Magan had some Scouting friends (Fabris, Grisworlds) over to the house to say our goodbyes to the Byerman family leaving to Memphis. We invited the Roshavens, but they got this flu that has taken out everyone this year. Dirk and Aimee Byerman have been our neighbors since we moved in 2006, but we did not know any of these guys until Sam attended a school event in the 1st grade where they showcased some available groups to join. At that time, there were three different scout troops to choose from, but I will never forget Dirk walking up, shaking hands with both me and Sam, then telling us about an upcoming Water Rocket Derby. I don't remember any of the other troops from that night, but we signed up with the man from Pack 353 (I think he sold Sam on the water rocket), and the rest was history.
While the Byerboys (Adam and Ben) were not able to join, it was nice to have some scout kids all together laughing and having fun in one room, while the adults all chatted in the other. The boys in this group at the house were are all Eagle Scouts, and the dads were all leaders for many many years in the pack, then in the troop. Dirk mentored me on all the record keeping required for the Advancement Coordinator position, then I quickly discarded everything except for accomplishing the bare minimum. Dirk and his boys helped mentor me and my boys in leading groups into Tumbling Rock cave, which now has given us joy sharing with other groups.
Magan made her famous Meat Soup for dinner, and afterwards we stayed at the table to chat about fun times and current times and old pictures and funny kids. The ladies made their way to the couches while the men kept telling stories. The ladies made some coffee while the men kept telling stories. The ladies started to fall asleep, and the men kept telling stories. And finally Aimee yawned with a yawn that sounded like "Dirk, we gotta go home and get some sleep". And so they did.
It was a fun evening, and I am glad Magan put it together. I often think of Dirk when I tell a group of kids behind me "It is just another 1/2 mile", as it is always more. Dirk showed me that trick. And over the years when I did not have the tools or the skill set to help me boys with a scouting badge, Dirk was always there to help. Even helping Davis on some tips for his Eagle project. We really will miss this family that both Magan and I both secretly always hoped to talk to while our kids played on the "straight road" in the neighborhood. I'll miss the periodic encounters down by the mailbox, hearing about the latest on Ben and Adam, sharing about our boys and life.
Based on a word search of the Junkin Bunch Blog, "Dirk" shows up 13 times over the years, but apparently 3 of those uses were associated with the more famous Dirk Nowitski and random stories of our trips through Dallas. But while Nowitski is more famous in many circles, and towers over all on the basketball court, I doubt he could ever bounce across rocks in a cave like the infamous Dirk Byerman. That Dirk commands the other 10 uses within this blog, and now has his very own post dedicated to the man, the myth, the legend. I grabbed some pics from those old blog posts to share below.
And finally, I went back and pieced the history of the Spelunking Tiger into this blog post for the first time complete, and as it was published in the January 2022 edition of Spelunking Digest...
Dirk Byerman (August 17, 1966 – ) is an American Boy Scout folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "The Spelunking Tiger ". He represented Ohio in the much debated Big 10 spelunking finals of 1987 and served in the “Buckeye Barbers” acapella vocal quartet touring caves around the country.
Dirk grew up in East Ohio, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling. Never afraid of a limbo line, he learned at an early age to use his diminished height to his advantage finding every corner of this Ohio farm hide and seek contests, setting the bar for his future spelunking journeys. In 1991, he was elected to the U.S. Splelunking Congressional Caucus where he vehemently opposed many of the policies of President George HW Bush, especially the Caves Only for Bears Act. Byerman’s opposition to Bush's policies led to his defeat in the 1992 elections. He was re-elected to the caucus in 1993, then narrowly lost in 1995, prompting his angry departure to Alabama (then only known to him as a redneck farmland) shortly thereafter. In early 2006, he took part in the Pack 353 Water Rocket Derby and later made his way back into the caves after asked to lead numerous times by the Boy Scouts.
Dirk Byerman became famous during his scouting lifetime for larger-than-life caving exploits popularized by stage plays, and documentaries (e.g. “Into the Dark”, “No Hole to Small”, and “Don’t forget your Gatorade Bottle”) . After his departure from the troop, he continues to be credited with acts of mythical proportion, and today he is known as one of the best-known American spelunking heroes.
One night after one of those crazy concerts of the “Buckeye Barbers”, Dirk looked across the crowd to see a lovely young lady and was immediately in love. This Ohio beauty walked across the dance floor, and after taking off her shoes so she would not tower over him, shared the first dance of many with the future spelunking tiger. After marrying and moving to Alabama, they found a home slightly passed the a wind tunnel within a large cave in Fackler, AL. Two boys were born to them within this cave, named Ben Stalactite Byerman (because of how he clung to the top of the womb), and Adam Stalagmite Byerman (because of how he always stayed low in the womb). Those boys have been exploring this cave since an early age, once knocking over a large boulder just past where they used to decorate their Christmas Tree…they later would tell their papa “Papa Dirk, we should guide people into this cave and show them this boulder we pushed over, and we should tell them this is Tumbling Rock.” And thus they did, and thus they have ever since.
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