Stories From the Brooklyn Scout Camps
Coleman Lantern
Bill Dixon
I live in a home here in Richmond, Va. that was
built in 1923 and has a large basement. The house in Brooklyn on east 2nd
street had a large basement also, but we called it a cellar. The
only time I heard the word basement was when people lived there...like
in "Finished basement". But if it only had the furnace and it just
contained "stuff" it was a cellar. When we first moved in...in the late
30's...it had a coal furnace and a coal bin. Big coal for the heat
and small coal for the hot water furnace. You would never call a
place that had a coal bin a "basement".
The cellar was where I kept my boy scout stuff
and more important was the meeting place for all patrol meetings of the
Flying Eagle patrol of Troop 240....Dan Riviera Senior Patrol Leader. In
fact Dan left some of his camping gear in that cellar. That was where I
kept my Coleman Lantern. A few weeks ago I found in my Richmond cellar
my Coleman lantern....the same one I bought in a hardware store in Monticello
in 1949.
When I got off the train in 1944 at Tustin, New
York I threw my pack in the truck as we were told and started the walk
up the hill (to me it was a big mountain) to the Camp Oneida of the old
Division 3. I would assume I had a flashlight in my pack. I do not
remember but that would seem reasonable. I think a two-battery flashlight
was pretty cheap. I never had an official Boy Scout flashlight since
that would have cost much more. I remember Dan had a black flashlight that
had three or four batteries and that seemed like a spotlight to the rest
of us. My pack was not very large and I had everything for two weeks in
it. I would have been wearing my uniform with knickers, long socks,
long sleeve shirt and the wonderful wide brim had. I would trade today
my Coleman lantern for that wide brim hat.
The pack was called either a Forester or an Alpine
pack. I had my first and freshly purchased summer uniform in it;
underwear; a pair of sneakers and I guess a sweater and a poncho. It was
a very cheap poncho and later years I got a much better one. I had two
army type blanks in a horseshoe on my pack. I also recall bringing
my mess kit although I would not know why I would need that. And
my flashlight. The really "in" outerwear at camp were those heavy
wool shirts that were black and red checkered. In my six seasons
as staff at TMR I guess I had two of those. But a camper in 1944 did not
have that kind of shirt. We had just an old jacket.
There was no electricity in Div. 3 nor was there
any electricity in Div. 1 or 2. I do not know about Div. 4. There was electricity
in the Talequah area...certainly in the Infirmary and there were lights
in the Talequah council fire area although not very bright.
The place lit up when the council fire started.
As a kid growing up Brooklyn we had been "to the
country" a few times and I had seen houses without electricity and that
had outhouses. Thus the Willeys and the lack of electricity was no big
deal to me and I do not believe it made any real difference to my friends.
Most had flashlights. There were some kids and even staff that had another
type of light source. It was a small lantern (could hold in one hand) that
had a flame shooting out the front. Some may recall the name but I do not.
I think the fuel was something mixed with water maybe? I do not recall.
I do recall that this little thing was a very dangerous light source.
Kids would use it to put their initials or whatever in the canvas tents
or wood bunk walls. There was carbon residue. There was also a GREAT
chance starting a fire. I think in the early 50's we prohibited those
lanterns.
But the camp-issued lighting source was the old
reliable Kerosene Lantern. It was very reliable although it provided a
limited amount of light. Each eight-person tent or cabin had a lantern
and there was also one for the staff tent. Most lanterns hung in
one place in the camp and of course every morning that globe had to be
cleaned. The adjustment of the wick was every important. Not
just anyone could master that art. The wick had to be far enough out to
provide the maximum amount of light BUT not too far out that would cause
smoke and the carbon would cover the glass globe and it would turn black.
Toilet paper was used to clean the globe.. definitely the recommended method.
The adjustment of the wick was something too important and was rarely left
to a first year camper.
In the years I was in Div. 1 I would often see
kids from other Divisions grinding along on an overnight hike following
the trail that went down by the Indian Cliffs. I have a vivid picture of
kids with their packs and often have a Kerosene Lantern hanging on the
back of their pack...bouncing up and down. Why anyone would carry
a Kerosene Lantern on a overnight hike was beyond me. A cigarette
lighter provided as much light!
In the office on the Hill in the old Div. 3 they
did not use Kerosene lantern but rather they had a Coleman lantern.
As a camper in Camp Oneida you see that great white light coming from the
screened-in office. In Div. 1 there was a generator about thirty yards
in front of the office by the road. This location made it easier for a
truck to fill up the gasoline tank to run the generator. So there
was electricity for the office which ...the same building...contained the
Infirmary and the Camp Directors quarters. There was a shower at the end
of the infirmary that had hot water. Not sure if that was electric
or propane.
In the Dining hall we had a few Coleman Lanterns.
Coleman Lanterns were and are wonderful things.
An ingenious invention! But they also required a certain level of skill
to maintain. To start you had to learn how to burn the cotton (?) mantel
after being tied on. The idea that we were using an ash still boggles
my mind. Further there was a little handle ...L shaped by the stem
that had to be turned just properly. You could turn it, then would seem
the lantern was off and turn it again and it would light up. How did it
do that? And of course it had to be pumped up to provide air pressure.
At night the lantern would start growing dim and you had to leap up...unscrew
the little lock/cap and start pumping.
I bought me first and only Coleman Lantern...the
one I still have...in 1949. I was the Scoutmaster of Kennebec and Marty
Stein was the Asst. to SM. On my day off I went into Monticello in search
of action (which was never ever found) and had the ten or eleven dollars
to buy this lantern. A terrific purchase which I do not regret
to this day. Coleman lanterns are indestructible!
The camp owned a few that had double mantels for
the office and dining hall. But for the individual the single mantel lantern
was fine...more then fine..it was perfect. We lived in a 9 by 9 tent.
The lantern was designed to light up every inch of that tent. You could
read books and so. Marv and I had a tent on Camp Slow Blow Horn rock
and we often read by that lantern. But the real magic was fourth period.
It got a bit chilly in fourth period and the Coleman Lantern was not only
designed to light a 9 by 9 tent...it was to heat one as well. You
would roll the flaps down and it was really very comfortable. The
lantern was also perfect for walking around taking bed checks. Every
kid could be easily spotted in an instance and all the rotten things they
were probably doing could also be spotted. It required something called
"White Gas" and of course Nick Dale was only too happy to sell you White
Gas. It cost about 20 cents a gallon and he had a large tank of it
by the road going to the cabins. White gas is no longer easy to purchase.
There is a product called Coleman Fuel that sells for about $4.99 a gallon
or more. Of course it is nothing but white gas.
Electricity came to the Divisions around 1950.
In Division 1 to get the wire and electrical towers they cut a large swatch
from Div. 2 to Div. 3. They also nearly cut out the induction site in the
process. This was real overkill. For the amount of power that was
used in two months... a heavy duty and extra long extension cord may have
done the trick. I now seem to recall it had something to do with putting
the dishwashing stations in the dinning hall. Did they need the light or
was the water boiled by electricity? I do not know.
Whatever...there is nothing like a
Coleman lantern.
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Last Updated: January 18, 2003
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