Newspapers, The Further Adventures of Troop 14, LaSalle Parish, La.
Submitted by Jack Willis
Date: 11 Oct 2004
Source:Grass Roots and Cockleburrs
Date: 28 July 2004




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The Adventures of Scout Troop 14, Part I

Beginning back in the 1930s there has always been a Boy Scout troop in
existence around the Jena area, and for whatever reason it was mostly always
associated with and quartered in facilities belonging to the First Baptist
Church. This meant that members living in Old and East Jena would have to
ride their bicycles or use "shank's mare" to walk considerable distances to
meetings usually held on Monday or Tuesday nights.
Monroe Stevens, bless his heart, always had a deep abiding love for Scouting
and in his perpetual executive position always worked tirelessly to secure
the most morally fit, God-fearing men to fulfill the role of Scoutmaster
through the years. Some that served were John Moses, J.B. Carpenter and Cary
Bass. There's not enough praise to go around for these, and other men who
served in the multiple roles of mentor, caretaker, teacher, counselor, woods
lore expert and minister to a bunch of young "rowdies" through the 1930s,
40s, 50s and 60s.
In visiting with an old friend recently he related to me a tale I'd never
heard before that demonstrates to the fullest, the total devotion these
Scoutmasters had towards their charges.
J.B. Carpenter, one of Jena's outstanding merchants, was Scoutmaster, when a
young man who we'll call J.C., came to a meeting one night wanting to become
a Boy Scout. But there was a difference between his physical condition and
other members of the troop was that he had suffered the ravages of infantile
paralysis or polio as a small child, being left with withered legs and was
forced to wear braces and ambulate on crutches. This made absolutely no
difference to the Scoutmaster as he assigned a patrol leader to aid him in
filling out the necessary forms and paperwork and J.C. became a regular
attendee of the Monday night meetings.
With the onset of the summer vacation, an outing was planned for one weekend
which called for a three mile hike down the L & A railroad track to Hair's
Creek where a good swimming hole had scoured out during the spring. The
ever-present rope swing had been installed in a nimble sweet gum tree on the
creek bank to aid in the fullest utilization of what Mother Nature had to
offer for recreational purposes. When the trip was announced and the
three-mile hike was mentioned, the young ambulatory impaired Scout's
features fell because of his crippled condition, but J.B. extracted a
promise from J.C. that he would be there the following Friday evening for
the outing.
The other Scouts in the Troop were wondering how Scoutmaster Carpenter was
going to transport the young man down the railroad track to the swimming
hole but they didn't have to wonder very long. J.B. simply walked over to
J.C., turned around and backed up to him while telling him to reach up and
lock his arms around his neck, and J.B. reached back and grasped each
withered brace-encased leg and hefted him up on his back, and then proceeded
to lead off down the railroad track literally toting the young man on his
back. It took about twice as long to hike to the appointed destination as it
normally would have, and it took many periodic rest stops for Scoutmaster
Carpenter to catch his breath and rest briefly, but after about three hours
the Scouts arrived on the creek bank. The rest of the scouts helped J.C. out
of the braces and he enjoyed a swim with the rest of them. When he was in
the water the physical handicap was of no effect, because he was all over
that swimming hole like a river otter.
The next day after a most enjoyable overnight campout, the Scouts trudged
back up the railroad track to the church with J.B. again acting as a
packhorse. This totally unselfish, physically demanding act lent credulity
to the logo used to promote the Catholic-sponsored Boy's Town that states,
"No man ever stands so tall as when he stoops to help a boy."
Most of the times, meetings were held in the Young People's Sunday school
Assembly Room located in the rear of the old Baptist church. The total group
was divided up into patrols consisting of about 6-8 boys each. After general
assembly of all Scouts present where announcements concerning future
activities by the Troop were made, patrol meetings were then conducted in
classrooms on the side of the assembly hall, where individual merit badge
qualifications were validated and documented and new tasks were assigned. It
was not unusual to have upwards of 30 boys in attendance, all turning in
merit badge data hopefully targeted towards acquiring another merit badge
and would also aid in promotion to the next rank.
After the meetings were adjourned there would then be about an hour or so
devoted to running like something wild in games of Piggy-Wants-A-Motion or
French-and-Indians, with this activity winding down about 9:30 because the
next day was a school day.
One Monday night up in the spring of 1948 , nearing the end of the school
year, it was announced that on the coming Friday afternoon, immediately
after school dismissal, we would gather at the church for a trip out to
Searcy Gravel Pit Lake for a cookout. In our discussion of our Friday night
menu assignments in our patrol meeting our patrol leader David Barrett
stated that since he had a freshly killed cottontail rabbit in the deep
freeze, a suggestion was made that we cook up a "pup mulligan" for our
entrée. Having never heard of a pup mulligan and ashamed to ask what it was
in the meeting for fear of being called "ignert", I finally slipped around
and indiscreetly found out it was a savory concoction which included
everything but the proverbial kitchen sink.
That Friday afternoon we made the trip to the lake without incident and
after a fast game of French and Indians, we started breaking up the group
into patrols for preparation of the evening meal.
It wasn't long with darkness beginning to fall, that pots were beginning to
bubble all around the perimeter of the west side of the lake. Finally Patrol
Leader Barrett beat on a dishpan with a large metal spoon and hollered,
"Come and get it!" and he didn't have to yell twice! Along with the contents
of about four loaves of bread and several soft drinks we wiped the pot out.
After cleanup and packing everything in the back of the Leader's pickup
trucks, we loaded up for the trip home.
Next week: Further adventures of Troop 14!

GR&C (7-28-04)                                        JMW