Indulge me if you will and try to imagine. You don’t have to close your eyes, because that will make it difficult to read the rest of the article, but feel free to daydream a bit. If it helps, hide out in the reading room with the porcelain chair and lock the door behind you.

Imagine that it is pre-1840 and you’re on your way to the annual rendezvous. As you approached the designated meeting area, you begin to catch the smells of campfire accentuated by the aroma of evening meals. There is already a sea of tents and campsites to wade through as you attempt to find a decent spot to pitch your own. As you pass by what appears to be a makeshift kitchen, your stomach rumbles in envy as your nose enjoys the enticing scent of freshly baked ash cakes. Pressing further into the encampment, you notice that fur clad participants are scattered everywhere and have already begun to trade their wares. At times it is near pandemonium as trappers try to find exactly what they’re looking for.

This event does not happen very often and people have come from all over the region to trade what they have, meet old friends, make new friends, play games and have a lot of fun. It’s a chance to socialize, show off your skills, and fill your bags with supplies for the upcoming year.

Jumping ahead to 2008, compare this scene to the Great Salt Lake Council Jamboral held Sept. 12-13 at the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park in South Jordan. Upon our arrival, the polo field was already a sea of tents and campsites. Scouters from 23 districts in the Great Salt Lake Council as well as Varsity Scouts from the Trapper Trails and National Parks councils were all busy setting up tents and preparing their evening meals.

It seemed like mere minutes after arrival that pandemonium broke out. Pin trading was on. Each boy was given a set of 12 identical pins and a pin-patch. Once completed, the set of pins created the Scout badge with an eagle overtop the flour de le. The boys tossed aside the fact that they hadn’t eaten and the crazy fun began as the boys began trading.

The air was filled with, “I need a head!” which was followed with, “Right here! Whatcha got?” Al’s kids, Scott and Johnny, finished up their sets and came over to help my boys. At times it was pure mayhem and their assistance helped make it a successful event. Each one of them went home with a complete set; even David, who, when asked where his pins were, said, “Right here in my bag.” He had taken the set of identical pins and put them away so they didn’t get lost. We quickly traded them out.

For me the pin trading is the pinnacle of the Jamboral, primarily because everything after that is on the other side of the chaos scale. Similar to a rendezvous, the Jamboral offers so much more than trading. Following the musical entertaining the skies were lit up like the Fourth of July and there were no bad seats anywhere in the entire complex. Unless of course you had some personal business to attend to in one of the green torpedoes, but the fireworks display was long enough that you still had time to wash up and catch the grand finale. By this point I was exhausted and couldn’t wait to crash into my tent and listen to boys walking around, talking, and playing until 2 in the morning.

There’s a lot to be learned from a camp like this. For instance, it doesn’t matter if breakfast is as simple as ham and cheese omelets in a bag, you can never wake up early enough to have everyone fed and ready for the mountain man escort to the flag ceremony. I also learned that when you discover that you have a boy who doesn’t like eggs, it’s nice to have someone like John Poulson flipping griddle cakes right next door. Thanks again, John.

And what would a rendezvous or Jamboral be without the games. Each of the 23 districts set up a game in the indoor arena. The boys had to play a minimum of four games and visit four booths. Here’s where I learned something else. It’s really easy to temporarily misplace a Scout in uniform when he’s camouflaged in a sea of a thousand khaki shirts. Golf, paper airplanes, human foosball — there was so much to do that we weren’t able to visit every game. The booths provided more entertainment. The boys enjoyed making leather key chains and petting the opossum while I picked up ideas for future outings. Cameron was so excited about getting a donut by getting me to sign up for Wood Badge. It was a bit disappointing to tell him that I’d already been.

After lunch the tent city seemed to vanish. On the way home I asked Tanner if he enjoyed all that crazy fun.

“Yeah.” He fell asleep shortly after that.

One thing’s for sure. We’ll be back in 2010.