“Hey, everybody, it’s music time”

I’m not ashamed to say I am a Styx fan. I suppose it dates back to the first time I heard “Lady” on a jukebox in a near-empty Eagles Club in Moline or Clinton or somewhere in the Quad Cities region on an afternoon with my mom and her second husband, awaiting the start of a picks tournament. That’s a form of darts, for y’all uninitiated types. 

Anyway, “Lady” led to “Babe” and “Too Much Time” and “Renegade” and “Lorelei” and eventually “Mr. Roboto.” The whole progression takes abuse from my music snob friends, and that’s OK. To each his own.  I happen to think “Kilroy Was Here” is a timely concept album – commentary on the Moral Majority and Tipper Gore’s war on rock ’n’ roll. It was among my original purchases as a second-time member of the Columbia House record and tape club in 1984. In preparation for my college career I ordered a few Billy Joel cassettes, “Synchronicity” by The Police and “Kilroy Was Here.” 

Those cassettes were my musical foundation as I headed into my first summer on staff at Philmont and eventually my freshman year at Western Illinois University.

To cap the excitement of my first summer on Philmont staff, I was surprised by a new, live Styx album. I first heard “Music Time,” the opening track from “Caught in the Act,” while standing in line for an ice cream or root beer in the snack bar at Base Camp during a break in training those first few days. Or perhaps it was a suicide soda and an Applet or Cotlet fruit bar.

I was blown away. OK, it’s kind of a crappy song, all in all, but it was the first time I’d heard something new from Styx since “Kilroy” and it was a live recording. Ironically, it may have been the moment I embraced the difference between “live” music and studio recordings. I must have bought the cassette right after that summer, because I know it joined my collection soon.

But it seems to me we listened to that live album a lot that first week as we scoured the popcorn machine and scrubbed the ceiling light panels in the grassy area behind the Base Camp trading post.  What a week that was. Besides all that scrubbing – which, trust me, was a chore conceived in hell – we dusted and mopped and organized shelves and display cases in the TP. We took inventory. Should I say “did inventory” so nobody thinks we stole stuff? Actually, one guy did quite literally take inventory. About five silver belt buckles turned up missing and they were found in his clothes trunk.

Philmont sold a few styles of belt buckles to go with its iconic, tooled-leather belt.  The Classic buckle, a rectangular style with PHILMONT arched over the Tooth of Time – the 9,003-foot molar that rises above Base Camp – was available in pewter, bronze and silver. The first two were affordable and common purchases. I had one, which I broke by pulling too hard on the belt as the hook was caught on a chair. Impetuous youth. The silver model was a luxury item, a presentation piece for someone special or a special occasion.  If memory serves, the silver buckle cost $110 in 1984. The TP undoubtedly didn’t keep many in stock, so five missing were likely to be noticed.

I know Boy Scouts aren’t angels. Nobody’s perfect. But that was a kick in the gut to learn one of our own had done such a thing. 

I paid for my memorabilia. That summer, besides a Philmont Field Guide, written and illustrated by former staffers, I bought a staff belt buckle and a BuckLite Model 422 knife. The Buck knife – I know, that’s my name, right? – is a variation on the Mod. 112 Ranger. The BuckLite was an experiment in the 1980s. The idea lives on, but the Mod. 422 has been discontinued. Guess I have a collector’s piece. 

Here’s what C.J. Buck of Buck Knives wrote about theBuckLite in response to a question on a knife forum back in 2001:

In 1982 we were experimenting with aluminum handled knives for the light weight application. We were terrified that people would think Buck was being cheap building a plastic knife. When we first introduced it, it gave us the opportunity to hit a much lower price point while still offering the same "guts" of the 110/112's.
We chose the 112 size first because we did not want to canabalize the 110. We quickly followed up with a 110 size. The 426 was first introduced with a drop point blade. Sales of the 422 were 2-3 to 1 over the 426 so we changed the 110 sized 426 to a clip blade.
The aluminum sides got engraved and became our Classic Series in a western motif. (country and urban cowboys were hot then)
Budlight beer had just been introduced and so the play on the name generated Bucklite as the model name.
It was quite the novel concept in its day. Bill Keys, a manufacturing engineer, made the first sample out of micarta. Bill is our manager of engineering now.

CJ Buck
Buck Knives, Inc.

It’s a pretty nice knife and I carried it for a while while at camp the following summer. After the season ended and I was toiling away WIU, I was surprised to receive a package in the mail one day from Philmont. It was another knife. More about that later.

Philmont Playlist (so far)

Mountain Music - Alabama

Seven Bridges Road – The Eagles

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.

Music Time (live) - Styx