A Ceremony of Fire and Ice Cream

It is a tradition within Troop 281 to hold an induction ceremony on the first campout of a new scouting year. All newcomers to the troop, be they be fresh out of Cub Scouts or coming over from another Boy Scout Troop, must go through this ritual in order to become part of the troop. However, the newer scouts are kept in the dark about what the ceremony actually is right up until they must take a part in it. This way, there is a feeling of really joining something that is experienced by the new scouts that is more than just signing a bunch of papers in the places specified by their parents.

Beginning in the late afternoon of September 17th, the scouts gathered at the church parking lot to pack up the trailer and head off to Camp Achewon; Troop 281’s own private camping area (used with permission from Mr. Schimpf, who owns and maintains the land). Upon arrival, Brett C. gave a figurative demonstration of how to use the infamous “Green Monster” bucket, the only form of a toilet that was available to anybody who was camping at Camp Achewon that weekend. When that business was taken care of, the Troop proceeded to unload the trailer at the necessary places in order to get all the patrol campsites set up before lights out. The Thrashing Sharks; all of them new scouts to be formally brought into the troop, camped within the boundaries of the Staff campsite because none of them are First Class rank.

The next morning, there was a bit of a mix up when it came to flag raising which resulted in the Duct Tape patrol having to perform it twice. Following the second flag raising, all the scouts began a round robin between four stations all over camp. While two of them were of basic skills (fire building and knot tying/lashings) meant more for teaching the young scouts than the older ones, the other two were actually just helping the adults construct outhouse-like shelters where the Green Monster could be used with a better degree of privacy. One of these shelters was to be built near a trail junction easily accessible from the farther scout campsites while the other was located near the existing pee-tube within the Staff campsite. The round robin was finished about noon, at which point the scouts returned to their respective campsites to have lunch before engaging the rest of the day’s activities. For the older scouts this meant prepping the “chapel” area for the ceremony later that night. Weeds had to be cut, new neckerchiefs had to be readied, and the center fire pile filled with a large structure of firewood intended to burn very, very hot (this last bit is critical for reasons to be later discussed. There was only one year where the fire did not burn as hot at the proper time, so the resulting punishment for the scout in charge of that fire was forced to stand in front of it for the entire ceremony, enduring all of its heat. (That scout did not go on this year’s induction campout.) The younger scouts spent this time working on rank advancement and other things. Dinner was served sometime around 6, followed by flag lowering, and then a small period of time before the final preparations for the ceremony were in place and things could begin.

It had gotten dark by the time the signal was given to Noah R.; the Troop Guide, that the time had come for the new scouts to become fully part of Troop 281. After sending a signal back to an unseen gathering in the chapel, Noah gathered the Thrashing Sharks and led a pre-planned trek designed to leave an impression on the new scouts. As the Troop Guide led on, the entourage passed Ben M. waving semaphore flags in a pattern, which spelled out “A-C-H-E-W-O-N” before Noah stopped the Sharks on a path above the chapel. From here, the Sharks saw their parents sitting around a large fire and the older scouts of the troop standing around said fire in a circle, almost as if they were witnessing some kind of dark cult where the members wear tan uniforms instead of brown cloaks. After a brief moment of Noah reading off what Cub Scout pack each member of the Thrashing Sharks had come from, they were led down to the trail directly leading to the chapel. From here, a few of the adult leaders took individual scouts by the right hand and led them down to line up right before entering the chapel.

When all the Sharks were lined up, the circle formed by the older scouts was opened up one by one as an older scout announced they would open the circle for a certain new scout, taking that scout by the left hand and instructing them to grasp a rope in front of the fire. Eventually, only the new scouts were left standing in a circle around the fire, at which point Scoutmaster Dr. Reynolds revealed to them that both white and red paint had ended up on their palms (the rope that the Sharks were holding was intended to actually prevent inductees unaware of the paint from wiping it on their clothes). As the ring of scouts stood around the ever-increasingly hot fire, the various symbolisms found within Troop 281 were explained to everybody in attendance. After what must have seemed absolute torture for the new scouts, having to listen to all the symbolism revelation and being forced to stand in front of a sweltering fire, they were presented with their official Troop 281 neckerchiefs and at last allowed to sit down, even though the only seats left were barely farther back from where the new scouts had been standing.

After some more ceremonial talk and a presentation of a single acorn to each Shark (the Smotherman and Ross twins getting twin acorns), Dr. Reynolds thanked everybody for coming and announced it was time for the ice cream. While the only flavor of ice cream was vanilla, there were many, many kinds of toppings and so everybody left the chapel happy and ready for bed.

In comparison to the events of the previous night, Sunday morning was uneventful. Camps were taken down, gear hauled to the pickup points where they would be loaded onto the trailer, and the finishing touches placed on the pseudo-outhouse in the Staff campsite. At last, about 12:30, the Troop pulled away from Achewon and headed for the church, where Brett took an iron-fist approach in making sure the patrols told him what materials they needed replaced. When all was taken back into the scout room or set aside to be taken home, the troop was dismissed one last time and everybody began heading for home.

Ben Hallenbeck, Historian