Would you believe that when I was a boy scout, a couple years ago (1950s) that these mean people treated me, the new boy in the group, this way?
Some stories are easy to believe like the previous story about Noah, while others are not, even though the information may be true.
As I remember this event, I was the new boy in the Boy Scout troop. There was a campout for our group and we were all excited. The location of the camping trip was some farm a little ways out of town. The troop leader and a couple other adults took about 20 boys camping. We were in a field not too far from the farm house. Downhill from the camp site was a tank, for the northern reader, a pond.
We set up all the tents and put our sleeping bags inside the tents. We built a fire so we could all sit around it and tell ghost stories after dark. The leader put a large pot of chili on the gas camp stove.
A little before dark we all had chili for supper. Then we lit the fire and everyone gathered around for stories. I know there were several stories told but the one I remember was about a creature named, “Red Eye”. This creature had one big red eye in the center of his head. I may have been a kid but stories about Red Eye did not scare me.
At some point after the story telling was over, all the boys, including me, went down to the pond / tank. Since I was the new boy I was to be initiated into the group. We climbed over the fence to get to the pond. One of the boys had a rope and I was tied up and left there.
The group of boys all left me alone and tied up on the levy of the pond /tank. I was able to easily remove the ropes. I decided to stay there and see what they had planned for me.
It was a few minutes later when two of the boys, one was riding on the shoulders of the other, came walking toward me. The boy on the shoulders of the other had a flash light with a red lens, pretending to be “Red Eye”. They did not know that I had untied myself, and they hoped I would be scared to death.
They were getting close to me when they stepped into a hole and fell down. I was laughing at them and not scared. They were upset that I did not stay tied and that I was laughing at them.
We all made it back to the tents and had a good night’s sleep.
The next day we had breakfast and then went on a hike. We were walking through the woods and I needed to take a leak. When I had finished my nature break, I found that the group was out of sight. Now I needed to catch up but which way had they gone? After about 20 minutes of not seeing another human I had tears running down my face.
I had noticed that there were several buzzards circling overhead which means they were looking for something dead to have for lunch.
Lonely and crying I walked past several cows. I climbed over several fences but still no other scouts. I even tried hollering for help and that did not work either. Alone, left behind by the scout troop, no one caring whether I was alive or not, I reached for my handkerchief.
As I tried to unfold this clean white hankie, I shook it a few times to get it open so I could wipe the tears from my eyes. Taking time to stop and wipe my eyes, was putting me further and further behind the group.
As I stood there with my handkerchief in hand, suddenly the Buzzards began to land all around me. I can only assume, they had seen the white handkerchief I was using to wipe the tears from my eyes, and they may have thought it was a sign of surrender on my part.
One buzzard said to the other, how long before he is dead? The second buzzard said, who knows, I am not waiting, let’s kill him and eat.
Before you ask, no, the buzzards did not eat me! If they had ate me, I could not write this wonderful exaggeration. Some of your questions are just silly!
Believe it or not, it’s your choice!
Don Ford
No comments:
Post a Comment