Hankins Tales: “They call me Crazy John…”

(Originally posted to social media on January 25, 2015)

From 1968 to 1978, I worked on the camp Staffs at Camp Ottari and Camp Powhatan. I did a little bit of everything during those years. I was on the original High Knoll staff but my favorite seasons were working as Nature Director. During my last season I lived in the Nature building at Ottari. It was a small room with a bunk and few books and a big cage filled with about 8 large Timber Rattlesnakes. This is the main reason my nickname is Crazy John.

Each week on a Thursday night we would have a nature lecture at the building where I lived. Now in a lot of camps if you offer a nature lecture you might get a dozen kids to show up. However my lectures were famous and every kid in camp and even a few of the local neighbors would show up to see what the kids called the snake show. The small building would be standing room only and the kids would be packed like sardines although nobody wanted to be on the front row for some reason.

I worked with people like the Echols brothers and Jeff Janosko, John Ecternach, and Russ McDaniel. I would begin the lecture with birds and fish and lesser reptiles, but eventually that big cage full of ‘rattlers was drug out to the front of the room. I had already put the big snakes in bags so I could manage them without getting too many bystanders killed. You could almost feel the anticipation in that room as I grabbed the first big rattler just behind the head. I would use a dark green number two pencil to hold the mouth open and give the kids a closeup view of a large irritated snake. Venom would just be flowing down my arm. It was great. The kids were very excited. They were saying to themselves, “if I tell my momma about this I will never be able to go to camp again in my lifetime.”

This show went on for about a half an hour. Each snake that I pulled out of the bags was progressively larger and more aggressive. The kids were in a state of shock. “If you think I am going to be able to sleep tonight, then you be crazy! I am going to spend all night standing on top of the outhouse.”

At last, I got to the show stopper: a big black female that was almost six feet long. This really was a big old mean snake, and it would shake it’s body trying to loosen my grip. The kids and adults had never seen a more terrifying snake… Fangs about four inches long, little beady slit-eyes, and froth coming out of it’s nostrils. Just when I finished re-bagging that snake I said, “And now, for the finale, here is the biggest snake in the building.” Kids backed up and started looking for the exits. What they did not know was that I had gone into a novelty store in Roanoke and found this huge rubber snake that was supposed to scare birds out of the Garden. I reached my hand down in that bag and at just that moment one of the other staff members would turn off the lights to the building. I let out a horrendous scream and heaved that rubber snake out – in there amongst those boy scouts.

There was a tremendous amount of activity going on in that dark room, and then the lights came back up and everybody was running for their lives. Down on the floor were about three kids engaged in a death struggle with that rubber snake. I would like to think that I contributed to a lifelong memory that each of those children will cherish forever…

With permission of the author, these stories by noted scouter and storyteller John Hankins are featured here at Natahwop.Org. He shares these as part of the history and lore of Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, and the High Knoll Trail, where he spent many years of his youth. John has an incomperable first-hand knowledge of this scout reservation, as he blazed most of the original trails for High Knoll, and has hiked the rest of them several times over.

John Hankins grew up in Troop 50 (Woodlawn United Methodist Church) in Roanoke, VA. He attended Camp Powhatan as a young scout, then worked at Philmont Ranch as a ranger. He returned to the reservation to serve on camp staff from 1968 to 1978. He was a legendary naturalist who could interpret the outdoors unlike any other. As a teacher, John often relied on the element of excitement to get his point across. His weekly lectures at the nature lodge, for example, introduced scouts to either a live rattlesnake or copperhead – usually dangling on a stick within a few feet of the front row.

John and several others first envisioned the now-legendary High Knoll trail system. They took it to council leadership for prospective funding, where the idea gained several key advocates (but no funding). John recalls how – in those days – they couldn’t pay the staff with money, so they gave them patches. The High Knoll Trail would go on to become one of the best outdoor programs in the country.

John applied in 1979 for the open job of Camp Ranger, but the council said he needed more experience in that post. With his rejection letter in hand, he was immediately hired by Camp Chickohominy, and then by Camp Brady Saunders where he served for 33 years as Camp Ranger. John moved with his wife, Cheri, to West Virginia where they enjoyed the spoils of retirement: grandchildren, travel, and the great outdoors. As of 2024, they are living on the outskirts of Richmond where they can be closer to family.

(“Hankins Tales” are shared here by permission of the author. Each story is copyrighted by John Hankins, and may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission.)

The Natahwop

Hankins Tales: “They call me Crazy John…”

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