Gathering around the campfire, these Troop 1 scouts are forming memories that will last their lifetimes. Do you have memories of your own that you could share with them?
One of the best things about boy scouting is the memories and friendships that it forges in those who are a part of the experience.
Do you have some special memories about Troop 1 to share? A reminiscence regarding a favorite hike, a helpful scoutmaster, or the best campfire ever? If you do, the Troop 1 Centennial Committee would like to hear from you.
We’re looking for memories from scouts of all ages. Sure, every scout went hiking and camping but what was it like to conquer Haleakala toting a canvas tent or a stainless steel canteen from days gone by? And were there really honeybee hives at the back of Wilcox Hall? Best of all, who in the Troop could be counted on to bring that extra dose of laughter to every campout or troop meeting?
Troop 1 alumni, it’s up to you to write this record. Newspaper clippings may help, but it is only you who know the troop’s true story and it is you who we look to to tell it.
Fortunately, the sharing is easy. Simply add you comments to this post or email us your pictures. We’d love to have your name but will understand if you prefer not to share. After all, it’s the memory that lives on and the memory that we will celebrate as we journey down the trail this anniversary year.
Note: Comments will be approved by the webmaster before posting.
5/2/10 Thanks to Herb Lee for his e-mail to me directing me to this site. I see I am listed as getting my Eagle Scout badge in 1957 on the web site. Somewhere in my stash of precious mementos, I still have that Eagle Scout metal.
And yes I do remember hiking through Haleakala with other scouts, finding a good size dead goat (with horns on it), and bringing it back to camp (legs tied to a pole that we carried with the goat swinging on it) with a couple of my fellow scouts. All of this was to the amazement of those who were in the camp … who thought we were somehow great hunters who could bring down a 100 lb goat with our ropes, hatchets and scouting ingenuity.
That trip was part of our week long 50 mile “merit badge” hike. We started hiking from the summit. Hiked down sliding sands trail, staying one night at each of the 3 cabins in the crater, then hiking out Kaupo Gap trail on the 4th day to the Maui Coast then hiking up the Coast line (on the Hana Hwy) toward Hana. We lost the trail out on Kaupo Gap, so ended up making our own through the wild lantana (a thorny plant you really don’t want to tangle with) but finally made it to a gravel road where we could walk to the coastal Hwy.
From there we hiked to the Seven Sacred Pools ( OheoNational Park) where we camped that 5th night. We swam and bathed in the pools. Someone found some fresh water shrimp and opii in the pools and the adventuresome ones in our group added them to the meal that we ate for dinner.
The next day we hiked to Hana High & Elementary School (which was vacant due to summer vacation).
We camped in the school yard (field out side gym) .. and that night I remember watching meteors lighting up the very clear night sky and seeing how many we could count before falling asleep outside in our sleeping bags. It was such a clear night, we decided not to get into our tents.
Also the exciting part of finding a vending machine on the school grounds where those who had some change on them could purchase some candy. Small pleasure but really important after hiking & camping and eating your own cooking (mostly of dried foods) for a week.
And finally the next day hiked to the Hana airport from where we flew back to Oahu. We cooked and carried all our food and filled our canteens wherever we could. As we hiked along the Hana highway people stopped to ask us if we wanted a ride and we always refused, explaining that we had to do the hike on our own to qualify for our hiking merit badge.
That was one of many really great scouting adventures. Hope that the someone will put together another such trip for Troop #1, again.
My Dad, Ralph Marlowe, was the Punahou Troop 1 scoutmaster during those years. He accompanied us on that trip. Many years later I learned that he had been scoutmaster of Troop 1 before WWII. He was a scout himself and told us all many stories of his adventures in the Florida everglades, camping and hiking and scouting stories, all of which were very exciting and fascinating to all of us.
I know of one Troop 1 Eagle Scout (1956), Bill McGraw, who was a classmate of mine who later became a Troop 1 Scout Master.
Hope to see one or more of the people that I had the privilege of sharing my Scouting experiences with at the upcoming 100 year celebration. John W. Marlowe
Wonderful, wonderful story, John. Thank you for letting us learn about your adventure. If you look on our list of scoutmasters you will see that your father generously served as scoutmaster for six years.
Aloha Troop 1!
My son and I returned yesterday from the National Capitol Area Council’s 100th Anniversary Camporee at Goshen Scout Reservation, Virginia, and waiting for me was a postcard about Troop 1′s 100th Anniversary celebration. (I had no idea that Troop 1 was founded the same year as Scouting in the U.S., nor that our first Scoutmaster was D. Howard Hitchcock–what an honor!)
I was a member of Troop 1 in 1975-1977, first in (if I remember correctly) the Badger patrol, then the Eagle patrol, and finally–for about one week–the Pineapple Patrol.
I still have my yellow t-shirt from our trip to Moloka’i circa 1976–stained irreparably by grease, dirt, and pancake syrup. Even at the time, I knew it was something I could never throw away.
I remember my first Troop 1 activity: painting the playground equipment for an elementary school whose name I’m not sure I ever knew.
I remember my first Troop 1 meeting: pounding grommets into the edge of a canvas tarp.
I remember my first Troop 1 campout: at Kualoa Beach Park, where (as I recall) the Hokule’a was under construction.
I remember earning the Computers merit badge, and how impressed I was with the amazing capabilities of mid-1970s computers.
I remember a camporee at Bellows Field, where my patrol–through no fault of ours–did especially well at the walk/jog method of covering a precise distance in a given time.
I remember summer camp at Pupukea, where I learned first aid and was sent to fetch a “left-handed smoke shifter.”
I remember shooting rifles at Rocky Hill, and feeling as though I was transitioning to manhood every time the recoil pushed into my shoulder.
I didn’t take from Scouting all that I could have, and never advanced beyond Second Class. (My son Bradford is already First Class after fewer than 14 months, and has already earned more merit badges than I ever did!) Yet my Troop 1 experience was priceless: I gained confidence and learned that what I was capable of accomplishing was far greater than I had realized.
When Bradford was born I had the opportunity to get more out of Scouting than I had as a boy: I served as Den Leader for all five years with Pack 659 and have been Assistant Scoutmaster since we transitioned to Troop 20. Six of the seven boys in Bradford’s Tiger Cub den are still together as Boy Scouts; all six are First Class or very close to it; and I can imagine all six earning Eagle Scout.
Bradford and I plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro next summer, and hope to go to Philmont the summer after that–proving again the lesson I first learned during my short time as a Boy Scout.
Mahalo, Troop 1!
Mahalo, Brad, for a wonderful entry. Great to hear that you are bringing scouting to your son and his friends. The Pineapple Patrol! How interesting!
Hi Brad – it’s great to hear from you again. Thanks for reminding me about your first camp at Kualoa. You are correct that the Hokule’a was being constructed – about a hundred yards from the Troop 1 campsite. Some of us helped in weaving coconut fibers together to make the string what was used to bind the massive outrigger. Most of the Troop 1 scouts at that camp can say that they helped build the most awesome voyaging canoe!
Gary, it’s good to hear from you!
Yes, I remember weaving fibers for use on the Hokule’a–but I had often wondered whether we really did work on it, or whether that was just my child’s memory pretending I had done something more impressive than was really true.
I took 20 boys to summer camp last month, had a great time, and they earned something like 55 complete merit badges and another 40 or so partials. Best of all, we made popcorn over the campfire and brownies in the box oven. Boy, do I have fun in Scouting!
Howdy, Troop One. Surfing this great website reading about teh other SCoutmasters and Gary Payne’s scouting stories brings back so many wonderful memories, so I figure I’ll have to begin supplying some to add to the rich Troop 1 history – like our trip to Korea, Kauai, and a year full of 36 campouts; how we (you) rebuilt the troop in 2 years from just about nothing; how we started selling Christmas wreaths and why; becoming Scoutmaster almost by accident, what a wonderful experience troop 1 provided for me. A whole lifetime of adventures was packed into 3 short years and I am thankful for that since I have 3 daughters and no sons so (Boy) Scouting to me is a beautiful living memory. More later, and if someone could contact me about a wreath I’d appreciate it.
Loren C. Divers (Scoutmaster ’86 thru ’88)
e-mail: lorendd@yahoo.com
Thanks for the great comment! I have put out a request for a wreath. Don’t know if there any available (we had a super sale this year) but will find out for you. Would love knowing how the wreath sale all started. Please keep in touch.
Dear Troop 1:
I think of you about this time each year and think it proper to fill you in on some Christmas Wreath history.
In 1986 just after becoming Scoutmaster I discovered we owed Punahou $300 for broken mirrors at the old Dance Pavilion where we met and had a storage room behind that same wall.
We decided that as a troop, we needed to be a well situated troop, but not by asking the parents for any donations. Parent’s money was banned. The Scouts had to earn every penny to pay for the mirror, and also for all of our activities. So how could we make money as a Troop…Years before, during my Christmas breaks from the Naval Academy, Sharp’s Christmas House in Olympia, WA. had hired me to make Christmas wreaths for them, and they were quite popular. No one in Honolulu was selling wreaths. In 1986 we ordered an air freight container of wreaths and asked the Scouts to sell them, and give all the money to the Troop. We barely broke even. I ended up with smelly, rotting wreaths in my garage.
The next year, we made a commission deal with the Scouts. For each wreath they sell up to 25 wreaths, they got paid $3.00. For the 26th wreath and up, they got $4.00 per wreath commission. We sold a full 20 ft. container of wreaths.
By coincidence, the Aloha council began selling Christmas wreaths the same year we did, and we agreed that we’d continue on our own, and we made generous donations to them. We sold more wreaths each year by paying commissions to the Scouts (and great prizes too) than all the other Aloha Council troops combined. We reached our goal. In 1988 or 1989 we also brought in 3 containers of trees and sold them out, but we made only $3,000 – compared to the $11,000 we made selling wreaths. Mark Miyake’s dad, the late Howard Miyake helped out with freight by getting the fellows at Matson to give us terms on the container freight. We also sold 500 wreaths at wholesale to the Kalani high School Cheerleaders each year, and that paid our freight bill.
Some of the scouts were selling 150 wreaths and using the proceeds to buy all their camping gear, and we also used part of the proceeds to provide scholarships to scouts on our 50 mile hike in South Korea in 1988.
Merry Christmas to All and A Happy New Year!
Loren C. Divers