In The Boots of a Boy Scout
By Morris Callegari
“Scouts!”
“Yes Sir” we all said in sync
“What is our oath?”
“On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally
awake, and morally straight.”
“The Law?”
“A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent!”
“Our motto?”
“Be prepared!”
“And the scout slogan?”
“Do a good turn daily.”
Man,
I hate saying this over and over...
It
was the summer of 1999. I had just finished the second grade, I was happy that
there was no school and I could do whatever I wanted. I was ready to go to the beach and watch a
lot of T.V. all summer. My attitude
quickly changed when I was informed that I had to go to
“This is gonna be so much fun guys! No parents for a week!” Tristan said
“I hope so” I grumbled…
Are We There Yet?
Whenever we went on trips everyone always wanted to ride in Quy's dad's car. The main reason was due to Quy and his dad being smart enough to bring a power cord, allowing us third graders to be entertained during our five hour car ride. Usually Quy would bring his Gamecube and lets us play Super Smash Bros on the way to camp. I never won, but it sure was time consuming.
“Are we there yet?”
“No, we still have four more hours” Tristan said
Tristan was the MacGyver of our Boy Scout troop. He had wispy blond hair and pure blue eyes, he could even light a match in twenty-five different ways. He would also brag at times but over all he was a friend.
Every hour of the car ride, it was the troop rules for the scouts to call their parents. I never understood why, but I had to obey the Boy Scout rules. The reason I didn't know them wasn't because I didn't try, but because I chose to play games over reading manuals and tying knots. This probably explained why I had such a low rank.
At ten in the morning, my first phone call began…
“Hello?”
“Hi mom!”
“Hey sweetie, how close are you to the camp site?”
“We're almost there.”
“Oh my God I just told you we have like four more hours,” Tristan hissed.
“Well, we have four more hours...”
“Oh, okay, call me when you get there okay?”
“Okay.”
After
the longest five hours of my life, the car stopped and finally we arrived at
Unwanted Baggage
Once I took in my surroundings, the first thing I had to do was unload the car. This was horrible. The Boy Scouts taught us how to light a fire and shoot a bow and arrow, but there wasn’t enough foresight among the five of us to know that we should have the winter coat at home.
As we were getting all of our belongings, we faced our first problem: Kip.
“Hey Boys,” the Scout master sounded.
“Hey Mr. Scott” we mumbled.
“Hey, well Kip here is new to the troop and he needs a pack so you guys think that he can stay in your tent so he can feel welcome?”
Kip was a giant of a third grader, he was tall and skinny, had pasty white skin, thick goggle-like glasses, and unkempt brown hair. First impressions meant a lot, and Kip looked weird.
After my minute-long judgment of Kip, I responded.
“Umm.. sure? I guess...”
“Alright thanks! I'm gonna get my bag.” Kip said.
After we had all of our luggage at the tent, we had 20 minutes before the first scouting event began. I had to take a swimming test to be eligible to get a swimming merit badge, and I needed that to advance my scout rank. So we had 20 minutes to get all of Kip's bags, set up the tent, roll out the sleeping bags, get in our bathing suits and run down to the lake in time for the test. Then we came upon our second problem.
“Umm... The tent case says that this is a three person tent,” Tristan said
“Really? How many people do we have?”
“Six.”
“Well that's alright, we've fit five grown men in that tent, surely six boys can get in there,” Mr. Scott said proudly.
“yeah but we have five normal sized people and a fat kid,” said Quy pointing at Douglass as everyone laughs.
“Well I guess we just have to work with what we got,” I responded.
Quy and I relentlessly scrambled through the un-setup tent trying to look for the instructions. During that time Tristan and Douglass were helping Kip carry his large army duffel bag up to everyone else's equipment.
“Come on! Forget about the tent, we have five minutes to get to the swimming test!” Tristan yelled.
All of us changed into our bathing suits out in the open since we didn't have a tent to change in, then we raced to the lake. Tristan and Quy were running quickly in front followed by Kip not far behind them, Douglass and I were lagging in the back of the troop due to our slightly husky physique.
The Exam
My troop and I quickly made it to the lake. But not quick enough, we were the last ones to arrive meaning that we had to wait for all of the other troops from three different counties to take their tests before we could. I could tell by the look of the line that we were going to be waiting for a while.
When we got to the front, a tall man with skin that looked like he'd been kissed by the sun explained the requirements of the swimming test.
“Welcome to the
“Is… there anything in the water?” Douglass stuttered.
“Haha, Wente lake is man made, and the only things that were put in here were big mouth bass. And did I mention that the lake is heated to make jumping in easier? Well, never mind just jump in.”
Right after Scout Master Duke finished talking, Tristan dove into the lake and starting swimming with long and fast strokes while Kip, Quy, Douglass, and I were standing on the deck contemplating whether we should jump in or not.
“So... Who's gonna go next?” Quy asked.
“Well I'm not.” I said anxiously
“Will someone go already,” Kip demanded.
I then felt a large foot on my back and as I started turning around, I was kicked in to the lake. As I started sinking in the water, I opened my eyes and everything looked brown, then the change in temperature made my spine shiver. I shot to the surface to gasp for air.
“This is not a heated lake!” I yelled.
Douglass
and Quy started walking off the deck deciding not to take the test while Kip
was out of breath laughing at his masterpiece of kicking me into the water. That
Jerk. Since I was already in the lake, might as well start swimming. I started with long confident strides for the
first two laps, then the confident strides changed to paced strokes, and half
way through the fourth lap the paced strokes became pitiful dog paddles. I could see the end of the task almost within
my grasp. But I ran out of breath and my
legs started locking up. I failed. Scout Master Duke had to jump in the
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah… I'm fine,” I said in embarrassment
“Don't worry about it, you did great.” he encouraged
I know he was just trying to make me feel better but when I failed that close to the end, nothing could cheer me up. I walked back to the camp site alone to get ready for dinner.
You Kill It, You Refill It!
At the beginning of every meal, all of the Scouts had to walk to a common area where they would then split up, making multiple lines consisting of their own troop. Then again we had to recite the Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan. But this time is that we had to bow our heads to pray just like in church. I just bowed my head and looked around to see if anyone else had their eyes open.
“Amen.”
Quickly after the prayer everyone created a single file line heading towards the dining hall to get their food. All the Scout Master's were in front because “our elders always go first.” The dining hall looked like it was made for Hunters. Everything looked old, rows of long handmade wood tables, and numerous animal head trophies on the walls.
Once I got to the food table. I noticed that the color was steamed out of the broccoli, the mashed potatoes were liquidated, and the fried chicken strips still had frost shards on the bottom of them. I was cautious about which pieces I selected. After I got my food I sat at the table were the pack was. As I was sitting down I quickly took the pitcher of fruit punch, I left just enough so that I wouldn’t get the last drop. Kip then snatched the pitcher from my hands and finished it off. The moment after I laughed and said.
“You kill it you refill it.”
“You kill it you refill it!” the pack yelled after me.
Kip looked upset at first, but as he was getting up to get more punch he had a smirk on his face. When he sat back down he still had that smirk. It seemed like he was waiting for something now. Kip didn’t touch his food for a while, and every couple seconds he would take a glance back at me to see what I was doing.
Once I finished my cup of fruit punch, I reached over the table to get the pitcher. When the pitcher was within my grasp, Kip tipped it over spilling all of the punch on to my uniform.
“Dude what the heck!” I exclaimed.
“Haha, you killed it, you refill it!” Kip squealed while smiling ear to ear.
I had balled up my fists ready to break those thick glasses. But if I had learned anything in Boy Scouts, it was how to control my anger. So I left the table and walked outside of the Dining Hall. I didn't stay angry for long, I just sat on a log close to the hall and started thinking. How am I going to handle a week of this? I had been outside for about an hour when dinner had ended. Quy walked outside with the rest of the pack, but then broke off to ask.
“Are you alright?”
My head was low as I nodded.
“Yeah, I'm alright. Just needed to think a little bit.”
“Man, Kip's stupid. Tonight lets just kick him outta the tent when he's sleeping.”
“Haha, Nah it's alright, He'll get whats coming to him pretty soon.”
After, Quy and I walked back to the campsite not knowing what was going to happen for the rest of the night, but we didn't care either. As long as we could get through it.
Gotta Love Wente
It was pitch black, the only thing I could see was the large fire and the people surrounding it sitting in the gray stone fire pit. I was crushed between a guy that took up almost half the pit, and another guy that smelled so bad that I could taste the musk coming from his arm pits.
Every night there was a mandatory campfire where we would either sing camp songs, watch someone's skit, or toast marshmallow's while telling stories. Unfortunately this night we had to accept the worst out of the options.
“Okay Scouts, it's time for the
“Oh, I went to Wente and I loved it through and through.
Oh, I went to Wente, and you should go there too.
Oh, I went to Wente, and I can tell you why.
Cause there's never been a day like the day that I had on the day that I went to Wente!”
I thought that everyone was done, after the fourth time It seemed like Mr. Scott had repeated that song over a thousand times. I tried to plug my ears in hopes that I wouldn't hear everyone singing. But the song kept repeating in my head also, I couldn't get it out. Everyone kept singing until it was time for us to go to sleep. Finally.
Bug Check!
We were all tired from the long day; Mr. Scott helped us set up our tent so we could get to sleep earlier. We all crawled in the tent, threw everything but our sleeping bags out because we could barely fit our bodies in. I really think Mr. Scott lied about fitting 5 grown men in this tent. I felt like I was packed worse than our luggage. Quy, Tristan, Kip, and I were in the middle, Kenny was above us, and Douglass was below.
All of us said good night to each other and had started to fall asleep when.
“Bug Check!” Kip screamed while switching on his flash light.
“What?” I asked.
“I felt something… I think it was a scorpion.”
“You didn’t feel a scorpion, just go to sleep Kip.” Tristan hissed.
We all tried to fall back asleep, my sleeping bag was big and covered every part of my body. It was nice and warm as I fell back asleep.
“Bug Check!” Kip screamed again.
“Dude, just go to sleep. It’s more afraid of you than you are of it,” Quy murmured.
“I think it was a spider this time, a big one!”
“Just go to sleep…”
At this rate, we were never going to get to sleep. But I still tried, I got in to a more comfortable position and gently closed eyes when….
“Bug Check!” Kip wailed.
“Dude, shut the hell up!” I complained.
Kip started grumbling in frustration and decided to stand up, and then drop down elbowing me in the chest like he was someone from WWE Smackdown.
“What the hell!!!” Everyone except me yelled.
I couldn’t speak because I was trying to gasp for air. Quy and Tristan darted out of the tent to come back with Mr. Scott.
“Kip elbowed Morris in the chest!” Tristan blurted
“No I didn’t!”
“Yeah he did, at first he was alright, but now I don’t feel safe around him,” Quy said.
“Alright, alright boys, I’ll handle this in the morning. Kip, get your bags, you’re sleeping in my tent tonight.”
I had trouble getting to sleep that night. I had never been that angry at anyone. My chest was throbbing in pain while I was plotting what I was going to do to Kip. Maybe I should do what Quy said and kick him out of the tent, or maybe I should really put bugs in his sleeping bag. But I managed to fall asleep before I was set on a plan.
In the morning I was woken up by Quy with a big smile on his face.
“Morris, Morris, Kip was kicked out of camp!”
“What… really?”
“Yeah, now this camp will actually be fun!”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I felt guilty for being the one that got Kip kicked out, but I could help but smile at the fact that he was gone. I know Wente song is corny, but I understand it more now. Cause I’ve “never had a day like the day that I had on the day that I went to Wente.”