Category: Hankins Tales

(Originally posted to social media on March 25, 2021) Once a week we got a night off. It was 1968 at Camp Powhatan and it was my first year on Staff. I was being paid a whopping 15 dollars a week to work in a place that I loved beyond measure. A few of the…

(Originally posted to social media on April 5, 2021) Back in the early 1970s, I was part of a very special group of staff members who reopened Camp Ottari for the first time in a long time. The camp had originally been a patrol cooking camp and it just never took off as expected. By…

(Originally posted to social media on May 21, 2021) In 1969 we got to the last couple of days of camp and the decision was made to take down the staff camp ASAP. I think there was a big rain on the way. In those days at Camp Powhatan, the rain could sweep in with…

(Originally posted to social media on May 22, 2021) We just had a brief visit from my old friend Tim Ward and his wife Ginger. Tim is someone who I can trace all the way back to Grandin Court Elementary school in Roanoke. We attended the same middle school and High School. He is about…

(Originally posted to social media on May 24, 2021) I was very sorry to hear that my old friend Pat Dillon has resigned as the Ranger at camp. I am the one who recruited Pat about 8 years back to replace Tim Streagle who had moved to Idaho. However within about a year after being…

(Originally posted to social media on May 24, 2021) And the hits just keep on coming. I was just notified that my old friend John Hurley has died. Yet another gut punch. I can think back to the late 60s when I worked in the kitchen at camp Powhatan during Ordeals. My Scoutmaster, Old Bill…

(Originally posted to social media on September 21, 2021) My last public appearance with the Heart Of Virginia Council was at a huge Council Camporee down near the Richmond Raceway complex. I had been asked to tell a story at the main camporee program on Saturday night. There were probably 6000 people in that crowd….

(Originally posted to social media on January 17, 2022) The previous story about the greased pig (see blog post of January 18, 2018) reminded me that you never knew what to expect from Boy Scouts. Many years back there was a survival campout involving troop 400 from Richmond. Most of these kids were affluent young…

(Originally posted to social media on February 11, 2022) I want to issue a public and profound apology to someone I barely know. The young lady’s name is Phyllis Leary Newbill, and she lives in the Blue Ridge Mts Council area. From what I can gather she hates me for stealing one of her rattlesnakes…

(Originally posted to social media on April 19, 2022) Years ago and just before I retired, my wife and I were walking together in Richmond. I do not recall the exact location because that has no bearing on this incident. In either case, a young man approached me and he squared himself in front of…