Burn Baby Burn, Disco Inferno!

Last week’s Troop meeting was the start of both the new Scouting year AND of Avery Reynolds’s term as the new troop Senior Patrol Leader. (Avery had been actually working as SPL since the beginning of summer when program planning for the year was discussed.) After the standard turned to the skill session; Firebuilding 101, led by Greg B. The skill session’s first part, describing various methods to start a fire, went over reasonably well, although when the “what-to-do-in-case-of…” part of the presentation, some of the opening of the meeting with the Pledge, Scout Oath, and Scout Law, the meeting quickly answers to “what to do if someone falls into a fire” question were a little alarming, such as: “Well, you can either pull him (the guy in the fire) out, or you can dance around it and-”… (The speaker was cut-off before he could finish.)

After Greg finished up his explanations, everybody went outside for a series of fire-building related contests, starting with a “gather the largest pile of firewood” competition. The results varied between the five patrols, but I’m pretty sure the Hurricane Patrol’s pile was more pine needles than actual wood, despite Alex R. finding a long wooden pole by the church dumpster and being able to break it down for the pile. After it was declared that the Viking Patrol’s pile of wood was the best (and Nick B. given the prize: some candy to distribute to whomever he wished). The next competition began: whose pile could become the first fire to burn down a piece of twine hanging above it (similar to the fire building contest at Color Wars). The Hurricanes started out strong, with their pine-needle pile instantly becoming a giant fireball that within a minute imploded on itself, but it was the younger scouts whose fire eventually burned through the twine. However, even though the Viking’s fire had failed to start until after the twine had been burned through, it quickly became the largest fire there (no surprise since it was built by resident Troop Pyro Nick B.), and when it was time to come in, only the Viking’s fire had not been extinguished for some reason, possibly because it was too big at the time.

Finally, the scouts came back in to play that night’s game: Swing the Thing. The usual results came about: Scouts getting tripped up and Alex R. doing crazy jumping maneuvers all over the place. There was only time for one game. However, as the skill session had taken up most of the time of the meeting, the Scouts fell back in for some last-minute announcements. After everybody who had an announcement had spoken, the Troop “circled up” into the traditional amoeba of crossed arms, and the meeting was ended. When asked about how he felt his first meeting as SPL was going, Avery Reynolds only had this to say: “It’s only the beginning, we’ll see how it goes.”


Oh, there’s one more thing that Noah R.wants everybody to know: Turpin High School is still a Blue Ribbon School, but now it’s got a giant sign outside that says Turpin is a Blue Ribbon School, too.

Ben Hallenbeck, Troop Historian