By Bob Templeton
Explorer Post 35 and Explorerette Post 35 were super active
in the 50s. Sponsoring a teen town, a rescue squad, a crack
close order drill team and traveling a lot. We had ongoing
projects to fund our activities.
We had a big old city of St. Louis bus and an old pickup
truck.
We contracted with forestry one year to plant trees and briar
bushes for erosion control.
Harold (Moe) Stephens, David Chester Myers and I would
go up near Blandville and collect dogwood trees. The forest
service had planted in beds for us to harvest. We loaded it in
back of the pickup and I would cut it into lengths containing
a certain number of spurs for sprouts. We had to plant 3,000
cotton woods on Wolf Island.
We were on our way home once and a wheel passed us.
Moe said someone has lost a wheel. About that time, he
slowed and we found out whose it was. The wheel drum and
all had separated from the axle.
We crossed the river by ferry at Columbus and had to cross
over to Wolf Island by a one vehicle ferry contraption with a
rope attached to it. We had to pole away from the bank and
use the rope to pull the little ferry across the chute.
We worked in teams of three. One would make the hole in
the ground. One would place a planting in the hole and the
third would close it.
We planted pine and briar all over with a large portion in
the St. Denis and Beulah area.
We traveled a lot as we were invited to march in many parades.
We were flag bearers for Rotary International Convention
and presented the flag of every nation having Rotary.
We constantly had that old bus rolling to a skating rink
somewhere.
Our most memorable trip was probably out tour of Kentucky.
We only left the state one night. We blew a tire going
down a mountain and the rubber hit the valve to the air on
our brakes causing us to lose brakes. Dr. Barber saw a sharp
curve sign and instead took a lane hoping for the best. It led
straight down and up another ridge to a church where we
were able to stop. I crawled under and had to cut the tire
rubber off so we could go. Slowly.
That night we stayed at Natural Bridge and the park superintendent
called around looking for a 1100 X22 tire for us.
Only Greyhound in Lexington had a tire that big and they
would lend us one. On the way to get it, our clutch went
out. Greyhound did not have the parts needed but the manager
knew that Cincinnati City Bus had similar buses and he
called their CEO who told him he had the parts and for us
to come to the bus garage. He told us no charge on the loan
of the spare tire and gave us a tag and told us to put it on a
Greyhound and it will ship back free.
The garage was beside the end of the bridge into Cincinnati
and he met us with two mechanics who volunteered to
work all night on it. He provided a city bus to take us to the
Island for the evening and on return we pitched our sleeping
bags under the Newport/Cincinnati Bridge. When we
got up they had our bus ready having fixed our clutch and
everything else that they could find to upgrade it. They had
washed and cleaned it inside and out. When we went to get
the bill it was just a few dollars. He had marked all parts
for our model obsolete for twenty four hours and he and
the mechanics all three worked on it all night had donated
their time.
We managed to stay in a Kentucky State Park all but one
night on that trip, and we made so many new friends.
We wrote to all those who helped us and thanked them.
A few years later we got a letter from the Cincinnati bus
CEO`s daughter informing us that he had died and how attached
he had gotten to all of us. She said he had cherished
our thank you letter.
I think the highlight for all was when we were at Cumberland
Falls. We found an empty parking lot on this side of the
river and set up camp. We had no sooner set up and a Girl
Scout Troup pulled in and asked if they could join us. We
toured the park together and played music and danced most
of the evening.
There are so many good and generous people out there. We
just have to open our eyes.
I have been in four countries and most of the US but the
scenery we got to enjoy on that tour of Kentucky matches
any of them. We stayed at nearly every state park in Kentucky
and were disappointed at none of them.
We became close friends to an Explorer Ship troop in Cairo
and another Explorer Post in Raleigh, Tennessee and we exchanged
trips to visit one another and have a party three
times a year.
I doubt anyone who was in the Explorer Scout Post can say
that the experience did not help them in the military and in
their success in life. You get out of scouting what you put in,
with interest.
Published in The HICKMAN COUNTY TIMES 7-31-12
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