When I was in the Boy Scouts somewhere around 1958, all of our equipment was army surplus. We had aluminum canteens with canvas cases that attached to canvas belts with a hook and eye system. Our mess kits were also army surplus. Best I can recall we had two types of tents. The two man pup tent and a four man version. Everything was olive drab in color including our ponchos. I don’t recall ever having a sleeping bag, but we had lots of green blankets. The tents were the two-pole “A” frame type and had no bottom, like today’s versions. You learned quickly how to position them on high ground and trench around them, with the army surplus folding shovel, to keep the rain out.

  The tents could be found in most any backyard, as we camped out a lot. Our troop was divided into patrols and the patrols were encouraged to hike and camp whenever we could without adult supervision. I remember riding bikes to the fire tower. The ranger let us climb it and would point out features in the countryside. We had a couple of ponds that we could hike to for fishing. We lived in Forest Park at the time and could hike or ride bikes to the Conley Army Depot. The guards would let us in so we could visit the surplus store. There we would see if there were any new items that we could talk our parents into buying. Today’s equipment is much better than what we had back then. It is lighter, drier and easier to use. But we were proud of our equipment that many of our parents had used in WWII and Korea.

  There is one camping Jamboree that stands out from all the rest. We were camping just off Main Street in Forest Park. It was on a strip of land between Main Street and the railroad tracks and our tents filled the entire area. It was early November and I was housed in a four man tent with three others. As with any camp-out we talked and cut up until very late. About four in the morning we were awakened to a six inch snowfall. As we tried to get our clothes on, we discovered that some of our belongings had been pushed out from under the side of the tent. My shoes were full of snow.

  The older guys decided that it was their duty to build a very large snowman on the railroad tracks. Those in my group were cold and some of us had wet feet. We saw no future in getting colder building a snowman. We looked across the railroad tracks and saw a small building with the lights on. It was the city hall and jail. We headed for it. The door was locked, but the officer on duty let us in. He started telling us stories about the recent Halloween, but we were only interested in the fact that the building was heated. We slept on the floor next to a heat vent where we dried our socks. We were awakened at six to the sound of the oncoming train. We ventured out just in time to see the train knock over a huge snowman. We then went back to our heated camping arrangement and stayed until we were warm and our clothes were dry. Our scout training had taught us to improvise, and we were proud that we had made the best of a bad situation.