Our family's Boy Scout experiences

When we heard on the news today about a tornado hitting a boy scout camp in Iowa, so many memories of our sons Ronnie and Bill and their scout camping experiences came to mind. I'm sure there were many that they didn't tell us about in fear that we'd never let them go again!

One of the first is when Ronnie went on a camping trip to N. GA when we lived in Atlanta in the 1960's. He was with an advance group that went ahead to the mountains to prepare for a troop week-end camping trip. Soon after they arrived it started getting dark and started snowing. It was almost a blizzard. They packed snow around the base of the cabin to keep out the wind. They had enough food to last for awhile and I don't remember if they had any heat. All I remember about the trip was being so concerned about if they were keeping warm. Of course, the trip was called off and the other campers remained at home. It was a couple of days before the snow melted enough for them to get down off the mountain and come back home.

Bill Gilmer

We went through the Cub Scout, Webelos, and then the scout ladder all the way to Eagle with Ronnie and Bill. James was in boy scouts at his sheltered workshop in NC for a short time. He definitely did not like going camping after one experience where it rained and they were in tents and he got wet. That was enough for him.


Bill and Ronnie both spent summers working at Camp Dierks in SE Oklahoma when they were in high school. Bill started out working in the dining room. I remember that one summer Ronnie taught Archery. Most of all I think they enjoyed swimming and canoeing in the cold lake. What I remember about Camp Dierks was the big bags of very dirty clothing, esp. towels, they brought home occasionally to wash. They weren't paid very much but loved working there, meeting new friends, the good food, and learning a lot about the outdoors.

Ron hiking at Philmont 

Perhaps the most memorable time for us was when Ronnie went with a friend Doug to Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico one summer. He started cutting grass for friends and neighbors early in the spring to earn enough money for his trip. He and Doug went by charter bus with scouts all over East Texas.

We had traveled out west with the boys the summer before and had some idea of what the area looked like; lots of big mountains once you get out of the desert area going north. I remember that some of the mountains had snow on top all year long.

While Ronnie was away and Bill was working at Camp Dierks, Jim and I agreed to work at a camp for mentally handicapped kids which our son James attended. The camp was held at a Girl Scout camp just a few miles from Paris, TX where we lived. It was really isolated and we didn't have cell phones, TV, etc. to get any news during the week. One day Jim went back into town and went by our home and the phone was ringing. The Paris News reporter had been trying to reach us to see if we had heard from Ronnie and we told him where he was. They had seen an AP news release about a scout who had died and they suspected bubonic plague and all the campers were quarantined until they could find out what caused the scout's death. As I said, there wasn't any way we could get info except that the scout was not from Texas and we than assumed Ronnie was ok. He was on a trail in the mountains and they let them move to an area with a cabin and pack mules to ride. Food was dropped to the campsites while they waited out the medical report. Ronnie showed us his pictures of the "Bear bag" and how the bear got to their food one night and pulled it down from the tree. The bear bag photo here was from Google.

We were anxious to get back home to listen for any news from Ronnie, and we finally heard that his group was fine and would be coming home the following week. It was decided the boy died from a complication he had before coming to camp, with a chest infection, etc. The high altitude was too much probably.

Ronnie and Bill both earned their Eagle Scout rank and I'm sure they remember a lot of good scout experiences. Their dad accompanied them on some of their camping trips but didn't volunteer too often. He said it was hard work! Besides, he didn't like sleeping outdoors and all the bugs, etc.