At the risk. of causing Lord Baden-Powell to turn over in ‘his grave, I must confess that once, when I 'was.a Boy Scout, I cheated. Wait. Don’t turn away in - disgust. Fate intervened. I was: punished. You'll love the story. t It is ‘set. in The Fifties. I had risea ‘through the ranks Scout © ‘Troop » to. ‘become Leader of the Coyote Patrol. That meant there’ were at North. “Vancouver's attack sirens-appear to be a flop as a method of warning local residents about disaster. Even a vacuum cleaner was enough to drown out the ean was. . Supposed warning ople. that ‘the: test was going to: ‘take, place,. the advance: ‘publicity proved to bea resounding success. Those are the. preliminary conclusions reached following North Vancouver's community disaster alert test heid Saturday, The test. was designed to discover how well the 16 air raid sirens in North Van- couver would work as a system of warning residents about a local disaster, such as a propane explosion. Upon hearing. the sirens, people were instructed to turn on the community - least five other kids I could boss around. It was the first time in my life 'd been able to boss anyone. I mean, if I “said they had to stand at -_ attention for ‘half an hour, , they had.to doit. of the: “4th. ‘Winnipeg _ ‘Boy. . - Power. Wow. |. * 2They ‘had -to salute me, too. Of ‘course, I’ had to salute a lot of other people. aes Rear R ea. Dis a & Rakes ONE OF North Vancouver's 16 early attack warning by Bob Hunter 's honour But it wasn't too bad. The Bay Scout salute was like an early peace sign. And it is amazing how many Scouts ‘from the Fifties went on to become hippies... . eo The Coyote Patrol liked to y the way. We won _almost all the games. And after a while, we got ad- dicted to being the top patrol. The day came when a gigantic gathering of some , sirens. (Ellsworth Dickson photo) television “channel further instructions. The problem was that a large number of people did not hear the sirens. “The majority indication Saturday was that quite a number of areas did not hear the siren,” District Mayor Don Bell told council Monday. The second probicm was for Suspect nabbed A suspect was arrested in Vancouver Friday in con- nection with tho stabbing of © a 28-year-old Vancouver woman who was found naked by. the side of the road at Lions Bay last week. Squamish RCMP said the investigation was continuing and had not released further details at News press timc. North vancouver City Library 121 West 14th St. All fiction, — non- : fiction | 50¢ per rbook Aingutaing ut Life) saturday Only june 27 10am-4pm that those who did hear the siren were unable to distinguish it from other sounds, such as a vacuum cleaner. Bell said’ that he was in No.1 Firehall at the time of the test, two blocks away from a siren, and he still couldn't hear it very well. Alderman Jim Ball said that he listened for the sirens at Granville Square in Vancouver, and from that distance they seemed “like the sound of a dying loon 500 miles away.” NOW OPEN 400 Scouts from all over Western Canada and the Mid-West States was due to happen at a campground south of Winnipeg. Well, this was our home turf. All during the gathering — called a Camporee -- Patrols would be judged on their skills at building stockades, tables, latrines, chairs, swings, anything and everything. The more things you built, the better your chance of winning the award as Best Patrol. Now here was what really appealed to me: The Leader of the Best Patrol would be given the award by the Governor-General of Canada, and would get to make a speech to the assembled throng of Scouts. Whew. oo 6 Bell said he was “disap- pointed” by the results of the “| test. sirens) heard.” But as a way of warning people about a disaster, Bell | said “the test does not rule out the use of the sirens as a method.” He said some of the “ possibilities would be to increase the volume of the’: : sirens or use a different signal. While the test itself was a failure, there were few complaints about the publicity beforehand. “The publicity program paid off well,” Bell said. North Vancouver District Fire Chief Bob MacDonald was also quoted as saying that the advance publicity campaign did a good job of making people aware of the test. Mayor Bell was scheduled to appear on television Tuesday night to give a complete report on the test from information compiled at the time of the test that was not ready for Monday's council meeting. STAFFORD ANTIQAES Shipment just arrived from England many beautiful oak pieces tables, chairs, leaded glass bookcases, desks, bedroom suites, piano, welsh dressers etc. North Vancouver. 1384 Main Street 980-7412 2 blocks west of 2nd Narrows “I had hoped they (the ~ would be better = To make a grotesque story of vanity and lust for acclaim short, I hit upon a scheme. Every weekend, for a month in advance of the Camporee, the Coyote Patrol secretly met at the camp site. Bringing along our Boy ~ -Scout Instruction Manuals, we built perfect stockades and tables and chairs and all sorts of other fancy outdoors gadgets that consisted of bits of wood lashed together with twine. Then we hid all the pieces — in the bush. Our motto was “Be prepared”, wasn't it? Come the day of the Camporee, we loafed around our tent while 400 other Scouts furiously chopped and whittled and knotted. We waited until dark, then darted into the forest, hustied our prefabricated materials back to our spot, and assembled it all in the dark. Guess who won the prize as Best Patrol? Right on. myuaAazmMo AMXO-—-A WM