The Year of 1962
Lifted from the 10th Anniversary Booklet
Explorer Post 636
In February the Explorers boarded a bus and headed for Mt. Waterman on a snow outing-what a relief from the busy city life-and come face to face with miles of pure white snow. Everyone had a grand time including the parents.
During the Sports Travel Show five of our boys won first place in the bowling tournament of the Pueblo District but placed third in the Inter-Council playoff. Members of the team receiving individual trophies and a team trophy were: John Inouye, Ronnie Taketa , Robert Nagano, Scott Uematsu, and Phillip Ozeki.
Our super activity for the year was a ten-day trip to the Seattle Fair. Sixteen boys and advisor, Kaz Uematsu, boarded a bus on the morning of August 9th. Due to the wonderful cooperation on the part of the members of the Sacramento Buddhist Church, Seattle Buddhist Church , San Jose Buddhist Church, the boys were able to save a great deal of expense. The Churches furnished them with overnight facilities, cooked meals, and light refreshments. The boys had several car washes , the parents sold senbei . . . more senbei . . . and more senbei . . . plus the Shishkabob Booth at the Carnival … to help defray the expenses. Their trip also included a tour of Vancouver, Canada chaperoned by a member of the Seattle Buddhist Church . They cannot forget the fresh peaches, fried salmon, fried chicken, and the home made pie-ooh!!! boy!!! were they ever delicious … that was served at the home of Gary Kurimoto’s aunt in Hood River, Oregon .
In December Kaz Uematsu had surgery done on his knee , but the program was carried on as usual. At least in the hospital he had the TV and radio to keep him company and a well deserved rest.
The families of the post had a potluck Christmas party at CAC-including Santa Claus. Kazie Iwasaki and Rose Adachi did a wonderful job in setting up the food for the parents to bring which included baked ham, yam, molded salads, green salads , potato salads, carrot and peas, apple and pumpkin pies, cake, coffee and punch. A skit, game, and passing out of Christmas gifts rounded out the evening of festivities.
The boys had their date-dance Christmas party at CAC on the following week. Cookie and punch were served and door prizes given out. They all had a wonderful time.
During the year the boys have meetings twice a month. They have participated in the Sabin Vaccine, the May Co. Jamboree, the Spring and Fall Camporee, and the Sports Travel Show. The roster increased by the addition of 10 boys during the year. The parents have cooperated immensely as we have monthly ” toban” for ladies to serve refreshments at our parents meeting.
Boy Scout Troop 636
In January we chartered a bus and went to Charlton Flats for a day of fun in the snow.
The following-month our troop had inter-patrol basketball tournament at Dorsey High School. To the winner went the championship trophy. The highlight of the day was when the staff played the dads.
On Scout Week we had a grand time at Disneyland spending a day riding all the amusement rides and seeing all points of interest. We climaxed the Scout Week with a joint dinner with the Explorers at the King’s Tropical Inn.
In May we went to our District Camporee at Chilao, where we enjoyed two days of camping. June we participated in our Church Carnival.
July there was the Court of Honor at Ladera Park where we received merit badges for our work. Joint picnic was
- held this month at Elysian Park, our first test of hiking came when we hiked ten miles to Devil Gate Dam.
August was an exciting month. Our greatest thrill came when we joined the Nisei Week parade carrying the Baby Mikoshi and appeared on television. Then came our long awaited summer camp.
September was the Griffith Park Planetarium month. This was most interesting for future astronomers. Participated in the County Fair as we did in 1961. Participation was strictly invitational. Selection was made on a competitive basis from the list of best units in the Los Angeles Area Council.
October was Winter Jubilee time. We climaxed our Unit Troop Camping at Lafayette Park.
November was the month for more merit badges, such as 25 mile cycling on two weekends and for other boys twenty-mile hike and finished with a Good Turn Bag.
December found us helping with the Sabin Test and ending our wonderful year with our annual Christmas Party.
Cub Scout Pack 636C
JANUARY-
Snow trip . . . to boys who live in the area of no snow this was an enjoyable treat-wonder how many boys were able to clobber the various leaders with snowballs?
FEBRUARY-
Autograph Time! All of us must have our Tommy Davis signature stored some place even tho’ the Dodgers didn’t win the pennant, and remember the pointers he gave us at the Blue and Gold Dinner?
MARCH-
Basketball jamboree- altho’ this was a one day round robin affair, Den 1 continued to follow the footsteps of Boston Celtics.
APRIL-
Father and son Steak Bake-with the fathers cooking-and followed later by a baseball game.
MAY-
Pinewood Derby with no known casualty reported this year from sawing, drilling, filing or painting , especially drilling.
JUNE-
Swim party at Crenshaw Athletic Center and beginning of baseball season for our pack.
JULY-
Completion of baseball season and guess which Den won the championship . . . Yep! Den 1 . . . following the footsteps of the New York Yankees. I believe some of us forgot what we learned from Tommy Davis.
AUGUST-
Picnic at Firestone Park-many of us will remember the Paul Bunyan trail and ravines where we got our clothes all dusty and dirty much to our mothers dismay . . . but those lizards and frogs were fun to chase and catch.
Nisei Week Parade-we participated in carrying the “Baby Mikoshi” in the parade and appeared on television for few seconds.
SEPTEMBER-
End of Summer vacation . . . many of us must have really worked on our elective and achievements since the greatest number of badges and arrows were awarded in the month of September than any other month.
OCTOBER –
Annual Pueblo District Jubilee and May Company Jamboree. All of us really enjoyed the many variation of 2000 A.D. physical fitness program at the jubilee.
Halloween Costume Party-many of the boys and girls had on costumes which were out of this world . . . I wonder who thought ’em up-the boys or the mothers?
NOVEMBER-
Uniform inspection-called off due to weather conditions . . . we really had our brass polished too!
DECEMBER-
Christmas Party-Games, skits, foods, pinata, singing lead by the versatile Mrs. Ito and gifts handed out by St. Nick whose voice sorta reminded us of Mr. Takeuchi.
Of course, there were skits performed at each Pack Nite by various designated dens, and every den put forth additional effort to achieve the “Above and beyond the call of duty” type of presentation.
In between the above hustle and bustle monthly doings, each den sandwiched in some of the following activities:
-visiting observatory, museum, fire stations, International Airport, Knotts Berry Farm; taking in circus and athletic events; participation in roller/ice skating parties, fishing trips, swim parties, birthday parties, hiking, carnival, cooking and various shapes and forms of craftsmanship, marking, drilling and knot tying under the tutorship of Den Chief.