“Troop 1980 Tales,” by local author David Sloat is available at Amazon.com.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Thinking back to childhood, many young people remember being a Scout — earning badges for building fires, swimming with friends and learning about leadership and teamwork.
Local indie author David Sloat fondly recalls those times in his new anthology, “Troop 1980 Tales,” a collection of 11 short stories about Scouts set in the mid 1980s.
Sloat, who was a member of Ludlow Boy Scout Troop 182 until he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, said the standalone stories focus on various adventures in the scouting career of a group of boys over a two-year period. While the characters camp out, play softball and hike through the woods, they also experience “first crushes, quiet acts of courage and moments of self-discovery,” Sloat wrote about the book.
The main character begins as an impressionable young person and, by the end of the book, has climbed through the scouting ranks and entered high school. Because the stories are organized in chronological order, Sloat said readers can choose whether to select individual tales or read the book from front to back.
The stories included in the book were written over several years, beginning in 2019, when a friend from Sloat’s scouting days died at a relatively young age. “I wanted to memorialize him,” he said. He wrote a story fictionalizing an experience with his childhood friend.
“He was a little older than me,” Sloat said, recalling that he led Sloat and his group of scouts on a “snipe hunt,” not telling his companions that snipes were made-up creatures. “It’s a bit of a rite of passage,” Sloat said of the prank. He described his friend as having a flair for the dramatic. He went on to study the performing arts and run a community theater in the Midwest.
While Sloat had no intention of writing more stories, he said ideas began coming to him and he penned the remaining stories, stopping when he felt the book was “substantial.” Aside from the first story, the tales are not based on real events, but the settings are common to scouting and will ring true to former scouts.
“Troop 1980 Tales” is not Sloat’s first foray into being an author. In 2017, his then-middle school-aged child was “a reluctant reader,” Sloat said. Wanting to encourage his athletic son, Sloat made a deal that he would write a trilogy about sports and the family would read a chapter a night together. The plan worked, he said.
In 2019, he decided to publish the books and enlisted his older son, an artist, to illustrate the covers. The books “Hardwood Hacker,” “Infield Outsider” and “Real Keeper,” are in stock at West Springfield Public Library and West Springfield Middle School. Sloat has also contributed to “Campfire Tales: A Collection of Scary Short Stories” and “Spelunkers: A Chipper Press Anthology.” When it came time to put out “Troop 1980 Tales,” Sloat decided to self-publish through Amazon, again enlisting his son to illustrate the cover.
Of the books he has written, Sloat said, “‘Troop 1980 Tales’ is the most personal because it’s the era I grew up in. I think, for Generation X, there is a fatigue with the current world. I almost feel like the horse and buggy just before the automobile took over.” Considering the ubiquity of social media and the development of artificial intelligence, he said, “It is appealing to cast your mind back to what seems like a simpler time,” with the pre-digital world “like being wrapped up in a warm blanket.”
That said, Sloat noted that he did not shy away from the aspects of the 1980s that were negative. He said the characters talk about the Cold War while exploring an abandoned bunker and there is a closeted gay scout who would be kicked out of the troop if he came out.
Still, Sloat said the era is attractive, and not just for Gen X. “Younger generations also have an interest in that time because they are living in a time of uncertainty.” For them, he said, “the ‘80s vibe is a fun thing to explore.”
“Troop 1980 Tales” is available at Amazon.com in e-book, paperback and hardcover.
