“Where’s Frank” piqued enthusiasm and high interest when first circulated as a short version to a group of interested people. The true story is based on the recent finding of Scoutmaster Curtiss Gilbert’s journal of an improbable Boy Scout trip of 10,000 miles in the back of a fruit truck post-WWII. It started in Yakima, Washington 70 years ago and now includes the memories of the seven surviving Scouts.
What made Gilbert so unusual to take on a project impossible today with its risks and adventures—around the entire continental United States? He released young teens to explore New York City on their own. How and why would he leave boys behind, far from home, to have to catch up? What happened to them? How about the inevitable crazy antics, accidents, injuries and truck problems? What really occurred to the boys in the truck and their leader? And how did these long-ago experiences affect those of us who live to tell the stories of our adventure—now in this protective era of risk-averse child raising.
