Sunday - June 19, 2011Boy Scout Disasters
I was so angry with my dad. It's not like it was complicated or anything. I just wanted to go camping for a week with my boy scout troop. I had waited a long time to graduate from cub scouts to boy scouts and now we were going to do real camping without den mothers around. The troop in my neighborhood had a great reputation and had grown a lot, but when it was finally time for me to join they made a splinter troop which was the one I was told I had to join. "I don't think it's been planned very well," was his annoying response to my request. "What are you going to eat?" I explained very patiently to him, because he was a dad and they aren't too smart, that I would take some bread and some peanut butter, and maybe a can or two of spaghettios. "Where will you get water to drink?" Trying to hide my exasperation, I explained that surely there would be a creek somewhere. "What if there's an emergency? What will you do if someone gets hurt?" I'm sure my eyes were absolutely NOT rolling into the upper part of my head. I would have had much better control than that. I'm sure. "Dad, we're boy scouts, we know first aid. We can take care of ourselves." The conversation went like this for quite some time, for days, it seemed. In the end, I stayed home. I'm not sure how it came about, but I never was with the boy scouts again after that. About 45 years later, or a few weeks, it's hard to measure when you're that young, I learned that the troop went camping and the boys were hungry and cold the whole time, and had to leave early because there was some sort of hornet attack and hospitals were involved. The details remain a bit fuzzy. I don't think I ever thanked my dad for that. Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents | |
