Do a good Turn Daily

No new news about Kim’s mom today, I just hope that no news is good news.

After somehow managing to convince my mother to be a Den leader, I traded in my pumpkin Tiger Scout Uniform for a real Cub Scout Uniform. Not much to look at, at first, with only an upside down

bobcat badge left (I could flip it over as soon as I completed enough good turns) adorning my pocket and a light blue neckerchief. Our Den got together after school on Tuesdays in the Cafeteria of Chegwin Elementary School. During”Den meetings” as they were called, we spent time working through the official Cub Scout Bobcat handbook. Learning the Cub Scout Promise, making birdhouses. I also spent a while cowering under some tables towards the front of the cafeteria.
At the time I was about the smallest boy in the second grade, shy and unsure of myself I came face to face with the Chegwin Elementary Schools Bully Chris S. Three times my size he could have been a sixth grader, and he had just joined our den. At least once during each meeting I would find my self in an inescapable headlock administered to me by….. You guessed it Chris. I had no way to offer any resistance, so I became quite good at waiting, and waiting…..and well…….. When either he would get bored and let me go or one the leaders would see him come to my rescue. I had only one thing he did not my smarts which I used regularly to keep myself out of a dirty predicament.
As the year went on my love for scouting shined through me in everything I did. Each meeting something new and fun. Once a month the entire Cub Scout pack (8 Dens) would get together in the cafeteria and have a meeting a “Pack Meeting”. We had Native American Speakers, people from the electric company that would come and shock things for us, model trains, model rockets, anything and everything. Each passing meeting was better than the last. Then one night at an announcement was made, we would have to turn in some money for our rain gutter regatta kits (obviously mom and dad cut the bill). All I knew about this regatta thing was that we were going to get model sail boats and race them. A dream come true, I had loved the water and boats ever since the first time my father brought me out on the lake. I loved it so much I was often caught playing captain of our boat when it was still in the garage sitting on the trailer, dad never liked that and I never grew out of it.
Anyway few weeks late I received my first rain gutter boat. I remember opening the box “even though my Dad had told me not to” to take a quick peak. Expecting to see a ship of the line with three masts and cannons I was confused to find a small piece of balsa wood, a square piece of plastic, and a small wooden stick. “What” this is not what this is no sail boat. I put the pieces back in the box and anxiously awaited for my father to return from work. Wondering how in the world that was a boat.