It's been roughly five years since I gave up on reading ancient Greek. The girls came along, something had to give, and teaching myself an arcane and dead language seemed like a good place to start. Last night I pulled my workbooks off the library shelf, and this was tucked into Reading Greek. It's one of the very few photos I have of myself as a kid. This was around fifth or sixth grade. I hated both the Cub and the Boy Scouts and would not graduate past Tenderfoot. The Pinewood Derby meant nothing to me but misery and shame. I was ADD and sucked at getting merit badges. Walking around door to door selling tickets to the big annual scout fair at the Sioux Falls arena was not my idea of a good time. And my chief memory of meetings in Mr. Dickens' basement den involve hormonal boys chasing each other around for wedgies. But here I am, model Webelo, featured in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. I'm guessing this is from 1971.
Posts
2 comments:
Cute pic, but what a drag. My nephew had undiagnosed ADD too, but made Eagle Scout. Didn't have your I.Q., just involved parents who made Scouts seem halfway-doable (homophobia notwithstanding).
The hormonal wedgie could be dreadworthy, though. Girls Scouts etc. had it in 70's. I was nailed. See the movies "Carrie" and "Foxes," and ask friends about Jr.High gym class. Girls in groups didn't pull punches, man.
The only good thing I got out of cub scouts was a blue ribbon for baking a cake in the shape of Huckleberry Hound. My den mother kept a pet skunk and lived in a log cabin that was part of the rum-runners network in Edmonds.
No newspaper documentation though. Did it spark an interest that led to a career though?
Post a Comment