The Bald Headed Scoutmaster (aka Stinky & Sneezy)
     By Calvin H. Gray

During our Philmont trek in 1995, one of our crew members (age 14)
decided he would go the whole trek without taking a shower. After the
first two or three days we had established an "order of hiking" and this
Scout was third in our 12-person crew. I was directly behind him.

Around the 5th day, I couldn't stand the odor any longer and told him to
get behind me. About 30 minutes later, I looked around and he was next
to last in the order of hiking as everyone else had noticed his odor and
made him move one place to the rear. The adult bringing up the end of
the line was about 15 feet behind "Stinky" and making sure he kept his
distance.

By the 8th night, one of our adults had returned to base camp due to
heat exhaustion. To keep from putting up an extra tent, the Scout whose
parent had gone back to base camp decided he would tent with "Stinky"
who had been tenting by himself until then. Well, the boy almost had an
asthma attack due to the odor of his tent-mate. He began sneezing, stuck
his head out of the tent and made several extremely funny comments about
his smelly friend. As it turned out, "Sneezy" survived the night and we
made "Stinky" take a shower the next morning.

When we begin preparing for our return to Philmont in 1997, I told
"Stinky" and "Sneezy" I would shave my head if they would spend their
10-nights on the trail together in the same tent. Given "Sneezy's"
reaction in 1995, I never thought they would take me up on my challenge.
Well, they did! They also got to help shave my head during a troop
meeting, and Troop 405 had a mostly bald-headed Scoutmaster during the
summer of 1997.