Bobbie Benett was my patrol leader in the Boy scouts. We went camping in the scouts one time and he had the shovel to "trench the tent" which we had pitched in a dry creek bed. During the night it started raining and the creek became a flowing stream, running through our tent. We had to move the tent in the pouring rain that night. Bobbie called me up one time and told me to bring firewood to the scout meeting. I went out in the woods and chopped down small dead treed and carried a heavy pile of wood back home. I filled a backpack up with wood, tinder, and kindlling, to make a fire. At the meeting, we had to take a trip out to some place where we had a fire building contest. The first fire to burn through a string, strung over the fireplace, would win. We had to light the fire with only two matches per fire. When I found out what we had to do, I hid the wood and stuff I had packed in under some dry pine needles under a pine tree. One of the scouts, I dont recall, maybe Bob Knight, and I had to "look for firewood". I told him to look with me under the pine tree. I "discovered" the wood there and tinder and we went back and built a big fire very quickly. We came in 2nd or TIED for 2nd, and won half a can full of mini-tootsie rolls. Later, in Mount Rogers National Park in North Carolina, I ended up stranded in the park for two days. I only had two matches. I built a small fireplace out of rocks and built a fire that lasted the whole two days, using just the two matches. I also played baseball with Bobbie. I was a pitcher. He hit a ball that came right back and hit me in the right shoulder. I quit playing baseball after that. Bobbie, like me, was from a poor, but honest family. I don't know how he died and was sorry to hear he had died some years ago. May his soul be rested.
Dan Russo
Bobbie Benett was my patrol leader in the Boy scouts. We went camping in the scouts one time and he had the shovel to "trench the tent" which we had pitched in a dry creek bed. During the night it started raining and the creek became a flowing stream, running through our tent. We had to move the tent in the pouring rain that night. Bobbie called me up one time and told me to bring firewood to the scout meeting. I went out in the woods and chopped down small dead treed and carried a heavy pile of wood back home. I filled a backpack up with wood, tinder, and kindlling, to make a fire. At the meeting, we had to take a trip out to some place where we had a fire building contest. The first fire to burn through a string, strung over the fireplace, would win. We had to light the fire with only two matches per fire. When I found out what we had to do, I hid the wood and stuff I had packed in under some dry pine needles under a pine tree. One of the scouts, I dont recall, maybe Bob Knight, and I had to "look for firewood". I told him to look with me under the pine tree. I "discovered" the wood there and tinder and we went back and built a big fire very quickly. We came in 2nd or TIED for 2nd, and won half a can full of mini-tootsie rolls. Later, in Mount Rogers National Park in North Carolina, I ended up stranded in the park for two days. I only had two matches. I built a small fireplace out of rocks and built a fire that lasted the whole two days, using just the two matches. I also played baseball with Bobbie. I was a pitcher. He hit a ball that came right back and hit me in the right shoulder. I quit playing baseball after that. Bobbie, like me, was from a poor, but honest family. I don't know how he died and was sorry to hear he had died some years ago. May his soul be rested.