This is a picture of the First Degree of the Royal Order of Siam. You see the worm platter the left and them holding the potion bottle. Ken Yeager with the snake is clear.

Ken Yeager is in his ceremonial place with the black snake around his neck. The lawn chair is not present, so that was likely a later innovation. The gold plastic helmet features the figure of a dragon on top. It is yet another example of the fundamental incongruity of all of this, since the dragons don’t have anything to do with Hinduism, Buddhism, Thailand or anything else at least theoretically relevant to the ROS. Yeager probably just thought it looked cool. The fire isn’t burning in this picture either. Given the arrangement of the people, this could be the very beginning of the ceremony before it would have been lit (that is, you would have pictures two and three reversed in chronological order). On the other hand, since the fire isn’t lit in the first picture either, this could also reflect the not-unheard-of occurrence that the magic fire-starting method (whether electrical or chemical) didn’t work and the show simply went on without it. The tall guy with glasses on the right side of the picture is probably Rick Walsh, possible dating this picture as pre-1967.

A Scout appears a bit shocked at the Royal Order of Siam ceremony.

This is the procession on the trail between the Shawana campsite and the Tulpetit Ceremonial Ground. It’s tough to tell whether it’s going or coming, but it is probably the latter. You can see Warren Hampton’s face over the shoulder of the next-to-last person.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam.

This picture shows clearly how the words “Royal Order of Siam” were painted on the rock behind the fire. If it was so early in the ceremony that hadn’t been lit yet, it is unclear why the kids in uniform are visible in front of the altar. Then if you look at the two “priests” on the right side of the picture, the one on the far right is carrying the “worm platter” and the one to his right is carrying the “potion” (but that’s not completely clear). This would make it in the middle of the Sudra degree. Also, if you look at the left sleeve of the kid in uniform on the left of the picture, you’ll see that he’s wearing the plain, small red troop number patch with the white “7”. That probably dates the picture to pre-1967 and at least pre-1968. The reason is that Malvern 7 celebrated its 50th Anniversary in May 1967 and began wearing a troop numeral with a gold border (something that had been started by Paoli 1 and thereafter adopted by a number of troops who didn’t like the gold bar that you were supposed to wear for that purpose). So it’s possible that this was the summer of 1967 and this kid just hadn’t put the new numeral on his shirt, but by 1968 nobody was still wearing the old one.

This is the procession leaving the Dining Hall after the invitation ceremony. You can see Warren Hampton and then Ken Yeager at the end of the line and Brian Peterman now holding the scroll rolled back up around the horns. That’s yet another conceptual incongruity. Those are bull’s horns. If this had anything to do with Hindu castes, as the degree names suggest, the horns are completely inauthentic because cows are sacred to Hindus and they’d never kill one, much less cut off its horns and use them for this purpose. And do they even raise cattle in Thailand (Siam)? Just from what I know of Thai food, the meat is principally chicken and pork. Last time we checked, neither chickens nor pigs have horns. Once again, it only made sense in Ken Yeager’s own mind.

Even though you can’t see their left sleeves, the two guys in uniform are clearly from Troop 7. While the colors are way off, they are both wearing what is recognized as the red with black satin ribbon border Malvern 7 neckerchief of the 1960s. Like just about everything else, Ken Yeager made them himself. The silk-screened image on the back that you can’t see is of the Troop’s cabin at the Paoli Memorial Grounds in Malvern with the “Troop 7” above it. If you look really closely, you can see that each is also wearing a log cabin neckerchief slide. They were the official troop slide and each new scout had to make is own as a Tenderfoot qualification and then received the neckerchief at the Tenderfoot Investiture. Another long-time Troop 7 ASM, Harold Rodkey, was a carpenter in Malvern. While you didn’t necessarily have to use them, he would make wooden blanks in the shape of a cabin with a notch in the back to accommodate the neckerchief. The preferred log material was wooden Q-tips. Some of them were straightforward. Others were real works of art. The real test of somebody who knew what they were doing with an X-acto knife is whether they could notch the ends of the q-tip sticks so that the “logs” overlapped each other at the corners like in a real cabin.

Worms and the reaction thereto. This shows the Malvern 7 neckerchief and slide much more clearly. Ken Yeager was strongly of the view that mistakes or failures should be “recognized” in a manner intended to ensure they were not repeated. For example, everyone was expected to pass their Sunday afternoon swim test at the Red, White & Blue level so as not to have to go to instructional swim and keep trying. If you made it, that was fine. If you didn’t, when you finally did make it, Yeager would paint the rim of your ears with fluorescent magic marker and you were dubbed a “Green-Eared Lapadilla”. No, I don’t know what a “Lapadilla” is. One time, whoever had morning campsite fire duty (which involved checking that the Indian pump was full, that the two No. 10 tin cans of water on each tent platform were full and a few other things), did everything he was supposed to do except sign the chart indicating that he had done it. That meant the Troop flunked that part of the daily campsite inspection, something that was completely unacceptable. So Ken Yeager took a tree branch about six feet long, sharpened one end and painted it black like the tip of a pencil and made an “eraser” for the other end out of a Styrofoam cup. Then the kid had to carry it around camp with him all day. There are literally a dozen other examples. Coming back to the picture, you will note that the one kid’s mom screwed-up and sewed his Second Class badge on the wrong pocket. It wouldn’t surprise me if, when you took the kid’s shirt off, you saw that Yeager had drawn the two pockets on his chest in magic marker with the badge in the right place. Perhaps obviously, that sort of thing has now been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam. Ken Yeager presiding in the back.

The gentleman holding the platter is Warren Hampton. Hampton was a long-time Troop 7 ASM and one of the first African-American Vigil Honor members of Octoraro Lodge. Hampton was later one of the first African-American leaders in the Council to complete the Wood Badge course. The guy to Hampton’s left holding the scroll is probably Brian Peterman, who was the SPL when I was very young. The picture was taken sometime between about 1966 and 1969.

This appears to be the First Degree with the guy on the left drinking the potion and the guy on the right actually dropping the already-bitten worm into his mouth to swallow it. That would almost certainly make him a camp staff member.

The guy about to unroll the scroll is Brian Peterman. Moving to his left are Warren Hampton and one of his sons. The guy carrying the potion try could be Brian Peterman’s brother Mike Peterman.

Here is a look at the Royal Order of Siam marker when it was being used during a ceremony.

A crowd gathers to observe a ceremony of the Royal Order of Siam.

A Royal Order of Siam ceremonial leader holds a snake.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam.

Another photo from one of the ceremonies of the Royal Order of Siam.

Ken Yeager is putting the head of the snake in a Scout’s mouth as part of the third degree.

A shot of biting the worm which was part of the first degree ceremony.

It’s very tough to make out what is going on here, other than the ceremony continues.

Here is a look at the rock that served as part of the ceremonial site for the Royal Order of Siam, taken in Winter 2010.