Like a lot of parents, we made sure our children(both boys) were exposed to many activities, to make sure they were well rounded and accepted by society... My wife was a stay at home mom for a number of years when the kids were small, as we thought that would be a good idea. She got involved with other mommies in the neighborhood, helping at school, church, etc... One of the activities that we became involved with was Cub/Boy Scouts. Her and a girlfriend with boys my sons ages were Den Mothers one year- and naturally I got sucked in to help whenever needed... I'm going to do this as a numbered list to give you the full entertainment value for the least amount of reading!
1. Pinewood Derby- Where the Dads build the toy car that the kid is supposed to do.
With my background as an engineer, we always made it to Regionals. I would let the kid pick out the color of the car, though..
2. Nature hike, put on by a person that would have died horribly in the wilderness after 3 hours.. I taught the kids how to make a whistle out of an acorn top- hit of the day, except for the lady in charge..
3. Stayed overnight on the Silversides, a submarine anchored in Muskegon Michigan.. Spent most of the night on deck, as the interior of the boat smelled like little kids feet, and stale pizza we had delivered for dinner..
4. Camped overnight on a gun clubs property. I had brought a pellet rifle to teach the kids a little gun safety. Teenagers were harassing us, so I volunteered to guard the camp with a pellet gun- just so all the dads would quit runnning around in the woods! These guys were nerds...
5. The biggie- We had a Rendezvous, an every other year gathering of scouts at St. Ignace State Park.(view of Mackinaw Bridge!) Tents. It snowed. The big news was it was the same day the only car in the history of the Mackinaw bridge blew off the bridge! Next morning ice on the picinic tables, Natl. Guard serving powdered eggs and spam for breakfast... I left with kid, went into town and ate at McDonalds. Felt sorry for all the dummies stuck at the park, and cleaned off the donut shelf at a local store. I went through the line they were still in, handing out donuts like I was the Red Cross at a disaster site..
Many other tales to tell about their scouting experiences- but not today!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
27 comments:
LOL you had fun then? ;)
Ake- Most of the time I was exasperated by the incompetence of the Scout leadership- nice guys with no life or wilderness skills at all! For instance- Who would you pick for a flagpole design A.-Pharmacist, B. Appliance salesman, C. Steel sales engineer. After they screwed up $100 worth of steel(I donated!), I showed them how it could be fixed for $10...
The old pinewood derby. Hated the car my Dad built.
Doc- As a tooling consultant, if I wanted to cheat I could have- but didn't! Friend and neighbor worked for a heat treater, and between us could have made axles that would have been darn near friction free!
Do you miss those days? I don't miss the running around in fifty directions crazy, but I do miss spending more time with kids. (Don't quote me on that or I'll get stuck with the grands!)
You would of fitting right in proper with our mad scouting group of mental leaders...... our scouting group is the envy in the whole of the south, yet we are the biggest group in the smallest village :)....... and at one time I had a one son in Beavers, one in Cubs, one in Scouts and one in Ventures, it had never been done before lol.....
I was a leader on a hiking trip with bernie and anglea and alan right up until the day before I had our Jacob, I remember Bernie saying on the top of Butser hill, if this baby comes now I aint looking you ever in the face again, I said, its not me face you will be looking at LOL....
We had/have so much fun with this group and we use to all got camping caravaning together at weekends away from the other kids..... we were and still are a very close close group of friends, as it showed when we all went on mass last weekend to the panto of one of our fellow supporters LOL....
Im hoping to get envolved again if and when me knees allow, I so miss it all..... ok tears again now....
Buff you and your crazyness and mad ways would fit right in with us.....
x
sorru :) I was waffling again..
x
Oh yeah....The Yugo incident!
Buff, as I've observed, you were and AM, a Great Dad!!
This wonderful post just reinforces that. Great memories....Thanks for sharing them with us...Galen
I swear buffalo I think I had to wipe a tear from my eye...
I do love to read about your family and the stories of your boys made my day;)
I always thought there should be two divisions in Pinewood Derby - the one for the kids with the cars kids built, and the one for the dads!
Being a single mom when Cam was in Scouts was a HUGE disadvantage!
Jeanne- From the time they were six to sixteen life was a blur..
Marmy- I figured you'd have been involved! There were some fun times in there somewhere!
G-man- When I heard a Yugo had blown off the bridge 3hrs after we had gone over it- frankly I didn't believe it!
Darngirl- Glad you enjoyed! I was a Cub scout once- for one year!
Dana- We actually talked about doing that!
I'm really looking forward to when I my son is old enough to do this kind of stuff.
I didn't realize you are a fellow engineer. I knew I liked you for a reason.
Specialty metals sales engineer 30+ years..
Wow. You sound like the funnest-dad-ever. Your sons must have loved it!
I can't even imagine a kid being ABLE to make one of the cars. I wonder if any actually do make their own?
Sounds like you had some good times, though at the time it may not have seemed like it. AND you have memories together with your kids as well.
That's what it's all about, right?
lol you are funny!
I had one of 3 involved in the Scouts but he didnt care for the troop leaders kid and it made everything kind of messy so he quit. My husband did Indian Guides with my daughter... many a funny story came home from those trips!
Happy Monday!!
Belle- Well, the kids may have had different memories of same events, but came away with impression I knew a little more about the wilderness than some in charge..
Bina- I watched kids that did! One little guy was in line with a block with wheels, hand painted- I gave him some graphite powder on the axles, and wished him luck. His Mom was grateful, and the little guy actually got a rookie trophy! That was what it was all about!
Kate- Never saw more adults that cared, and didn't have a clue how to do anything... I was nice, helped, and was well thought of by nerds who had bred..
i love those posts- bringing back memories and nudging those long asleep awake!!!
My son had his chance at the scouts and he said no, so instead I was a cook two summers in a row for a scout camp/park, and made him go with me and help get up to cook all 200 of their breakfast (6 AM), then he was invited to go off and do stuff...I got paid and he learned what he missed...
I remember also having the eat my brothers scout potatoes buried under the coals and thought that was cool...
I love the scouts and the girl scouts I teach my son all kinds of survival techniques...fire starting...how to get fresh water from salt water...you know just in case he is lost out at sea...'s Ohh a mother's love neurotic I know but he's just so darn sweet!
VodkaM- It really did bring back memories..Bad pot lucks, hot dogs served at every fire, the overnighters where I never slept, etc...
Chef- We were big on peach cobbler in a Dutch oven over coals...
DarnGirl- Taught my kids more about the outdoors by fishing, hunting, and cooking out!
I just had a flash forward snapshot of my future life. I can totally see my toddler boy in these snippets.
Ugh..the snow and tents.. hope no Moms were expected to be there.
LOL!!! Boy scouts sounds much more exciting then girl scouts--but we DID get to have a sleepover in the mall :)
CDB- There were a few moms camping, but as they were dressed for Eskimo encounters- no hanky-panky! My wife, other son, her girlfriend and her kid were staying a the Georgian Inn in St. Ignace... indoor pool, hot tub, etc...
Tavolini- Sounds fun, but it was mostly little kids in uniform, jacked up on Kool-Aid...
wow! that was a LOT of stuff you did with your kids. No wonder your 'kids' still want you to do stuff for them ( and their Girl friends)!
Mona- The time and money spent with/on our kids was money and time well spent! I am not a perfect man.. like most people- I did what I thought was right. The unfairness of Life is when you get the hang of it, it's over!
You make me laugh! Write more about the scouting days please.
Post a Comment