One of the privileges of being promoted to a Senior Patrol Leader with a green neckerchief was being able to participate in the annual Mackinac Mix-Fix which always took place in May over the Ascension Thursday weekend. Most of us attended Catholic Schools which didn’t have class that Friday. One year, I had a part time job and was supposed to work Friday evening. My mother was too scrupulous to call in sick for me, so I had to call long distance from the island, coughing a few times as I told my boss that I was too ill to work.
The excursion started as a caravan of cars leaving on Wednesday night, arriving in Mackinaw City Thursday morning and having breakfast at the Greyhound bus station, not exactly fine dining, but part of the tradition. After St. Cecelia and the troop obtained the yellow bus, it was used instead of cars. We soon came up with the idea to take out one seat, turn another around, put a card table between them, and play poker for 300 miles.
One year the bus broke down near Flint. We called Dick Beauchamp, who had recently moved to Flint, and he drove us back to Detroit to pick up three cars. We thought it would be good to have others also go back to accompany each of the three drivers on the return trip. Somehow we managed to stuff 6 scouts, Dick, and Carol, his wife, into his car. Fortunately, the State Police never saw us!