True, so true! Crazy world we live in these days.
I make it to First Class. I have only wonderful memories of my days in the Scouts. However, my experiences were probably more varied that a lot of other kids received. I grew up in upstate New York, in the Adirondack Mountains, and we lived in a log cabin on the Schroon River… Our Scout troop met in our Church. The Scout Leaders all wore their full Scout uniform and encouraged us to also follow suit… Some friends remember shooting their first rifles in Scouts, a single shot .22, we shot a lot more… We shot shotguns, 410s, 20, 16, and 12 gauge, even got to shoot my first 4-bore, shot high power rifles, and bows, (hunting bows), we even shot an original Brown Bess Black Powder Muzzle Loader. We actually trapped small game for their pelts to earn extra money, we fished and ice-fished, and sold our catch to local restaurants. We learned boat safety, with real boats (I actually had my own 12' skiff with a 10 HP outboard, and so much more. When we went on hikes, it was in the real wilderness, not some city park… and we were expected to map our way and triangulate our location during the trip. We learned to repel on real cliff faces, not some "climbing wall," We built fires and cooked over our fires, (No, we did not rub two sticks together--bring wax coated, strike anywhere wooden matches and with steel striker sticks). Our scoutmaster could build a fire with his flint and striker steel… I could go on but I do not want to make anyone jealous… During my years in the Air Force, many of my friends were also Scouts and many of these things I did, they only watched movies of and never tasted a fresh caught trout over a camp fire or even got their Scout Uniform dirty from a weekend hike through woods, weeds, creeks, streams, and rivers. Because these were the things we needed to survive in our "neck of the woods" BTW, my family ran a Timber Tug ferrying logs down the river to the saw mill.
L…) rhymes with (Tart out Loud…)
