The year 1930 began a new decade with new leadership for Troop 50. 

 

David Oaksmith recalled;

The succession and Assistants is not clear from your list. Cy Tibbals asked me to come in and help him out, then he asked me to take over for him, and I got Dick Heidgerd as my Assistant. When Dick moved back to Maryland, I got Doug O’Brien  as Assistant. He took over as Scoutmaster and kept it for several years.

 

What Dave Oaksmith recalls as “several years” extended to nine years as Scoutmaster for

Douglas O’Brien, the longest anyone ever served in this post. Doug had been a Scout in Troop 50 as least since the Vaudeville Review of 1924. Oaksmith believed that he died in 1973. 

 

David Oaksmith was the oldest surviving former Scoutmaster at the time of the sixtieth anniversary. He moved from Mahwah about twelve years ago and died about 1990. He remembered many details about the scouts and scouting then:

 

Who were some Scouts who were in your Troop?

There were quite a number of scouts that I remember during my time Brainard was a scout that I  remember during my time. Brainard as a Scout. Charles Bacon was still a scout under me. All the Scouts you list as First Class Scouts in 1930 were still Scouts under me, as were the two Cishek brothers, Frank and John, and Wilbur Hartwell. There was also a boy named Zacrone who runs the Rod and Gun Shop up in Suffern. Dana Knowlton was  a Scout; I don’t know what rank he held.

What were some activities you did in those days?

Well, we had drills over in the Church building. We met there all the time I was Scoutmaster and also under Doug O’Brien. We put on a counting demonstration one July 4th at Lake Oweno. It included all kinds of scouting skills like lighting a fire without a match-all the skills you had to be able under Doug O’Brien. We put on a scouting demonstration one July 4th at Lake Oweneo. It included all kinds of scouting skills like lighting a fire without a match-all the skills you had to be able to do to pass the tests. Most of the kids went away for two weeks to No-Be-Bo-Sco. One of hardest jobs was to get people to drive out boys. I did it for three years, and Pop Brainard took up some as well. I was never able to get away to camp with the boys. I remember that we had to bring one of the boys. I remember that we had to bring one of the boys home; he was homesick-crying all the time.

 

Did Troop 50 participate in Council activities like the pilgrimages to Gettysburg?

No, there was nothing like that in my day. There was little outside help except for summer camp. We did some community service projects. One that I remember was the tent caterpillar campaign. The boys would bring in the whole tent, and we would burn them There were prizes for the one who brought in the most. Every year we wiped out tent caterpillars in Mahwah, at least until the campaign for next year. We also participated in Decoration Day and July 4th Ceremonies. We did a number of cleanup campaigns around town, but it eventually got to be too much. People were calling up the boys to get them to clean up their yards in the spring for free. 

 

What did the Troop Committee do?

It was all so long ago that I don’t remember much. I see I am listed as having been on the Committee for several years, but I don’t remember ever having gone to a single meeting. Some of the Committee Members were fellow Legionnaires, and those were the years when the Legion sponsored the Troop, but most were with the Troop because they had boys in the Troop. 

 

The pattern of scouting activities during the thirties is the familiar one: hiking and camping, scout skills, and service to the community. 

 

Hiking has always been a favorite scouting activity, and the 1930’s saw hikes to many familiar areas such as Torn Mountain, Claudius Smith’s Rock, Pigeon Rock, Lake Erskine and Sheppard Lake. An overnight bike hike was taken in 1936 and a number of off-season trips to No-Be-Bo-Sco. The Troop was active in sporting events. 1933 alone saw a skating championship, a track meet and a swimming meet. 

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Civic projects continued as well. The 1930’s saw the climax of the annual tent caterpillar campaigns. Two tickets to a Yankee doubleheader were offered as a prize by Troop Committee Committee Chairman Oaksmith. The winners were Roger Erikson, who brought in 132 tents, and Edward Monroe, with 118. Sibley Reid found 116, but third place stayed home. An annual campaign to supply and rehabilitate Christmas toys for the needy  continued from 1933 to 1939 with the Girl Scouts. Annual Clean-Up weeks were conducted with good effect in 1933 and 1935. The Troop participated in patriotic days as before. Particular note was made of their presence on July 4th, 1930 and 1931 and on Memorial Days in 1933 and 1937. 

    

    The North Bergen Council Circle “A” sponsored many activities in which the Troop participated. The Troop constructed a bridge for the 1933 Circus in Hohokus. They attended the Council Ice Carnival in 1936 and the Columbia-Penn State football game in 1935, and Council hikes and camporals. The Council also sponsored the twice yearly Courts of Honor, which were held at different locations each time. Merit badges and high ranks were awarded with appropriate ceremonies. Scout Sibley Reid was selected as the best Scout in the Troop in 1935 and went as a Council representative to the National Jamboree in Washington. 

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A particularly noteworthy adventure of two Mahwah Scouts was recorded in The Ramsey Journal of July 21, 1932. James Foster and Charles Bacon decided to go to the Buffalo Centennial Celebration. They hiked and got rides from passersby, arriving in Buffalo after three days on the road. The Journal reported:

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In Buffalo they passed the first night in a police station: all the beds being occupied, they slept on the floor. On looking over the inmates, young Bacon refused to take his shoes off, not being sure that they would not disappear during the night. One of  the transient inmates told the boys that if they ever got in the vicinity of Ridgewood, NJ, they would find the jail most comfortable. They made the journey to Buffalo in three days, spending less than a dollar of the five they started out with. 

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They reported to Scout Headquarters in Buffalo, and after visiting the exhibition as the guests of the Centennial Committee, they started for the home:

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The first person on the way home to give them a lift was a tattooed man from a circus who entertained them...with the story of his life under the “big top.” And so they went on their way, sometimes by getting a lift from a lonely truck driver, sometimes by motor car and then again by long and tiresome hikes. Their interesting journey of about 1,000 miles finally came to an end with their return to Mahwah...none the worse for their many interesting experiences and much wiser in worldly matters. 

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In later life, Charles Bacon was one of many Troop 50 members who served in World War II. In the course of 31 months overseas, he was shipwrecked (in Bermuda) and served in the Tunisian and Rome-Arno campaigns in the European Theater. 

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More bits from The Ramsey Journal:

    (At the July 4th celebration) The Boy Scout Troop under Scoutmaster David Oaksmith...saw to it that no child who either participated or witnessed the sports in the afternoon went without a free ice cream, cake and pop. (7/9/31)

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    Seventeen of the nineteen registered scouts of Maheah attended the (District sponsored) hike which covered about ten miles of the Palisades Interstate Park trails. Claudius Smith’s stable rock and den were visited. A nature game and signaling contest were held. (3/30/33)

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    The troop commander announced that Sibley Reid would be troop representative at the National Scout Jamboree in Washington D.C., August 21st to the 30th. He will go as a member of the North Bergen County Council delegation. (7/4/35)