Opportunity Knocks #85 - IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!

Isn't it funny what we remember? Memories become so embedded in our lives that sometimes we forget that they may or may not be true. Sometimes what we think is absolutely true, is not. Sometimes the stories we tell around the campfire, when based on incorrect information assumed to be facts, becomes true in the mind of the person who hears the story. Then it gets repeated, and repeated, and repeated. And it becomes part of legend and lore.

When I teach my Indian Lore merit badge class at summer camp, I always remind the scouts that they call it lore because it isn't exactly truth. It might be, but, then again, it might not be. The Native Americans were a verbal society. They passed their history down grandfather and father to son and grandson. Details change slightly with each retelling. Parts deemed unimportant are left out. Peoples personal part in the story was sometimes embellished. Things were added to the story to make it more interesting. Things were added that the story teller didn't actually see himself but that he heard about from someone else connected to the story. The final edition can't be history. Too much has changed over the years for it to actually be called history. Much of lore cannot be verified.

In our troop, we have a tradition that was started years ago by Senior Patrol Leader Don Zvacek. It is called the Zvastick. It is a story telling tradition taken directly from the Plains Indians. When they went to winter camp, much of their night time hours were spent inside the tent listening to stories. The cold wind blew and the snow fell outside the tent while inside the tent the young people were listening to the aged ones recite stories from their tribes heritage. This is the way the young people learned about the days gone by. The storyteller had a stick. While he held the stick, he had the floor. He was the speaker and the audience respectfully listened. When he was done, he passed the stick to another person and he became the speaker. It was a matter of courtesy.

In Troop 26, the Zvastick has become an important vehicle to keep our stories alive. Don Zvacek appeared on a winter campout in full Chief's regalia and began the tradition. The Zvastick was passed to me, as scoutmaster, and I told the first story. When I was done, I passed the stick to a young youth member that I had selected. At the campfire on the next campout, the young person told a story from the troop's past. When he was done, he passed the stick along to an adult leader. That tradition has gone on for years, story after story (the story selected had to be over five years old to be considered for retelling) adult to youth to adult to youth and so on.

Those stories have become part of our troop's history.

Imagine my surprise when I found that one of my very favorite stories wasn't true.

Many of you have heard the story about a campout at Zink Ranch back in the early 80's. Our SPL at the time was Eagle Scout Brett Dieterlin. As I was finished making my rounds on Saturday night, I returned to my tent to find a burned moose head sitting in my tent. It was on the floor by the door. I didn't have my flashlight on when I stepped into the tent and the cold nose of the thing hit my belly when I stepped in the tent. I reached for my flashlight and turned it one, seeing those blank marble eyes staring up at me. It definitely spooked me.

This much was fact. I was there.

What came next was not fact. This is what I thought. Some of our troop members were on a hike and came across a building that had burned down. Inside was a moose head that had been hanging on the wall inside the building. They decided to bring it back to camp and it ultimately found its way into my tent. Brett Dieterlin was not in that group. He was not in the group that found the head nor was he in the group that put it in my tent.

I suppose, as the story was told and retold, and since Brett was the Senior Patrol Leader at the time, his name became closely associated to the event. It should not have been. The story has also taken some twists and turns as well. The last time I heard it, the moose head was in my sleeping bag. It wasn't.

So, first, I want to apologize to Brett Dieterlin. He was an outstanding young man and a great SPL. In my dealings with Brett I have never known him to do a mean or malicious thing. He was a great friend to many, many scouts. I can still remember him standing next to Jeff Crawford, completely covered in mud from a mud slide they had helped build. I remember him at the Zink campout when a phone home was a big deal. He and his friends made a contraption that we could phone home on, with tin foil and sticks and stuff. I remember him with RC and Ross Yarroll and with Joel Stinnett. I remember him with Thad Bibb and Jeff Moore and Bobby Pendergrass. He was a terrific troop member and his name should not be connected with an event with which he had no part whatsoever. I want Troop 26 to remember Senior Patrol Leader and Eagle Scout Brett Dieterlin. I want them to remember him for the tremendous asset he was to Troop 26, not for something he had no part in.

Somewhere out there is a scout who drug an old, burned, moose head back to camp from a burned out building and decided to put it in my tent. Someday I might find out who it was. Whoever you are, you did something that has now become legendary in the lore of our troop. I thought it was funny. I still think it's funny.

See you next week for another edition of Opportunity Knocks.

Bill