The History of Troop 64
Part V

The Later Years

by
Wayne Sakal

The 9th Edition Boy Scout Handbook of 1979 returned to traditional skills in Scoutcraft. A joint troop canoe trip took place that summer. Over forty Scouts moved their encampment along the waterways of Maine. This same year Robert Guertin relinquished his tenure as Scoutmaster. Ronald Henchcliffe regenerated his servitude as the 13th Scoutmaster of Troop 64. The 1979 fall district camporee was held at Putnam State Park. The theme was Olympic Good Turn. The weekend of October 12th to 14th was in recognition of the summer games to be held in Moscow.

By 1980 Scoutmaster Ronald Henchcliffe setup an entire year of events. Ron regenerated the Applician Trail Hikes each spring and fall. Meetings were changed to Thursday nights at the Congragational Church on White Plains Road.

In 1981 Charles Waldo Jr. received the distinguished honor of being the 24th Eagle Scout of Troop 64. Robert Guertin returned from New Hampshire to his hometown of Trumbull. It was just the most suitable occasion for Scoutmaster Ronald Henchcliffe was relocating out of the Troop 64 geographical zone. Robert Guertin administred a second term as he became the 14th Scoutmaster of Troop 64. The final Eagle Scout awarded by Troop 64 took place in 1983 as Joseph Wittmer became the 25th.

Summer of 1984, I was again revived from Scouting retirement for a summer canoe trip to La Verendrye Provincial Park, Quebec, Canada. This was to be my third and last canoe trip with the troop. On Saturday, July 21st, 1984 at 5:27 AM I drove my 1984 Pontiac Sunbird to a dark foggy parking lot of the Congragational Church. In the distance I could decern car headlights approaching my position. Soon I was surrounded by cars with parents depositing personnel and knap-sacks. Bob Guertin and Charlie Waldo arrived punctually at 5:30 AM, each with a jeep beneath three canoes. Shortly we were off for a days passage to Canada on the troops 9th annual canoe trip.

The twenty of us broke up into two groups of ten. Charlie took the older Scouts while Bob and I worked with the younger Scouts. It was a Troop 64 classic canoe trip, only difference was a different cast of characters from years past. I was now considered an "old-timer", a destinction I thought would never maifest upon me. But it does happen when you fool with the passing of time.

A few weeks after the canoe trip, I was invited to the meeting for a slide presentation of the summer canoe trip. The meeting hall was entrenched with energy and excitement as was when I was once a member a decade ago. At the conclusion, I was presented with a souvenir of the expedition. A 3 X 5 color photograph of myself in the interior after a frog-choking Canadian thunderstorm. While leaving, ascending the basement steps, photograph in hand, I had no idea that I was leaving a Troop 64 meeting for the last time. I was off to Egypt as Troop 64 was off to their finale as the "eleventh hour" was inevitably affixed upon us.

The summer of 1985, Troop 64 went on it's last canoe trip to Maine. They returned to the West Branch of the Penobscot River. The land where they first began exploring two decades ago.

1986 displayed another transformation in leadership as Victor Spigarolo Jr. became the 15th Scoutmaster of Troop 64. The troop continued with local campouts and ski trips as Victor was fending the onslaught of diminished enrollment. Membership dwindled from ten to four Scouts by 1987. The struggle was on to endure, to not fall into the sea of oblivion. The final blow came when the troop was no longer able to use the Congregational Church as their Headquarters.

In defiance of the angished attenuated fall, the troop could not hold on. Not enough older Scouts to carry on the traditions. A dampened supply of novice recruits to muster the vision of splendor yet to come. Troop 64 became only an illusion of a once gleaming past. The tents, tarps, dutch ovens, trail chefs, flags were donated to other troops in the town.

March 1st, 1988, Fairfield County Council banished Troop 64 from active service as their charter was not renewed. The records were extracted from the council data-banks after more than half a century. Troop 64 no longer existed as an active organization, but remained engraved in the memories of the Scouts who were once a part of its foundation.

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