Opportunity Knocks #51 To Be Thankful

Scouts, gentlemen and ladies,


Today is the day before Thanksgiving. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each of you for being a part of my life. It has been an incredible run as Scoutmaster of Tulsa Troop 26. On this sixty-first Thanksgiving of my life, I am sitting here in my cubicle thinking back over the last thirty-five years, thinking of places and faces, the laughter and the tears, the highs and the lows. An incredible journey.


We had a Court of Honor last Sunday. Eight new Eagle Scouts. Eight young men who stood, finally, in front of their chair, the chair with their patrol flag feather on it, the feather signaling to the world that they had achieved success. I watched as they called the names of the young scouts that they wished to challenge with their coin.


One of the coins presented last Sunday was presented initially twenty-three years ago to Eagle Scout Randy McGuire. From that day to this, that coin has been in quite a few pockets before it was passed along to another potential Eagle Scout last Sunday.


The program marches on. I watched as the troop members placed their hand on the Bart Murphy Memorial, promising in their hearts to earn the same award these eight young men have earned. Two of our Eagle Scouts stood on either side of the Murphy Memorial, saluting as the troop went by. I watched as the Master of Ceremonies, also an Eagle Scout, began the ceremonies and the troop chaplain led the assembled troop members, leaders, and guests in prayer.


The Troop Museum looked incredible. The scouts searching through the museum for their own picture. The scouts could actually be seen growing up right before our eyes in those photos. All the memorabilia. All the old uniforms. All the patches and medals and adult summer camp hats. The flags and patches from the jamboree troops, the Philmont expeditions, the Sommers/Northern Tier trips. The Jorishie collection of foreign scout uniforms. The Arrow of Light costumes and the Indian Lore collection. And I don't want to forget the things that have been provided for our troop by the Murphy Memorial. The Bear Table with the photographs of eight outstanding new Eagle Scouts on it. And the huge Eagle sitting in the middle of the museum. And the Eagle in the sanctuary with the candles. Such a wonderful selection of traditions. All designed to encourage each new little scout to tell himself "I can do that. I can have my picture in this museum. I can see my photo on that table. I'll be sitting someday in one of those Chairs. Those chairs reserved for Eagle Scouts. I can do that!"


We have so much to be thankful for.


And we are not done. We are planning on Summer Camp this summer at Tom Hale Reservation in June, and in July at Medicine Mountain in South Dakota. I can't wait to see the photos of our scouts as they visit Deadwood and Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial and the Custer battlefield. Those photos haven't been taken yet but someday they will be in the Troop museum for all to see. This is the first summer camp outside Oklahoma since Rand in New Mexico in 2001 and Gorsuch in Alaska in 2003. We are all very excited about these exciting new possibilities. We are also going to the National Jamboree in 2010. And there is still a possibility of something major in 2008 or 2009. We are still researching that possibility.


As a troop, we have a ton of things to be thankful for. But we need to be a little broader in our giving thanks. We need to be thankful for our parents and our grandparents, for our friends, our schools and our teachers, and our scout leaders. I hope you alumni out there remember Bud Kunze and Leon Smith and Jerry Pepper and Bert Shelby and Bob Barbero and Ed Herhold and Bill Dalton and Joe McCann, the guys that launched our program. And more recently, and Herb Cunninghams and Romie Gorrells and Larry Wards and Jack Lannons and Harold Frances of the world. We have a great treasurer now. But I wish you could have known Earl Flanagan and Bill Baumgartner. We have great cooks now. I wish they could have known Gary Jackson. We have great special camporees. I wish you could have known Lloyd Linde. We have great Quartermasters now but I wish you could have known Dick Austin and Gary Chatburn. We have great merit badge counselors now. So many others have blazed the trail. It's been such "a long and winding road". (I love that song too, JJ)


So many people are drifting through my mind right now and I know I won't be able to name them all because you don't have time to read all the names. You all have ball games to watch and turkey legs to eat. But you get my drift. Hundreds and hundreds of caring people have marched down the aisles of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church with one idea in mind. Making the world a better place, one scout at a time. Hundreds and hundreds of people camping at places like Kunze's Farm, Camp Tomahawk and the Flying "G" Ranch and Camp Will Rogers and McClintock. Jamborees in Idaho and in Virginia. Canoe Trips to the Northern Tier. Philmont. The sunlight on Baldy in a cold summer morning. The fog drifting through the tall grass at Miranda. People planned those trips. People took us there. People brought us, people taught us.


So, for all those of us with a "26" on their arm in this, the year 2006, soon to be 2007. We give thanks for those who have gone before, those who have blazed the trail a little brighter for those who would follow. In reverence we pick up that torch and we promise to hold it high for new generations of Troop 26 members, many of whom will be Eagle Scouts.


To all of you out there with memories similar to mine, memories of friends, memories of places and campsites and rivers and summer camps, memories of Jamborees and Presidents and Eagle presentations. To all of those with shared experiences, goals and dreams...a very happy Thanksgiving, 2006.


See you next week for Opportunity Knocks #52.


Bill

Opportunity Knocks #50 An Ending, A Beginning.

We are having a Court of Honor on November 19. This coming Sunday. And it is special. We have eight new Eagle Scouts. That's special. But it is special for another reason as well. Two of the recipients were welcomed into the troop at Arrow of Light ceremonies at Monte Cassino back in November of 1999. Chuck Major and Robert Dennis. That Arrow of Light ceremony was one of our most famous because several of our ceremony team members fainted during the ceremony. They were dropping like flies, actually. It was held in Monte Cassino's gym and it was hot. Really hot.

We are getting ready to do the first Arrow of Light Ceremony of the 2006-07season at St. Mary's tonight. Our long time chief, Eagle Scout Daniel Rusco, is a student in Germany and this is the first time we have conducted this ceremony with a different chief. New Chief, new Medicine Man, new storyteller, new sub chiefs, new warriors. It's a changing of the guard, so to speak. It's been years since we had a script because everyone had their parts memorized. I couldn't remember the parts but I remembered that we had made a video of the Monte Cassino ceremony back in 1999. So I watched it last night to write down the dialog.

As I was watching the ceremony and seeing the faces, several things jumped into my mind. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I backed up the tape and watched it again, writing down names and checking people off. When I was done, I had my Opportunity Knocks #50. An amazing statistic began to unfold as I added names to the list.

And here is the amazing part. I hope you'll think it is amazing too. I want to preface this by saying that there are incredible odds against a boy earning the Eagle Scout rank. Nationally, only somewhere between 1% and 2% of all boys who join actually make it that far. That is what makes what I am about to share with you all the more outstanding. When Chuck Major and Robert Dennis stand before the Court of Honor on November 19, they will become the final two Eagle Scouts out of eight members of that den from Monte Cassino that joined Troop 26 that night. All eight of Mr. Metcalf's boys have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Robert Dennis, Chuck Major, Jeffrey Metcalf, Reid Spears, Connor Wann, Jeremiah Henley, Bryan Cox, and Jeff Stewart. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. But it gets even more amazing.

There were twenty-four ceremony team members taking part in that Arrow of Light ceremony that night. Twenty-three of them earned the Eagle Scout Award before they left scouting. That team consisted of Mighty Chief Hunter Neimi, sub chief Jay Cox, Medicine Man Jonathan Walker, Storyteller Mark Weigt. And team members Todd Wagner, Danny Harwell, Don Zvacek, Don Hull Jr., Alex Points, Mitch Weigt, Braden White, James Meyers, Andy Rutan, Ryan Smith, Andy Christy, Kevin Drain, Russell Wright, Jonathan Hudgens, Phillip Slavin, Andrew Sellers, Nick Abbott, Levi Vivian, and Don Myers. Only one didn't make it and he finished at Life rank.

Something special happened that night. A group of boys met in that Monte Cassino gym, both ceremony team members and Webelos Scouts, and they were filled with determination and resolve. They started the journey down the Trail of the Eagle. As the Medicine Man says in the ceremony, they all followed the path of the arrow...that ended in the land where the Eagle flies.

Times are changing. Norman Rockwell's America doesn't exist anymore except in books and posters. Making Eagle Scout is more difficult now than ever before. So many things pull at your time. Grades, school activities, sports, coaches, honors classes, band, church activities and mission trips, jobs, saving money for a car, girls, girls, girls. It is harder than ever to start something when you are eleven years old and then carve enough time out of your life to earn it. For this many kids to do it, far, far surpassing the national average, I think it must mean that they are part of an outstanding troop. I choose to think that is exactly what it means. They all joined a troop where success is possible. They joined a troop where success is expected.

I am finding myself wishing that I had a little more time with the one scout who didn't make it. He was so very close. 100%. Wouldn't that have been something!!!

Congratulations to all Webelos Scouts who started down that path, and reached that final special destination. An Eagle court of Honor.
See you next week for Opportunity Knocks #51.

Opportunity Knocks #49

This is Opportunity Knocks #49. Almost to 50. When I did the first one, I wondered how far it would go. As they say in Boomer Sooner land, "we've almost hung up half a hundred." Today is Wednesday. I usually do these on Thursday but tomorrow looks a little hectic here at the hospital so I thought I'd do this one a day early.

Last night I sat outside the conference room door as four more Troop 26 scouts participated in their Eagle Scout Board of Review. All four passed with flying colors. I'm not allowed to be in the room when they meet the board. I guess they think I might be partial. They are right. I am! I've sat outside the door for nearly five hundred and fifty Eagle Scout candidates. I get to take them in and introduce them to the Eagle Board, but then I have to leave. I have to sit outside and wonder if I have prepared them for what they are going through behind that door.

This board was a little special. Not because of the candidates who sat in front of the board, but because of the men who sat one the board. Joey Baumgartner, former Troop 26 member and Eagle Scout. Father of two more future Eagle Scouts. Brother to another troop 26 Eagle Scout, Edward. Son of Silver Beaver and long time Troop Treasurer Bill Baumgartner. Kevin Cunningham. Former Troop 26 member and Eagle Scout. Father of some terrific little girls. Brother to Scott and Mark, both Troop 26 Eagle Scouts, and Mike, an Eagle Scout from another troop but we always felt like he was ours too. Son of Silver Beaver Herb Cunningham, long time Assistant Scoutmaster and a fixture on Eagle Boards before he recently passed away. RC Yarroll. Father of two more future Troop 26 members and future Philadelphia Eagles fans. Brother to Ross, another troop 26 Eagle Scout. Son of Silver Beaver and long time Assistant Scoutmaster Ray Yarroll who sat two chairs down as the Eagle Board of Review chairman. Rick Hayes. Former and current Troop 26 member, Eagle Scout and father of two Eagle Scouts, Jason and Josh, both currently Troop 26 Assistant Scoutmasters. And last but not least, Jeff Moore, former Troop 26 member and Eagle Scout. Father to Alex, joining Troop 26 later this year. Hopefully Jeff will consider being an Assistant Scoutmaster when Alex joins. What an outstanding Board. The Troop 26 history present in that room. Amazing. I wondered as I sat outside if the four Eagle Candidates had any idea who was sitting across the table from them.

We have built and are building something pretty unique and special.

The Eagle candidates were so relieved when they finished their session in front of the Board. It felt, some of them said, like a huge weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Relief!!! Hey passed. Something they had worked for since they were little eleven year old kids. And they finally made it. I wondered if they realized that while it feels like its all over and that something has been finished, that its really just getting started. The responsibility they now have. The history they are now part of. Maybe a weight has been lifted, but something has truly been added in its place. Something wonderful. Something symbolic. Something that will let people know what they stand for. It was a very special evening.

As I sat outside that door as the Eagle Candidates went in one after another for their session with the Eagle Board, I thought about the Eagle candidates sitting before the Board and the Eagle Scouts sitting on the Board and the five hundred fifty some odd Eagle Scouts that have come this way before, and I wondered if they had anything in common besides the Eagle Scout Award. They are all so different. Hobbies, skills, interests, professions, passions, they are all so different. But they become brothers when that Eagle Scout medal is pinned on their chest.

And I thought about one other thing they all have in common. I'm sure that many of them have lots of things in common..but all of them have this one thing for sure. They all passed Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge. Most of them got it from me. It's required for Eagle. All of them have it. And yesterday I did two important things relative to that Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge. First, I voted. And second, I mailed a photograph of my dad to the Tulsa World. They are doing a special on November 11, in honor of Veterans Day, and for $49 I got to include him in their special issue on veterans. What a privilege. To vote, and then to honor those men and women who gave us the freedom to do so.

I voted and then I honored someone who gave his life so that others might have the opportunity to vote..and then I sat outside a door where others, all wearing a sash with a Citizenship in he Nation merit badge on it, were being honored for their beliefs. A room filled with people who love this country and appreciate the part they play or will play in its future. A special day indeed.

Check out the picture of my dad in The Tulsa World on November 11. I'm so proud of him. And I hope he's proud of me.

See you next week for Number 50.

Your friend,
Bill

Opportunity Knocks #48

Dear readers. We had a campout this last weekend. It was the 2006 Webelos Woods campout. This was a special one because alumni Jeff Moore and Joel Stinnett were there with their sons. Another former member, Christian Hargrove, was there as an adult leader and was in charge of the entire event for the Eagle District. And still another alumni, Gene O'Fallon was there camping with another troop along with his son. It was so great to see them. It makes me wonder how many alumni are out there somewhere with sons in scouting. If you get this OK#48 and you'd like to let me know, it would sure be interesting to me. I've heard from Brandt Elsberry and Eric Charles several years ago and their sons were cubs. They are both probably scout age now, it's been some time since I've heard from either.

So here we all are at Webelos Woods and I'm making a salad. The theme of the campout was "The Viking Expedition" and lots of our men and kids were in Viking costumes. One of our Assistant Scoutmasters, Tony Duncan, was dressed as Gimli from Lord of the Rings, and Christian Hargrove had a full fledged Viking costume with braided beard and armor. We constructed a Viking ship with painted shields and a sail with a Celtic dragon on it and a dragon head prow..it was great. So for my salad, I made a Viking ship out of a watermelon, with a gourd as the prow and the tail and cucumber slices as the shields. The shields were attached with toothpicks and I only rammed a toothpick through my fingernail once. It was cool. The kids liked it. We filled it up with fruit and strawberries and melon slices. Our Leadership Corps manned the serving line with costumes, helmets and Viking masks. It was quite a site. Good weather, good kids, old friends, good food..it was great. I'm sure all you alumni remember Garland when the leaves are gold and red and there is a football nip in the air. Scouting at its best.

But back to the story I intended to write before I got distracted. Salad! One of the kids was watching me make the Viking boat and made the following comment. "How come all you can do is salad? It's weird to have a Scoutmaster who can't cook." Kids cut right to the chase. No slack. Take no prisoners. I was slightly hurt, thinking that all he thought I could do was a salad. So...Opportunity Knocks #48.

I was in my second year as a Scoutmaster. Very early 70s. My good friends Ed Herhold, Bill Dalton, Bob Barbero, Joe McAnn and Bert Shelby were with me on a campout. We were getting ready for dinner. I wanted to cook. I love to cook. But they wouldn't let me in the kitchen area. "Cooking's not your job". This from Bill Dalton. "Your job is to go play football with the kids." But I wanted to cook. But I was the youngest and I just couldn't win the battle. They cook, I play.

So, on the next campout I tried to get in the cooking act again. Again they wouldn't let me. But, as I was prone to do then, I got a little angry and pouted a little, feeling sorry for myself. Bert Shelby told me to grow up, Ed Herhold laughed, and Barbero said I was more qualified to play football. I remember it like it was yesterday. But Bill Dalton felt a little sorry for me and made me a deal. He said that we could compromise. He said that he would call me when we were about an hour away from dinner time, and I could come in the kitchen area and make a salad. What a horrible thought. Salad! I didn't even like salad. But if making a salad would get me in the kitchen, I'd do it.

But the following campout, I made a salad that would take longer than a single hour to put together. I kept increasing the difficulty of the salad so that I could spend more and more time in the kitchen area. I'd show them. I started carving the cucumbers and making designs out of the carrots. I continued to increase the time. I wouldn't allow bacon bits. It had to be freshly fried bacon. Freshly boiled eggs. Couldn't be regular onions! Had to be green onions. I had to have certain colors of bell peppers. The tomatoes had to be cut just so. I started turning the salad into an all day work of art. One time I cut a cabbage in half, used half for an island, attached palm trees made out of carrots and bell peppers, mixed in little gold fish crackers. Made the surf out of the slices of boiled eggs, it was great. They couldn't keep me out of the kitchen. And the kids got used to seeing the salad. It took all day to produce and then it was destroyed the minute the first spoon went into it.

One of my favorite memories of those early days was an all day salad work of art. Eggs, bacon, cucumber designs, the whole shootin' match. Bill Dalton calmly walked over and emptied a half bag of potato chip crumbs into the salad. He had that little twinkle in his eye as he dumped the bag all over the artistic salad. I went into shock. It was so funny. Bill, if you are out there..do you remember that day?

But that's the story of why Bill does salad. It became a troop tradition. The kids looked for the salad. The asked for it. They marveled at it. But they still wouldn't eat it. But that's OK. You have to have an identity when there are so many outstanding men in the troop and each one does such marvelous things. Wood carving, climbing, cooking, music, pioneering, you name it, we have an adult who excels in it. I'd give anything to be able to wood carve like George Lawhorn, or to sing like Bill Dalton and Greg Rusco or to provide music like Richard Spears and John Points. I wish I could make baskets like Jim Foutch. I wish I could build great pioneering projects like Ed Herhold or Jim Osborn or Bo Kaczmarek. I wish I could hike like Bob Bomer or Dick Austin. What I wouldn't give to be able to canoe like JJ Jorishie or Tony Wright. I admire these guys and all the others over the years who could do so many things that I wished I could do. So many men. So much talent. So my identity became "salad".

Actually I'm a pretty good cook. My specialty is fried chicken and cheese potatoes. I make a terrific cranberry and apple pie. My pancakes are more than just decent. I do a killer roast with boiling onions, carrots and potatoes. My omelets are pretty good too. As a matter of fact, I can cook lots of stuff. But I'm OK with being known for salad if that's the way it has to be. I just hope that the kids in the troop, past and present, know that there is a little more to their Scoutmaster than just ripping up a couple of heads of lettuce once a month. I can do some other stuff!!!

It's almost quitin time. I've got to get home and get ready to watch Emmitt Smith on "Dancing with the Stars" tonight. Early dinner so I won't miss one minute of his dancing routine. He cuts a rug just like he used to cut through the Philadelphia Eagles. (Ray, Ross, RC..you guys out there?) What's for dinner you ask? Well, I think I'll make a salad.

See you this Thursday for Opportunity Knocks #49. We are getting close to #50. Hope you've enjoyed the ride.

Bill