One thing that was very important to me, growing up, was the Boy Scouts. I joined at 13, when I was in the 7th grade. The scout troop was sponsored by a Methodist Church in Catasauqua. They liked me because I won all the awards and brought honor to them. I learned everything I could, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout with Silver Palm.
I attended Central Catholic High School (CCHS) in Allentown. CCHS was an excellent school. I was two years behind when I went off to high school, so I had to catch up fast. The nuns taught me after school. They taught me a lot of things I didn’t know. I caught up, then started goofing off again.
My first summer after freshman year, I worked on staff with the Boy Scouts at Camp Trexler. That first summer, all I did was wash dishes. I worked one day, and had the next day off. Whenever I had a free day, I spent it working on my merit badges. That was how I was paid, by being able to use the camp on my days off. My second summer, I was paid $75.00 for the whole summer, for peeling spuds. They called me “the spud boy.” In my third year on staff, George Babyar, the camp director (another WWII veteran from the Pacific Theatre), put me in charge of the largest Scout camp, Camp Hawkeye. My new title was Area Director. Camp Hawkeye had five campsites. George liked me because I could beat people up, and I organized people well. I was a Merit Badge counselor as well. I flunked one kid because he just wasn’t good enough. The kid’s dad was a bigwig in Western Electric, and boy did he go off the deep end! But George, the camp director, would not reverse my decision. So I had a lot of influence with the Boy Scouts.
When I was growing up, one was respected if they could fight and shoot. Honor and integrity were very important. A man had to keep his word and stand up for what was right. My years with the Boy Scouts, and US Army training in killing and survival skills made me into a very tough guy with a lot of confidence. Unfortunately, too often, I would go looking for trouble. 
zehbel 