I have fond memories of Camp Whitsett, the placw I went every summer as a Boy Scout. As an adult, I have an appreciation for how hard it must have been for the leaders to keep all of us boys out of trouble. They always organized classes to keep us occupied. The subjects were carefully chosen to teach us skills that would be useful to us as adults, like Knot-Tying, Archery and Morse Code. I actually did learn an important lesson from my Morse Code class, though I am sure it was not one they intended to teach me.
We took one hour classes on Morse Code Monday through Thursday. On Friday there was a test and a contest to see which Patrol could send a specified message the fastest. One scout from each patrol went to the top of a hill carrying a signal flag and a piece of paper with a message. He was supposed to wave the flag on his left side for “dit” and his right side for “dah.” The patrol members at the bottom of the hill also had a flag and would wave it once if they understood the letter sent and twice if they hadn’t understood.
We were not very optimistic about our chances because every time we were scheduled to study the Morse Code on our own, we looked for frogs instead. Craig Smith was our guy at the top. The Scout Official yelled “Go!” and the contest was underway. We all watched Craig as if we could actually understand Morse Code. In reality, we weren’t really sure which direction was “dit” and which direction was “dah,” not that it would have mattered anyway. The other Scouts at the top oft he hill were waving their flags to the right or left, but Craig was waving his wildly all over the place. We waved our flag twice, indicating to him that he needed to try again. He waved his flag around again. We waved our flag twice. The third time Craig tried to communicate with us, one of our guys yelled, “He’s drawing a “Y”!”
Since sending Morse Code was hopeless, Craig was drawing the letters in the sky. We gave Craig the signal that we understood. Next he made a circle with the flag – obviously an “O.” Then he drew a “U.” In no time we had decoded the message, way ahead of the other patrols. We claimed victory, but the other Scouts objected that we had cheated. Fortunately, the official judge was somewhat of an entrepreneur himself and admired our ingenuity. We won the Morse Code contest without using any Morse Code!
I am reminded of this experience every time I see kids sending text messages. They are using a cell phone, so they could just talk, but for some reason they prefer typing in messages. It is so time-consuming that they have invented an elaborate code for phrases they use often. Now I understand the advantage of texting over talking. You can send a message to a friend while he is in class or at a movie without disturbing anyone. You can text the same message to a group of people, but you can only talk to one person at a time. And you can text someone when you don’t really want to have a full conversation. Still, I would not be surprised if 100 years from now, Camp Whitsett offers courses in Knot-tying, Archery and Text Messaging. After 4 one-hour classes in texting, the patrols will have a contest to determine who can send a message the fastest. One Scout will think texting is stupid and he will just pick up the phone, dial his patrol, tell them the message verbally and win the contest. LOL.
David LeSueur lives with his wife in Littleton, Colorado.