In The Beginning
My Scouting experience started before Ahwahnee. It started under the Scouters: Walt Wittney, Don Griffin (B.P city council/Mayor), Art Opsin,
Bob Scow, Bob Schonefield, the Derliks, Bill Fulton (wofat), Dick Herrick (the cheese man), Jerry and Sally Pollack, Willis (“Ash” or “Joe”) Ashbough, Ed Laird, Ed Cook, Svend Yensen (with a “Ye”), Ken LaCross, Fred LaVelle, Ken Hickenbottom, John LaBare, Jerry Bird, Don Fairis, Don Piantoni (of course) and many more I’m not able to remember right at present. . . and am sorry.
As my dad took me to father/son events – even OA; I got to know others like Jeff Vaughn, Steve Mooney, Randy Graff, David Yensen, and members of the Ahwahnee Staff as I was going through my OA ordeal and brotherhood Ceremonies.
The most memorable situation was that at one of the Walter Knott District. At one of the District Dinners they were doing the Golden Boy, and How Much is a Boy Worth. Carl Schonefield was selected as the golden boy. I was chosen to sit on a large scale that was built one afternoon at the Schonefields’ So at this dinner I was in the part of the program of how much is a boy worth where during the presentation they would add golden bricks to finally equal out the 2 arms.
I sat there wondering how come out of all the boys in the district I was chosen to partake in the presentation. There must have been many more qualified Scouts than myself. . . But I felt very much honored to be selected to partake in the presentation.
DMPiantoni
I remember all these good men. My favorite outside of dad was always "Joe" Ashbaugh. It is partly because he worked for the City Of Buena Park Water District and was always at the city well by GB Miller Elementary School when we were going home from school. We would sit and talk to him for 15 - 30 minutes every time we saw him and he always call girls Sam and the boys Joe". Our mom used to go there to find this strange man we would talk to because we were not allowed to talk to strangers. Every time she went there he wasn’t there or he had just left. Then one night we went to a carnival at Bellis Park on Knott Ave in Buena Park. When we got there Dad said he had to go talk to Ash. While he was walking over to talk to Ash us kids all ran past him yelling hi to our friend Joe. We who knew the Joe & Ash were the same man. That became one of our favorite stories because mom was looking for the stranger her kids had talking to and she had known him for years. She just didn’t know that we on Before Ahwahnee
ReplyDeleteDONNA PIANTONI
Now, that is a good story too Donna! It sounds like a plot Shakespeare would have used for one of his comedies. Noel on Before Ahwahnee
DeleteKeep 'em coming, David! It's good to hear these old names again too. I liked Bill Fulton a great deal. I was even in his troop for a while when I was 16. Noel on Before Ahwahnee
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind thoughts once again, David. You are helping keep some of the old memories alive. When we are all dead and buried, our written words will live on hopefully. That's all we got - but somehow it will have to suffice.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, my friend.