I recently attended Aquehongian Lodge #112’s 75th
Anniversary Banquet. It was the final meeting for the Order of the Arrow Boy
Scout lodge that I grew up in. On April
1, the lodges in all five New York City boroughs will be merged into one.
The Order of the Arrow (OA) is an honor society
for campers. In order to become a member, you need to be at the least a First
Class Scout and meet several camping requirements. Then you are selected from your peers.
Those who are voted in undertake an ordeal. In
the old days, when I was selected, you slept on your ground cloth, were given a
candle so you could read the pieces of the OA ritual. You ate little and worked
the next day. Times have changed and thus, the ordeal changed with the
times.
I was an eighth-grader when I passed my June
’84 ordeal. I joined the ritual team that fall. That team is now called ICE
(Inductions, Ceremonies and Events).
Again, times have changed. I took
my Brotherhood the next spring. To
obtain that honor you must have been an Ordeal member for 10 months, been on a
committee, attended a few service projects and learned the OA’s obligation,
handshake, song and admonition.
As I moved along in my membership, I became
ritual team chairman and used to write the OA Tap Outs for my Lodge. I called
them “Tap-Mania”. I was copying “Wrestlemania”, something all of us 80s teens
loved.
In Sept. 87, I was elected Lodge Chief. One of my best friends counted the
votes. The incumbent dropped out of the
race minutes before the election. My opponent got two votes. I wasn’t supposed
to know that. My buddy opened his mouth. I hope the kid I beat cast one of his
two votes. I got like 50. The next year, I
ran unopposed.
My dad was chief of the soon-to-be
defunct Shu Shu Gah Lodge # 24, Brooklyn. I joined Scouting to emulate “my
fadder,” that’s what a former Chappy camper, my summer camp called his dad. I
think he still does.
While I was chief, I had to be
publications chairman at the same time. I was somewhat of a dictator. But I
loved my Lodge so much. I could not let anything go wrong. I was chief of our
50th Anniversary party.
In June 1988, I earned my Vigil Honor, the
highest honor you can receive in the OA. In my mind, it is the highest honor in
Scouting. I am Eagle. However, the Vigil is more spiritual. Those of you that
know me understand how spiritual I am.
I was chief during the Ordeal weekend that I
took my Vigil Induction on. Sadly, two Cub Scouts drowned during the
afternoon.
My
friends and I were building the ordeal’s induction fires and went to the rededicated
Berlin Lodge in Pouch Scout Camp to get lunch. The old one was torched about a
year before my some kids.
The
ritual team did not associate with anyone else. We were bound to each other. We
formed a clique. We walked down the trail and saw a Cubmaster letting his Cubs
swim in Orbach Lake, Pouch Scout Camp. No swimming was allowed at the time. We
yelled at them and made them come out.
We
ate and walked back. We saw the Cubmaster, who admitted he couldn’t swim was in
the lake up to his knees screaming the names of two kids. I was wearing a
bathing suit. I tossed off my shirt and sneakers. My other ritual team members
did the same. We jumped into the lake and led the Lifesaving merit badge lost
bathers drill. We pulled one kid out. The ambulance rushed him off to the
hospital. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive.
We were told the other kid ran
out of the lake. So we set up a massive search all day and night.
I did my Vigil induction that
night. My dad came to the morning ceremony. He saw me get my Vigil sash, axe
and name. “Alhaquot Aptonen” interpreted as “Stormy Speaker”. I was so proud.
But he pulled me off to the side and said the FDNY pulled the other kid out of
the lake. He drowned.
I made my best friends in my
Lodge. Many of the guys are now married with
kids. Some are getting married.
When I was chief, I gave out
positions to be on my “Cabinet”. Man did I love playing politics. I was not nice. I was only 17. So if you
wanted a job and ate lunch with me in the Tottenville High School “liberry”,
you got a job. Yes, I know it is library. But a teacher in I.S. 34, once said
all my students think they are going to the “liberry”, not the library. So it
stuck with me.
As ritual team member, I played
many parts. We dressed up as Lenni Lenape, Delaware Indians. We wore war paint.
I was Meteu, the medicine man of the circle in induction ceremonies. I was
Allowat Sakima, mighty chief of the circle in the Brotherhood ceremony. The
Vigil inductions remain secretive. I was in those too.
The kids that got their positions
by hanging with me in the “Liberry” practiced and photo copied the rituals at
lunchtime. We were a Tony-award winning team.
I was very dramatic. Once a helicopter was flying over our ritual site.
I was doing the OA’s “Legend”. I stopped looked at it and raised my staff. It circled and flew away.
I can tell thousands of
stories. My friends and I sometimes meet for a few beers and reminisce.
Jumping back to our final
meeting. They called up all the Vigil
members to join the ceremony to call out the new candidates for this esteemed
honor.
I’m happy to say that everyone
was able to join us in the ceremony. Some of our older crowd had some trouble
getting up there. But we made sure they were recognized.
The meeting ended all of us in
a circle singing, “Firm Bound in Brotherhood,” the OA song.
Our eyes were filled with
tears. I had an amazing time seeing
people, I have not seen in over 20 years. I wish others were there. Those that couldn’t make it because they had
other plans live too far or are in the great lodge in the sky. We placed a sash
on the fire for those brothers that were watching us from heaven. We walked out.
Part of me died.
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