The intiation rights in the early seventies weren’t that severe. A boy was taken into the woods and left at a designated spot alone for the night. usually a leader would check on him. if I remember correctly he was given a blanket and whatever clothes he had on and his knife. The next day they would go get him usually torn up by mosquitoes . but wiser and much more willing and able to lead younger scouts. after all, the kid spent a night alone, who better to help a scared scout his first camping trip. YMCA summer camp was worse. lol
“A boy was taken into the woods and left at a designated spot alone for the night. usually a leader would check on him.”
That was my “ordeal” (initiation) into the Order of the Arrow in about 1956. Blindfolded and taken out into the woods at night. Had to stay until they came and got you in the morning. I found an old metal bed frame and tried to sleep on it. On an Iowa island in Mississippi River. Leaders came around somewhere along the line and dumped me out of it. Spent rest of night on ground freezing my ass off and found a snake underneath me trying to stay warm. The initiations I mentioned earlier were much more vicious.
Like a snipe hunt. That’s how we got the soon to be initiated out into the brush. The old snipe hunt ruse.