The lodge banquet went surprisingly well. Why you may ask? Well, THE FIREPLACE IN FOSTER HALL ACTUALLY CONTAINED A REAL FIRE.  That was the first time it’s ever been lit for a public event without the building having been smoked out.

The food was unimpressive and the quality has dropped each year but there were some redeeming aspects.  Dave Hasel, the council executive, made a delightful little speech about the importance of the Order of the Arrow, so short in fact, that Bill Schilling and I didn’t have enough time to make a complete Buzzword Bingo board including such phrases as “this is their Philmont” and “the average time a boy spends in Scouting is”.  He did bring up the cliche of “it doesn’t matter how much money you have when you die as long as you helped a child” crap, this statement obviously ignores the deceased’s children as well as their family’s financial needs but after the “I have nothing profound to say” affair I’ve kept my mouth shut at Scout funerals.  Bill Schilling whispered to me “God, this speech is so boring the fire’s falling asleep” and I agreed.

Then, I saw a whole bunch of people get angry as Dave left before Bill Kuhn’s memorial.  It was the first time I’d seen the Broken Arrow ceremony done and it was impressive as the folks standing directly in front of the fire didn’t say anything as their pants nearly caught on fire and the ceremony was done from memory.

Towards the end, I had an idea.  Every major Order of the Arrow event attended by Unami Lodge #1 involves their stupid film canisters full of dirt from the first ceremonial site.  Now that they’ve gone underwater so many times I think they should now give people flood water from the first ceremonial site.