Warning: Do Not Read this post if you get stuck with songs in your head.
I make another switchback turn up the steep drive toward Thunder Mountain Boy Scout summer camp. This turn is Brave, each switchback carrying a sign of one of the 12 principles [1] by which a Boy Scout is supposed to live his life; only clean (haha) and reverent (Baha haha) remain.
I'm laughing because this is Friday late afternoon, and the boys have been here all week. As a boy scout leader, I should have been here as well; however, with a new career just started, I couldn't take that much time off, and thankfully we had enough parents to cover the first part of the week.
As I walk across the football field toward the trees, the camp is eerily silent. The large grass-covered field is the staging area for the several hundred boys and adult leaders to gather, raise the flag, say the pledge, sing campfire songs and at night play capture the flag with glow sticks.
Our scout troop is poor or, should I say, less affluent than many of the groups that attend annually organized summer camps to earn merit badges and build confidence and strength. As a troop, we can attend an organized camp every few years. The remainder of the time, we create our summer camp. Although more challenging to put together, the bases are often more rewarding as our group retreats to one of the neighboring desert national parks to have a week-long experience.
I find our campsite nestled among the pine trees and aspens. Tents scatter through the trees with a central fire pit and tables. Only a couple of boys are present, and I ask where everyone is. "Down at the lake getting their canoeing merit badge." One of the kids says, "they'll be back for dinner soon." I glance at my watch, surprised to find that it reads near 5:00 pm. Although Thunder Mountain is close to Cedar City, UT, it has still taken me almost two hours to drive up the canyon and then the endless switchbacks to arrive at the camp.
Thunder Mountain camp has an altitude of nearly 10,000,' and I could feel the effects of thinning air as I dragged my sleeping bag and tent to my allotted space. In the distance, I see boys walking through the trees, and many boys appear from the other side of the football-sized field. Then, with it, a loud voice is singing, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and it goes something like this! I know a song..."
"What the heck? Who is that loudmouth?" I say as the song grows in strength and volume. Finishing up unpacking my sleeping bag and mattress, I glance out the tent door just as Evan walks into camp singing at the top of his lungs, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves," and he wasn't wrong. As we ate dinner, he sang the song. When someone asked him to stop, he would sing louder. "What is going on?" I ask one of the other adults. "He won't shut up; I can't wait to go home tomorrow." Yep, kids. We finish dinner, and the only silence is when Evan is eating food, and Evan graces us with the occasional rest period; ah, the blessed silence of the mountains.
After dinner, we move toward the football-sized field for the final bonfire and camp staff skit farewell. Our troop joins others as we walk across the area, separating and blending into the unit as a whole; when from the center of the group, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves..." and an adult leader to my rights points and says, "there's that kid! I'm going to strangle him in his sleep!"
I think about Evan a lot; he was a force to be reckoned with, not caring what everyone thought of the things he enjoyed doing, and singing was one of them. Unfortunately, he contracted an aggressive form of lung cancer after never smoking a cigarette and died in his early twenties. Bless you, Evan, and if you're not careful, the "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves" will rattle around until you laugh or cry thinking of him.
Written September 22, 2022
References:
[1] [Academy Leadership | News](https://academyleadership.com/news/201501.asp#:~:text=There%20are%2012%20principles%20a%20Boy%20Scout%20lives,have%20and%20live%20by%20a%20set%20of%20values.)