The Council Room

[Chris Gill]

Mike brought up his flashlight which made me think about the flashlights that we used to have back at camp in the 60's. Without a doubt the biggest baddest flashlight in camp was the one Mr. Bently used to carry, I remember it as about 30 inches long and probably had about a dozen D cells in it. I think he could lightup anything in camp from the Little Guest House.

One of the first things you learnd in J8 from Mike Freeland was "NEVER shine a flashlight in his eyes". Geeze he hated that.

I had one of those chrome flashlights that took two D cells and I killed the batteries at least once a week. I was jealous of the kids who had the big lights that had the battery that was about 6"x6''x6". Lots of campers had the cheap plastic ones that never worked right, the threads always got crossed and the bulbs got loose.I guess you can tell a lot about a guy by his flashlight.

Now I have a headlamp that weights about 2 oz., has an LED light that is very bright, and the two tripple A batteries last about 2 years.

"How come there are no B batteries?" Stephen Wright
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1965-1975
C7,C8,J8,S4,S3

[mfutoran]

Hi Chris, now there's a memory. Yea, I can remember the chrome ones and the big red ones that took the batteries with the springs on top that were supposedly water-proof. Oddly I don't remember my flashlights. Probably one of those cheap plastic ones.

I had a flashlight that took 4 d cells and had a focusing beam. You could pick out the house numbers on a house at almost 100 feet. I wonder what BMB's battery budget for that thing was?

I've wondered about the B cell thing too.
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Marc
68 - J8:Mike Freeland, 69 - J8:Mike Freeland, 70 - J8:Mike Freeland, 71 - S2:Roland Simmons, 72 - S4:Paul W. K. Freeland, 73 - JA1:Stephen Downs, 74 - C2(JC):James Nagle

[Jim Culleton]

I certainly do remember the flashlight that Brad used to use . . . . . . . had to have been 10-12" long and never seemed to fail even in the worst of moments and weather. It must have used at least 4-6 "D" Evereadys which I'm sure he had a good supply of at the Guest House or Red Roof. Not sure whether it was made of chrome or steel . . . . . . . . . but certainly could have been used as a weapon if need be!

The flashlight I used at Camp was an old "olive drab" Boy Scout" hand held flashlight. The actual light source was at 90 degrees to the base so one could use it holding it vertically. Not sure if it was made of metal or plastic??
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'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[Mike Freeland]

You beat me to it Jim. I was going to mention those 90-degree flashlights when I read your post. I think they were plastic. They had a spring-metal clip on the back so you could hang it on our belt and have it wave around in the woods, lighting just about everywhere but where you planned to walk. I never did understand the logic behind the right angle. Do you know?
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'56-C-9 C. Mosher '57-C-9 Bill Feaster
'58-J-14 H. Peavy '59-J-11 G. Wood, C. Duncan
'60-S-8 R. Leavitt, D. Hemphill '61-S-1 E. Slocum
'62-JA-1 H. Dunbar '63-C-2 (JC)
'64-C-5, (JC) Councilor
'65-C-9 '66 - '72-J-8
'73-JA1 '75-J-6

[Jim Culleton]

That was probably the logic behind those 90 degree flashlights, just as you said, so that one could attach it to ones belt and have it shine forward. And as you said . . . . . . . . the light never did shine where we wanted it to, particularly while walking down that one-lane path to Land's End from the Senior Camp or back from Campfires on Sat. nights!
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'56 - J-9 J. Moulton
'57 - J-11 J. Moulton
'58 - J-4 E. Web Dann, S. Hood
'59 - S-6 P. Leavitt
'60 - S-2 F. Avantaggio
'61 - JA-1 RK Irons
'62 - C-9 JC with P. Freeland
'63 - C-1 JC with S. Borger
'64 - C-6 Councilor

[DavidAyars]

I had one of those Boy Scout fashlights, too, a metal one. I think there was also a later plastic version. The button could be used for Morse Code signalling, something we did frequently on campouts from Melanson's, to say, "Emergency! Send more bug juice!", which would always whip the waterfront OD into a whirling dervish of activity... "[Yawn]... what the heck was that all about?!".

Besides the clip thing (which really wasn't helpful at camp since we didn't wear belts), if you think about wrist angles, the 90 degree design was supposed to facilitate Morse Code transmission (though the button was too stiff to do it fast), and the 90 degrees made these fashlights good for reading a book in bed. But it also made them awkward for aiming while walking, so I didn't really like mine. I just wanted to get to and from the Pines without stubbing my toe on a cussed water pipe. Like all metal fashlights, the bulb filaments would usually break if they were dropped. And I think they had a glass lens which was also fragile. Before I had to pitch mine because the battery compartment rusted solid with acid-oozing, over-wintered batteries, my lens was cracked badly and I went through a dozen bulbs, being a bit of a klutz, or as Dan Mannis used to say, a "greasy, grubby clod" (same thing).

Now that I think about it, I realize I had a Boy Scout fashlight, a Boy Scout canvas backpack and aluminum frame, and a Boy Scout canvas-covered ovoid aluminum canteen, not because I particularly wanted to celebrate Boy Scoutedness, but because my mom undoubtedly shopped for this crap at the nearest Boy Scout supply store only because it was more convenient than a real camping gear store. Within two or three summers at Wyanoke, I'd moved on to better designed gear.

Here are some pictures I swiped off an eBay auction for one.



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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975