One of the most fun activities a boy at Bynum could look forward to was a camping trip with the Boy Scouts.
Doodle Bug (Donald) Gamble and I always wound up being camping partners. It was an interesting match of the smallest scout (me) and the largest scout (Doodle). Doodle always said that he enjoyed camping with me as his partner because we got along together so well. I guess you could say we both had a knack of getting into trouble together.
One time, we went camping on Coldwater Mountain. The Scoutmaster at that time was a Sargeant in the Army at the base. He was intent on teaching us to march, obey rules and keep ourselves neat. I guess the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We did learn to march but, the neatness thing just did not develop. When we went to the regional camporee that year we marched the best.
On this particular camping trip, Doodle and I had smuggled a signal flare into camp. We had found the flare down by the railroad at Bynum. We intended to use it to scare some of the younger boys in the troop. Bruce Jansen and some others stole the flare from us and snuck off in the night with it. They lit it up on the side of Coldwater Mountain and caused quite a stir.
The Scoutmaster called us all together to see who set the flare off. Well, I think he knew Doodle and I had the flare and was sure he would catch us doing wrong. Surprise, surprise! His loyal pets were caught doing the dirty. Doodle and I plead innocent. Brucey and H.B. Thompson got caught and tried to put the blame on us. But.. we, the two little innocents, were in camp the whole time.
Doodle and I got into other troubles that trip but the flare was not one of them. We were put on KP a lot by the Scoutmaster. But, that was ok because Doodle and I liked to cook and we loved to eat raw carrots. So making camp strew was actually fun. Not to mention we would put a lot of pepper in the pot after we got our serving. Woo! Woo! A lot of water drinking going on there.
When Cooney, Henry, Day Day and I went to see Doodle recently, he recalled those fun camping trips with me as his partner. He said I always got along with him and we always had fun. After all, what is a camping trip all about?
I used to use an old Army duffel bag to haul my camping trip stuff in. Doodle and I used to put enough food in that thing to last a week. Most of our camping trips were a weekend deal. So, Doodle and I spent the whole weekend eating. Our favorite goody was a jar of pickled olives. We loved those things. Our favorite breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon and pork and beans. Actually, we ate that all weekend. Needless to say, we had a drafty tent because it required extensive ventilation after all those eggs and beans.
Doodle was the ideal barterer on a camping trip. If one of us saw something the other kids brought on a camping trip and it caught our eye, he would manage to trade around until we got it. Many a time Doodle and I would sit in our tent munching on something like orioles (too expensive for us to buy) that actually cost us maybe a serving of grits.
Doodle was actually a very bright kid and knew everything about Scouting. You just had to know how to ask him for the information. He taught some of us a lot about Scouting and more important, how to be a good friend. If you needed help learning how to earn a merit badge, Doodle would show you a lot of good skills.