Exit from the Boy Scouts

While I was a Boy Scout I only went to one real honest to goodness Boy Scout camp.  After that I was invited to not attend any future camps.  And all because the inhabitants of our tent didn't outline the path to our tent with rocks.  We felt that anyone who got close enough to our tent to see it, should be able to reach the door of the tent without the path being outlined with rocks.

I was staying in a tent with my cousin, Dick Hullinger, and my next door neighbor, Jim Montgomery.  The camp was located in a beautiful national forest and the camp was about the size of a football field.  Someone had built a log fence completely around the campsite.  This fence wove through and around the trees and was about six feet high.  Since the fence was built of logs in a horizontal arrangement we soon discovered that it was fun to walk along the top of the fence.  We invented all kinds of games to play as we walked around the top of the entire fence.  We soon started to use our timing watch to determine who could walk the fastest around the fence. It was even more fun to attempt to knock each other off the fence.

There were about five troops involved in this particular scout camp.  Each troop was in competition with the other troops in such events as sports, map reading, building towers, and most important, camp cleanliness. We had a very good troop and were in a tight race for the total camp championship.  All the scouts in our troop had been warned that it was very important each morning to roll up our sleeping bags and pick up any garbage in and around our tents.  As a final touch that would ensure that our troop would win the championship, we were to outline the path to our tent door with a border of rocks.

On the final day of the camp, Jim, Dick and I prepared our breakfast of delivcous corn flakes.  We had been arguing about who was the best fence walker.  We knew that we should be outlining our path but felt that we had enough time to determine once and for all who was the best.  Out of our tent and onto the fence we climbed leaving behind unrolled sleeping bags, dirty dishes, and no rocks along the path.

When we returned some twenty minutes later, there was our scout master, our troop leaders, and the second counselor in the Bishopric.  They did not seem happy to see us and told us in unchristian like terms, that we were three slobs.  They said we had disgraced the troop.  While we were gone, the camp inspectors had inspected our tent.  They said we had reached a new level of slovenliness.  One of our pristine troop members said that if cleanliness is next to Godliness, then slovenliness is next to Satan.  We were the cause of our troop not winning the grand championship.  We were declared persona non grata at next years scout camp.  It was several years before I finally learned what persona non grata meant.  But I had a pretty good idea.

I guess if there is a moral to this story it is: When your camp leader tells you to put rocks along the path, don't look at him like he has rocks in his head; just do it.  Some tunes you can hum while doing this are:  Rock of Ages, I am a Rock, I"m caught between a rock and a hard place; Rock A  Bye Baby; and We will, we will rock you.

Grandpa's health advice - 

Yesterday I went to the doctor for my yearly physical.  My blood pressure was  high.  My cholesterol was high. I'd gained some weight and I didn't feel so hot.

My doctor said eating right doesn't have to be complicated and it would solve most physical problems.  He said: "Just think in colors.  Fill you plate with bright colors.  Try some greens, oranges, reds, maybe something yellow, etc."

                                         So I went right home and ate an entire bowl of

                                                               M & M's

                                                          And, Sure Enough.

                          I felt better immediately!!  I never knew eating right could be so easy!!

Now stay healthy, eat your colors and have a nice day.