Back a half-century ago, Boy Scout Troop 414 in Center Moriches acquired a bugle and needed someone to play it. South Shore Press reporter Bob Chartuk was a trumpeter in the junior high school band at the time and stepped up to fill the role.
“I learned most of the common tunes by ear—Revelry, Taps, Charge,” Chartuk remembered. “It was fun playing at the jamborees and campouts. They even let me wake up the scouts at Camp Yawgoog one summer in Rhode Island.” With the instrument, he was able to earn the Music and Bugling merit badges and proudly wore the Bugler patch on his uniform.
Turn the calendar forward 50 years and Chartuk is attending the Troop’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor at the VFW on Main Street, not far from where he grew up and still lives. He casually asks Scoutmaster Patrick Keller if they still have the long-ago instrument. “As a matter of fact, we do have an old bugle,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be something if it were the same one?” Chartuk replied.
He made plans to attend the group’s next meeting and after chatting with the scouts awhile about his memories of being in the Troop, was presented with the bugle. “I knew right away it was the same one,” Chartuk said, recognizing its silver mouthpiece. “I found a better mouthpiece than the one that came with it at the Swap Shop and switched it out. It was still with the old bugle.” Though the years had converted its shiny brass veneer into a dull patina, it still had character, and seeing it floated its original player back to the days of his youth.
He reminisced with the Troop about camping at Yawgoog, earning the easy merit badges such as Leatherworking and Basket Weaving. He also earned some of the hard ones at the camp, Swimming and Marksmanship, and achieved the Mile Swim. He talked about Polar Bear campouts where scouts can earn a badge if they stay overnight in below freezing temperatures. He looked fondly back at camping in the Manorville Woods, Cathedral Pines, and the Bailie Beach lodge overlooking the sound in Mattituck. “They had a huge pot for spaghetti and one of the scouts put in a few packs of noodles before the water was boiling,” Chartuk recalled. “Dinner was a big clump of dough with sauce on it.”
He posed with the Troop for a picture, and they called for him to play. “It’s been so long, a half-century since I’ve played,” the former scout warned them, “but I’ll give it a shot.” He still had the knack, banging out a busted-up version of Revele. “Just like riding a bike,” he said, “You never forget.”
Two Troop 414 members are trumpet players in the school band, Cameron Eten and Andrew Werler, both from Chartuk’s hometown. “It's easy; no keys to press,” he noted, encouraging them to follow in his bugling footsteps.