Cub Land

Since this log is my to be journal, I decided to blog about my scouting experiences which are heretofore unjournaled. Channa, Lauren's mom is now working in the scouting program with her husband (in Lehi, Utah) and it reminded me of my years in cub scouts. I was called to be den leader when Matt was 8. So I worked with both Matt and Jeremy's cubs. Rich was bishop part of the time and I kept asking to be released, but no luck. I wanted some lofty calling since my husband was the bishop -- I was den leader for years. It was a good calling because we met at the house. That made it easy for me.

Matt was a new cub scout when I was called to the job. What a fun bunch of boys were in the group. We had lots of fun. I do remember one boy just wanted to go up to the kid's rooms to play with their legos. And ...........his mom wouldn't pick him up for hours. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, the best experience came from a summer camp at Fort Belvoir. I arrived with my gang of cubs and found out the activity of the day was to build a go-cart from a stack of lumber, tires, hammers, nails, etc. As I later learned, the "experienced troops" came prepared with dads and aerodynamic plans for assembling the machine. One boy would ride in the go-cart and one would push. Yes, there was to be a race at the end of the day.

I looked at the stack of materials and remember thinking -- this is not something I can do. Then, I looked at the boys. They were counting on me, so we went to work. We did finish the little go cart and needless to say it didn't look very pretty. No aerodynamics were involved. We had to nail it back together after each race. But.............guess who won? The little rag tag Fairfax Cubs. The other troops were amazed. They didn't realize our determination. The best part is recalling how awesome those little boys felt about their accomplishment. One kid fell off and skinned his knee and said he couldn't race again. Of course I told him his buddies were counting on him and to get back over there.............off he went.

The next year I talked the bishop into letting our cubs plan and execute our own Camp Akeala at a lake. We did and it was a blast. They all learned boating safety and we had the rain gutter regatta that year.

When Jeremy's group started with Cub Scouts, I had 12 boys. They were also a fun group. Best memories: sucking the hard-boiled egg down the milk bottle and out again; the Halloween meeting; time after time having the little boys bump their heads on the light fixture above the table and replacing the globes; and having a hole (for about 10 years plugged with calk) in the stainless steel sink made by one exuberant scout. Such is the fun of a scout leader. The Halloween meeting deserves a mention. The scouting materials had a poem about visiting a graveyard and instructions to blindfold the boys and pass around all the body parts. (Brains - spaghetti, Heart - piece of liver, Eyes - grapes. You get the idea. After the about the third body part some of the boys were scared and crying. I couldn't believe it - babies, I thought. So I let them take off the blindfold and all was well. I had a good laugh.

Just when I was trying to think of a way to talk Andrew out of being a scout, I was released from the calling. Andrew was 8 and had already had several years of cubbing with Matt and Jeremy's groups. So that was a good long spell of scouting for me. We had our nine pinewood derby cars to show for it. Lots of fun. I still remember the twinkie made to look like a pinewood derby car -- gum drops for wheels. I guess I'm amazed at what a good memory it is now. You never know.