see a couple of enterprising scouts raiding their washing line.....

[clemlaw]

On my first camporee, I was also sent looking for a smoke sifter (and, as everyone knows, it's a sifter, and not a shifter).  I made my way to several troops, each one telling me that they didn't have one, but they were pretty sure some other troop had one and pointed me in the right direction.  At the last site I got to, the kindly scoutmaster asked if I was a new scout, asked me how many other troops I had visited, and finally told me, "I think they're pulling your leg."  He gave me a cookie and sent me back to my troop.  I made sure I was still eating the cookie when I got back so that everyone could see I had a cookie and they didn't.

 

As I recall, there were approximately 10,000 other scouts at this camporee, all from our district.  Perhaps there weren't quite that many, but that's what it seemed like.  We were divided up into two groups, named "Crow" and "Sioux."  The main activity was shouting "Crow" and "Sioux" at various assemblies, at the top of our lungs.  When we got home, we all had laryngitis.

 

The biggest event was the helicopter landing.  Apparently, a helicopter developed some kind of problem and had to land somewhere, and our big field seemed like the best place to do it.  Various rumors were circulating as to the helicopter.  Some said that they were evacuating an injured scout.  Others thought it was part of the planned events.  They never took off with an injured scout, and we were all kept far away from the helicopter, so I doubt if it was an official part of the program.  (And since the main planned activity consisted of shouting at the top of your lungs, I doubt if they went to the additional expense of hiring a helicopter.)  So the engine trouble theory still seems like the most plausible to me, although I don't think I ever got an official confirmation of that.

 

In short, it was a pretty exciting weekend for a 5th grader.

[desertrat77]

The big afternoon event during the 1975 Catalina Council "Three C Camporee--Camping, Cooking, Competition" was a mystery until they backed up the truck full of live chickens into a big field.

 

The SPLs formed a horseshoe behind the truck.  The rest of us scouts made a huge horseshoe behind them.  Thirty troops or so present.  Lots of buzz:  "what is going on?" 

 

Mission:  when the chickens were released from the cage in a big flurry, the SPL had to grab one, and with his troop, run back to the campsite.

 

Kill, dress and cook the chicken any way you like.  Then the SPL had to run aways (half a mile?) with two pieces of chicken to the judging booth.  He ate a piece, and the judges shared the other piece.  Chicken cooked properly?  Clocked stopped then.  Best time won.

 

The staff took about 60 seconds to explain it.  Lots of excitement!  Then the chickens were let go.

 

Chaos!  Scouts and chickens running about.  Yelling, laughing, confusion, squawking, dust flying.

 

Our SPL grabbed a chicken right away.  Off we run together, back to camp.  Across the railroad tracks and a barb wire fence.

 

Our SM was a WWII vet who always camped with us.  I'll never forget the look on his face when we ran into camp with a chicken and all of us trying to tell him why.

 

Well, the SM was an old farm boy.  He knew what to do.  "You dig a hole, you get the hatchet, you build up the fire, you get the dutch oven going."  Chicken killed, skinned, entrails buried.

 

Mr. Chicken was fried to perfection in the dutch oven. 

 

We didn't win but it didn't matter.  Three hours went by in a blurr.

 

When I tell this story to scouters, the usual response is "That's great, I'd love to see that as an event today!  But the public would never understand."

 

I have lots of great camporee memories, including my last fall camporee in Arizona.  Standard camporee, a little chilly.  Moved to Alaska a few weeks later and attended the Fall Freezeree, two feet of snow, cold!!! with events taking place on a frozen lake.  I wasn't equipped or skilled in any fashion to make the transition from Southern Arizona to Alaska that quickly, but I survived and learned the ropes.  Four more years of camporees and freezerees in Alaska followed.