Legends and Lore of Troop 179
This is where we talk about the Legends and Lore that make our troop unique, give it a personality, and make it, well, OUR troop. The legends and lore are ranked in order of how good they are and for how much they've contributed to giving us our uniqueness. A brief statement on the veracity of each bit of lore accompanies it.
1. This is our all-time top story. A brand new Scout, Anthony C., was on a "New Scout" campout at Oceana Naval Air Station on 20-21 March 1999 (Sat-Sun). When asked to boil some water, he dutifully puts some water in a pail and puts it on the grill. Note, this pail was PLASTIC and promptly proceeded to melt! You're right, we'll never let him forget this. Proving there is hope for everyone, Anthony passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review on 19 Apr 2005. At his ceremony, Mrs. Renee Wert even mentioned this, generating a torrent of laughter and howls. At this ceremony, he was made the 4th Junior Assistant Scoutmaster in troop history. This piece of troop lore is 100% true.
2. Every summer, Benjamin S. rides in Mr. Everette's car to camp. He rides in Mr. Everette's car on 99% of all our outings. It's a given. On Sunday, 13 July 2003, somewhere between Charlottesville and Waynesboro on I-64, the Scouts in Mr. Everette's car had him pull over so they could "go". Ben came back holding his groin and said he had "gone" on an electric fence. He'd learned males shouldn't do this. Before we'd arrived at camp, cell phones had spread the news all over our caravan and he'd earned the nickname SPARKY. Mr. Everette first called Mrs. Kane's car and her son answered the phone. The son repeated the story and his mom, always a nurse, said "Did he get burnt?!" The answer is no. The nickname SPARKY stuck like glue. It morphed into Spark Plug too. The previous year, he'd earned the nickname "West Virginia" on the way to camp because he let it slip he was born there. In 2004, he earned the nickname, well, we won't mention that here. Suffice it to say it is now troop tradition that he earns a nickname on the way to summer camp while riding in Mr. Everette's car. Every year we eagerly await what his additional nickname will be. However, SPARKY is the one that fits him the most and has stuck the most. This story could be 100% true, but we're not sure because sometimes Sparky says the electric fence part really happened and sometimes he says he made it up for fun. The rest is all true, but at any rate, it's great Scout lore!
3. On August 08-10, 2003, we held a campout at Fort Story with the primary goal of helping young Scouts advance. On Friday night, it was readily obvious that the local racoons were used to people as they'd come into camp and climb on the picnic table, banging pots; coming as close as 6-7 feet from the nearest person. The next day, Saturday, we saw a mom and young racoon about 25 yards from camp. Well, Mr. Deuane Bostic decides to throw a big stick at it to scare it away. Although he aimed to miss it, when the big stick bounced, it hit the mom racoon on the head. The mom racoon began rolling around on the ground with its tongue hanging out. It was in obvious agony. Mrs. Renee Wert went beserk, sobbing uncontrolably, saying things like "Deuane, you killed it!" Many of us tried to console Renee, but it took a long time. Deuane was very sorry as he only meant to scare them away, not hurt them. Finally, it stumbled away with the baby. Later that day, we had left over stew and buried it two feet deep over 50 yards from camp. But it did no good, as the baby racoon found it, dug it up, and ate all of it anyway. The mom racoon was nowhere to be found. We decided it went off to "racoon hospital" and died. This story is 100% true.
4. Always eager to find new adventures, a group of Scouts and Leaders from Troop 179, went on the Voyageur canoe/rafting trip run from Camp Powhatan in Blue Ridge Mountain Council from 13-19 July 2003 (Sun-Sat). In keeping with this adventurous spirit, one of our leaders, Mrs. Renee Wert decided to get most of the way down the river in the water instead of in her canoe. Suffice it to say her way of handling a canoe is not the approved way. Several of our Scouts testified to the fact she spent more time in the water (necessitating several rescues) than in her canoe. When she finally got back to Camp Powhatan where the rest of us were in base camp, the first thing she said was "Hey everybody, look at me!" (yes, that is a quote). She had an elastic bandage on her left leg from her hip to her knee, covering up a severe blue/black/yellow bruise. When we had 5 Scouts and 1 Scouter go to Voyageur in 2005, it turned out they ended up in the same whitewater raft, #2, as our 2003 group -- another troop tradition born! This story is 100% true.
5. The award for the all-time best excuse for "WHY I CAN'T SWIM" goes to Ben J., who while at his first time at summer camp at Blue Ridge's Camp Powhatan, 21-27 July 2002, said "My body doesn't like green algae" when explaining to Mr. Everette and Mr. Kennedy why he was having trouble swimming. This story is 100% true.
6. A 2-night backpacking trip to the Ramsey's Draft Wilderness on 01-03 April 2005 turned out to be one of those "character building" events you'll tell your grandchildren about. The creek was the highest it'd been in at least 10 years, necessitating about 22 fordings during the weekend, which meant you took your boots on and off or crossed with them on and got them wet. Keep in mind the weather was cold and the water temperature barely above freezing. Several of the crossings were waist deep. A few Scouts fell and lost gear, which someone had to chase after. To top it all off, on Sunday morning we awoke to find about 1/2" snow on the ground and flurries were still falling. This is a lovely area with many trees 300-500+ years old as the area has never been logged. While trying to dry out gear around the fire, many articles of clothing got burnt. This story is 100% true.
7. Catholic Retreatoree, 11-13 Sep 1999. Glenn T. Jr. decides to attend and go during his second year in the troop. Why? Apparently because this is a COED EVENT with Girl Scouts! Read on....Well, Glenn was adamant that our Troop was not going to be embarrassed by our Scouts wearing their uniforms or clothes showing bad taste in choosing one's attire, so he decides to go all out and bring all about 20 shirts so the Troop would meet his minimum standards in attire. He also provided way too much foo foo juice to go around. SM Phil McGinnis commented on how all the bugs would flock to our kids and not bother the adults. Johnny F., since moved to N.J., looked like someone from the 1950's with his hair all slicked back, shiny shoes and a white shirt with straight legged pants. A great time was had by all. Josh W. was chased all night by a girl and he did not want anything to do with her. This coed teen dance is held on Saturday night at each Retreatoree. We think this story is 100% true.
8. The "Ben-squared" era was from mid August 2005 thru late February 2006. It was called this because at the time, the SPL was Ben E. and the ASPL was Ben S. There are many similarities in their Scouting career: they joined the troop about one month apart, they did their Eagle projects two days less than exactly two years apart and did them at Red Wing Park, they were in the same patrol from time to time, they were elected to the OA and did their Ordeals together, and they were very close and supportive of one-another. There is a photo of them in uniform at the very end of the last "Ben-squared" campout in the miscellaneous photo section. This is 100% true.
9. "Council Cell Phone Queen Breaks Cell Phone. Pipsico Scout Reservation, 3 Jul 2008. This morning Tidewater Council’s own Cell Phone Queen, Renee Wert, dropped her cell phone onto the floor of her car. She moved the car seat back to retrieve it and in the process broke the phone. Length of time for the procurement of a replacement phone is uncertain. In the meantime, cause an overflow in her inbox by leaving her messages, then pray for her to make it through Cell Phone Withdrawal Syndrome." The above email was sent all over Tidewater Council on 3 July. If you know Renee, you'll totally understand it. This is 100% true as far as we know.
10. How long can a person be troop committee member and not know where we make rank sign offs in the handbook? Pam Vickrey was on her way to the troop meeting on 3 Jul 2008 (see item 9, two entries for this page in one day after a long dry spell) to deliver her grandson's handbook to Randy Everette to enter into the troop database and process his Tenderfoot rank. On the way she called Randy and SM Phil McGinnis and told them the book had no signoffs; that it was blank. She was all excited and wondered why they were missing, why the board had been done, etc. In the meantime people were quite perplexed. When she arrived at the meeting this deepest of Scouting mysteries was solved...she'd been looking at the front of the book instead of the back. Both Phil and Mark Cayo told me to add this to this page. This is 100% true.
