Cub Scout Shoot 'em Up

When I was a little kid I participated in Cub Scouts. There were several things that I really
enjoyed about being part of the scouts. The first experiences I remember with the pack were had at a
house just down the street from where I lived. There was a young couple who were our leaders and we
had weekly activities at their house. My favorite part of the Cub Scout day was getting to play capture
the flag in the front yard afterwards. I’m glad I learned how to play capture the flag because I played it a
ton during my youth. I’ve played it in the park, the parking lot, the street, the backyard, the front yard, a
field, the dark, the dessert, a canyon, the forest, pretty much anywhere and everywhere.

Other memories of things I did in scouts include: learning to sharpen a pocket knife, visiting the
ASU planetarium, carving a piece of soap into the shape of a car, making a pinewood derby car (that did
terrible because I made a rum runner instead of a sleek racer, but I learned a lot about aerodynamics),
rain gutter regatta, and the space ship rubber band propeller thing (which I applied the aerodynamics
lessons to and got second place). I also remember learning about fire safety. After the lesson on fire
safety the leaders took us to their spare room where they had intentionally set up fire hazards and we
had to point them out and correct them. Then afterword we played doom on their computer. That was
my first experience playing a first person shooter game. I got the highest score of the group that day.
I went home and told my mom about it and that I wanted to get the game for our computer. She said
that she didn’t want me to play those shoot ‘em up games, so I never owned one. I’m glad she didn’t
just go out and buy one or let me buy one because I would have wasted my life away playing those silly
things.

You can never be too careful

When I was starting kindergarten there was a group of four kids that lived in my neighborhood
who were starting school at the same time. It was a half day class and we were all signed up for the
afternoon session. Our parents arranged for us to walk to school together because it was only about
3 blocks away. Someone gave me one of those “don’t talk to strangers” lectures before I was walking,
maybe even the first day. I remember I walked the first block and met up with two of my companions
and then we walked together another block and met our last companion. We walked about a half block
more and there was a small side street that we needed to cross. Just as we got to the intersection a car
approached with a bearded old man driving—when you’re little it seems like everyone with a beard
is a little scary, including Santa. As we got to the corner the gentleman in the car motioned for us to
go ahead and cross the street, but I interpreted his hand gesture as, “come over here and get in my
car.” I thought that he was trying to kidnap us! I told my companions and turned the other way and
ran. “Ahhhh! He’s trying to kidnap me!” By some miracle my friend’s mom just happened to be following
us in her car, to make sure that we got to school ok, so I banged on the car door and made her take
us to school so that we wouldn’t get kidnapped. Sometimes when people wave me on I think of that
experience and I’m glad that I’m a lot bigger now.

Swimming Lessons

I don't remember not being able to swim. My mom enrolled me in swimming lessons at the local junior high during the summers while I was growing up. I started when I was pretty little I guess. My last post reminded me of how grateful I am for the blessing of being able to swim. This post is about why.

I never knew that there were people who didn't know how to swim until my first or second year of scout camp. I always just thought that was a funny cartoon thing, when the character gets pushed in the water and then yells, "help me, I can't swim, I can't swim!" In actuality it is a little scary though. The scout camp that I went to had a glacier fed lake (I'm not sure if it was really fed by a glacier, but it was cold enough to take your breath away) and on the first or day of camp the troop would go down to the water and take the swimming test. In groups of 4 we would go out onto the diving board and then jump in and swim about 4 25 yard laps. My cousins and I went first. To get the top rating, that would let you swim or boat anywhere on the lake, you had to swim down and back freestyle and then use two different strokes to finish the next down and back. For my cousins and I, in the first group, it was no problem. In we jumped. Down and back we swam, twice. Done. Easy.

The next group was a little different. They all got out on the board and when the lifeguard said go... they stood there. Those of us who had just finished started saying, "com'on, let's go." It became obvious that those boys were ascared of the water. Finally one of them jumped in and doggy-paddled one length of the swimming area. Then he had to stop swimming and was given a second rate rating. The next guy did about the same thing. There were a couple other attempts made that I don't remember much about, but there was one scout who refused to get in the water. After much goading he finally took the plunge. He started flailing about and yelled, "I can't swim *splash, splash, gulp*, I can't swim." That was also the first, and only time, I've seen the shepherd's crook used to pull someone out of the water.

Hey everyone, teach your kids to swim. It could save their life... and at least save some embarrassment.