Douglas Thunder was one of John's fellow Scouters and good friends. "He did not have a love for water based activities, therefore he did not get his swimming and lifesaving merit badges - but I can sympathize with him, because I, too, had a significant fear of water and was never able to earn those two badges. John's real interest, I believe, was in more academic and philosophic activities than in earning merit badges."

As to what rank Bellairs earned, Laura Lyster, the BSA Southwest Michigan Council Registrar, told us that after John joined the troop he earned his Tenderfoot badge that January and Second Class in July. "For the 1952-53 program year, he was an Explorer in the troop where he remained until January 1954. At that time he transferred to Explorer Post 63, still at Second Class. However, I've searched the archives and was unable to find anything out about Post 63."

Thunder notes that he and John's friends from Scouts - Yancey Smith, Richard Lawrence, Richard Allen, and Charles Flynn - attended summer camp at Camp T. Ben Johnston, on Sherman Lake just outside Augusta, Michigan, itself about 8 miles west of Battle Creek.

"One summer, after we have been at the camp for a couple summers, John and I were hired to work in the camp kitchen. I was an assistant cook, and John was a dishwasher. The camp cook was Alonzo - a jovial African American who took a liking to John and me. That was one of our first experiences working with a black man. Although Marshall has been a key stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War era, in our day, there was only one black family living in town. I also remember that there was a camp counselor that we all liked very much whose name of Herky; at least that is what we called him."

Bought in 1925 by W. K. Kellogg as a gift to Battle Creek Boy Scouts, the camp served area Boy Scouts for nearly 70 years. Bill Goodrich, former Scoutmaster of Troop 205 in Kalamazoo, says the camp fell into disuse by the 1970s and was closed sometime the next decade. "It sat abandoned for about another ten years until the Southwest Michigan Council sold it to the YMCA for $1.00. The YMCA invested heavily in the site and it became the first summer camp to open for that organization in decades. Today, it is called the Sherman Lake YMCA, and it has a state-of-the-art fitness center, Olympic pool, cabins and all the stuff to attract today's youth." We're told that camping activities for the Boy Scouts were moved to their facility in Texas Corners, at Camp Rota-Kiwan. In fact, the totem pole at the Cub Scout Camp Dining Hall at Rota-Kiwan Reservation is from the original Camp T. Ben Johnston, featuring Ben, his wife, and three sons.

John's scouting experiences snuck into his writings over the years. Johnny Dixon, too, is a member of Troop 112 and goes off to Scout camp where he also meets a lifelong friend in Byron Ferguson (The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt). In The Letter, the Witch and the Ring, Lewis Barnavelt heads off to Boy Scout as well, though his friend Rose Rita Pottinger does not want to attend summer at Camp Kitch-itti-Kippi. Though nothing is made known of either camp, they were all probably inspired by Bellairs' visits to Camp Ben Johnston.

Thunder relates a story that took place when the group was in high school and an evening scavenger hunt was part of the weekly meeting. "We were hurrying around trying to find the various items on our list and John was trailing behind. In his attempt to catch up he cut across the corner lawn of Dr. Humphrey's office. The doctor had placed a wire from the corner of his building to the corner of the sidewalk to prevent just that kind of activity. John did not see it, tripped, fell, and broke his arm. The fracture was severe enough that he was bed bound for several weeks." This situation mirrors what happened to Anthony Monday in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn.

Thunder lived only a few blocks from Bellairs' house and says he would stop by on his way home from school to spend time with John. "At that time John taught me how to play chess and to my surprise - and his - I beat him in our first game. From that time on, chess was a very common activity for us. Also, Yancey, John and I used to sit around and try to top one another with corny puns. We became very adept at that. Some of that malady afflicts Yancey and me yet today."