Tag: scout

My dad retired from the United State Air Force in 1968.  For the first 7 years of my life, he was not around much, so my mother played both parental roles.  After his retirement, we had a contentious relationship because he was a military man trying to relate to a boy raised by a liberal-minded mother.

When I reached an age where I could join the local scout group, my dad decided to become a scoutmasters.  He continued to be a scoutmaster years after I left the scouts.  Luck, Wisconsin was designated as “Pack 147”.

My mom bought me a tan uniform.  Many of our cub meetings were at Marilyn Martinsen’s house, just across the street from Luck Public School.  She was one of our Den mothers.  Her son Mike eventually joined the scouts, too.

Webelos

After awhile, I graduated to the next stage,  Webelos.  I didn’t know what was so special about it.  My mom had to buy me the traditional dark blue uniform.  The next step would be to become a Boy Scout.

Boy Scout

To this day, I still remember the Boy Scout Law by heart.  We held our monthly meetings in the old DBS Hall.  After meetings, we snuck into the attic where Duncan Yo-Yo kept some of their old inventory.  I picked up a few Yo-Yo boxes from there.  We occasionally went on camping trips and did small projects for the local community.  Each year, we marched in the Luck Winter Carnival Parade.  I usually carried one of the flags.

One thing I was honored with was participating in the Memorial Day program at school.  One scout would hold an old army helmet and the other would place a paper poppy into the hat for each of the names of the soldiers who had died.

I was not far from reaching Eagle Scout status, before I lost interest in scouting.  I was too busy with 4-H, music, and athletics at Luck High School.

Pinewood Derby

I know that when it comes time to build a pinewood derby car, the scout’s dad tended to do most, or all, of the work.  In my case, I did it all by myself.  I won the local competition which qualified me for races in Chicago City, Wisconsin.  I won my first heat, but finished near last on the second one.  Funny thing was that when they put my car on the starting line, they had it facing backwards!  But it ran and looked better the way they had it.

Boy’s Life

There was a section in the Boy Scout magazine “Boy’s Life” called “Think and Grin”.  Readers could mail in jokes that might be published in that section of the monthly magazine.  I sent in a few and had three published.  They were not jokes I came up with myself, nor were they particularly funny to the target audience.

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