In the middle of January of 1996 I found out about a new Boy Scout Troop forming in Clarksville, NY. This troop, number 89, had dissolved a few years earlier as the previous generation aged out. The troop was reconstituted that month, and I went to their second meeting, on my 13th Birthday.

I had been a Cub Scout in Greenville as a kid and received my Arrow of Light during the spring of 1993. After that I didn't go on to Boy Scouts as the Boy Scouts Troop in Greenville had a reputation of being rather large and raucous with a lot of older kids. My parents didn't want me to join there, and I was at best indifferent to joining their troop.

I wasn't involved in Scouts for a period of about three years when I joined up with Boy Scout Troop 89. This Clarksville Troop, being newly formed, was all young boys, and was probably the biggest that Troop 89 has been in the past decade. 15 scouts strong, with a ambitious Scoutmaster, we were off and going. Tony Pasaquale was the Scoutmaster, and he had a Seeing Eye dog, but he was far from blind when it came to recognizing talent. Having three patrols, 15 scouts, and a number of very active parents, we had a very busy calendar.

Our first campout was up at Rotary Scout Reservation in early February 1996, a winter cabin camping trip in the woods at Prue-Haymen cabin. Tony said we had to cook everything over a fire—regardless of weather. We spilled Spaghetti sauce all over the place when the wood burned through that was holding up the pots. Clean up or K.P. duty was particularly fun. I was cold but fun scraping out those pots, and cleaning off the smoke from pots, in darkness. The snowball fight in nearby lean-tos was great fun, as was the night hike. And we knocked off a great deal merit badge and rank requirements.

The second trip was a camp out in the back of the church in Clarksville during March 1996. Again, we cooked all of the meals. We cleaned up a lot of brush at the church and around the parishioner’s house. At night, we played manhunt at the then obstacle course in the basement of the church at 3 AM. It was great fun, and we continued to knock off Tenderfoot requirements and work on the Environmental Science Merit Badge. By the time this campout was done, I also had completed the Tenderfoot badge.

In the summer that year, I went on the Dawson Farm campout. We camped out in the farm woods, did archery in an alpalpha field, hikes through hay and cornfields, and had a great time. I completed most of second class there, from orienting to building a campfire. I did the majority of wilderness survival, camping out under the stars, and also went on a ten-mile hike from the Dawson Farm to the Connelly's house, which was 11 miles away, but had a swimming pool and pizza.

During the fall of that year, I went on a district camp out at Colonie Town Park. This was great fun, despite the heavy rain Saturday night where several scouts woke up in about 4" of rain as they had pitched their tent in a rain-swollen ditch. We got to use a lot of orienting skills. It was a great deal of fun.

So that's what we did in the first year of scouts. I will write more about other years in scouts in the future, and other events that were specifically memorable for me.