|
Page Updated:
July 16, 2006
|
A
WHOLE NEW WORLD - Part I
By Ted
Aylan-Parker
I’m a sixteen year old rookie
having my first lunch in the Hub. As luck would have it, I’m sitting opposite
two of the biggest guys I’ve ever met. Their arm muscles were bigger than my
legs. Their names, seared into my trembling memory, were Jim McVeigh and
Bob Murch. Part way through the meal of tube steaks, one of them looked right at me
and said, “Don’t take another bite.” Being a little cocky, I looked them right
back and took another bite. As can be expected, that was the end of my meal.
They arose, picked me up like a pillow, carried me down the Hub stairs and
pitched me into the lake. Welcome to HSR. Thus began a very long association
with a camp that showed me a whole new world.
My oldest
brother was a Scout with 125th Toronto in the 50’s and it was time
for his summer camp. However it worked out, the family undertook the task of
driving him to camp; which you might have guessed, was the Haliburton Scout
Reserve. My Dad always enjoyed an adventure, and the road into camp truly was an
adventure. I was just a Cub, with another brother in between, so I was relegated
to a back seat and general silence. I do, however, remember my Dad passing
judgment on the condition of the road, and my mother teeth breathing all the
way. In any event we made it, and dropped him off. I remember seeing him loaded
into a “Queen” boat, which was a lifeboat from a lake freighter. They were built
in 1914 and lasted until the turn of the century. The boats were towed down Lake
Kennabi with outboards, some of which were old motors that were used to tow log
booms at the end of the logging era in the 1930’s.
When my
brother returned home he had earned his Bushman’s Thong, which was sort of an
outdoor equivalent to the Queen Scout. One of his tasks involved the following:
He and a partner were dropped off on an island with a live chicken. They were
left there for 24 hours, and the chicken was their only food. They had to catch
it, kill it, clean it and cook it. They did it; and I firmly believe it gave him
some inner confidence that has lasted him all his life. I somehow think that
this would be unacceptable today, even though the idea of extreme adventure is
very current.
So fast
forward a few years and I’m a 16 year old teenager. My mother, with the
experience of my two older brothers suggested that I might want to apply for a
summer job at the Haliburton Scout Reserve. I did and I was accepted. There was
no SIT programme at the time but I was hired as a Troop Leader, which was the
junior member of a four member composite team. When I arrived, myself and a
fellow named Randy Woods were instructed to change into work clothes in what is
now Area Four, but was a staff shower house at the time. I can’t remember what I
did that day, but I remember I slept my first night in a top bunk in what is now
the Programme Centre, but at the time, was called the Landship and served as the
cabin for the three member waterfront staff.
As soon as
the tents were set up on the composite sites, we moved permanently to site; mine
being Twister. Our tents were canvas strung from a ridge pole, which was held up
by sheer legs, which were 20 foot logs wired together in a tripod. The tent
walls were draped over three foot wooden walls and the whole contraption was
placed on floorboards. The walls of the tents were kept taunt by floating logs,
called riders, which rested on the sheer legs. We each had an army camp cot and
shared a dresser. We brought our own bedroll. That was it, but we were dry and
comfortable. We ate in the Hub, where I met those two behemoths mentioned
earlier, until our campers arrived. My first Skipper was a guy named Brian
Laurie. A terrific person, who later became a teacher in Toronto. There was a
junior and senior assistant scoutmaster to round out the team of four. One
fellow was Ronald McNaughton and the other was Doug Mehlenbacher.
Our campers
arrived by school bus (some things don’t change) and stayed for 13 days. There
were four patrols and each patrol had a huge canvas tent on floor boards and a
large canvas dining fly. The kitchen also had a sheet metal stove with a firebox
on one side and an oven on the other, and the top surface for pots. There was
also 2-3 sections of stovepipe, that never fit, and caused considerable
expressions of non-scouty vocabulary. As well as the stove, each dining area had
an altar fire, which was a small log cabin about four feet square and three
feet high. The top was covered with sticks and then sand and encircled with
rocks to hold a grate. The altar fire was used predominantly to heat dish water.
Three times a day, the bell at the Hub would ring and two campers from each
patrol would head up to the Hub with a picnic basket and retrieve the rations
for that meal. Often it would be potatoes, pork chops, peas, and a dessert which
required cooking. There were definitely no fast foods. Each leader attached
himself to a patrol and supervised the preparation. After the meal, the patrol
washed the dishes, which were then inspected by the leader. As can be guessed,
meals occupied a large part of each day, but everyone learned how to cook. For
me it was a godsend, since I lived on my own for fours years when I first
started my teaching career.
There were
five composite campsites; namely, Twister, Beaver (where the store is now), Loon
(where the campfire area is), Bear (somewhere near Loon site), and the Mill
site. Yes, there was a composite camp at the Mill site. They ran their programme
from there and walked in each day and swam at the main end. There was a spring
at the back of the site, which provided water. I’m sure that the spring is still
there, but I’ve never seen it. This whole composite programme was supervised by
a fellow, which we nicknamed Jelly Belly, Don Duncan. The programme supervisor
was Bob Dodds and the Camp Chief was Don McLean.
After 3-4
four days at camp, I remember sitting down by the waterfront by myself. Bob Dodds walked by and asked if I was all right. I really wasn’t, but said I was. I
guess I was homesick. I was a little embarrassed, since I was on staff, and that
didn’t happen to staff members. So, I talked myself out of it and proceeded to
have the greatest summer of my life.
Continued in
A Whole New World Part II |
