Maxcine (Scout Law: Friendly)

(extracted from "Patches and Pins (or "The quest for Silver Animals and
other assorted crap")", written by Mike L. Walton =A9 1988 )=20

"Maxcine"

A Scout is Friendly. He is a friend to all and a brother to all other
Scouts. He does these things in a spirit of world and community brotherhood,
without regard for a person's religious or racial background or heritage.
For a good Scout recognizes the important aspect of having friends --
someone to help guide you to a new site, to share campfire stories, to help
erect a tent
or to start a fire. True, you can do all of these things by yourself, but
there's something uplifting about having someone else there with you to=
help.=20

A Scout is especially friendly to females, to elderly persons and to
children. This goes back to the days of the knights of old, whose
responsibilty lie beyond that of just protecting the cities and defending it
against enemies. A good Scout realizes the difference in being pushy and
demanding and insistant and in being friendly. Some persons do not need
assistance -- and you should not take that as an insult or "put-down". They
are realizing their own personal independence. Instead, you should try to
assist them to do things for themselves.=20

Scouts do not wait for friends to come to them; they go to aid and meet new
friends.=20

That is friendliness. So is a smile instead of a frown and a handshake
instead of just a "hello".=20

Maxcine was not ugly. She was nowhere near pretty nor even very attractive
to most boys. Maxcine was not even her name...I guess if you were named
"Ethel", you too would want to use another name.=20

My mother called girls like Maxcine "plain janes". As a freshman, her body
was a little slower to develop all of its natural curves and as a result,
she was shunned by her fellow female friends. She had those large glasses
with what seemed to have the bottoms of sodabottles attached. Her hair was
also plain, just draping over her head, and always nicely combed and=
brushed.
She would always wear pants; well, she did wear pants for a long time but
that was to change.=20

She would also gain her first boyfriend. Me.=20

My first year of high school was a true wake-up call for me. I arranged my
own scheldue. I had the "option" of attending class or not attending class
and suffer the consequences. I was no longer in a classroom with "just
freshmen". Some of my classes had juniors and seniors in them. I became a
friend to just about a good third of the student body at the small high
school (small by my own standards; Fort Knox High when I was there in
1973-77 was only 800 students large; neighboring schools had at least
a thousand boys and girls crowding buildings and hallways.) I felt lucky.=20

Maxcine sat beside me in Civics class when she got sick. She threw up on my
notebook and onto my desk and then the floor. I helped to get the
wastebasket, but it was too late. Mrs. Stevens took the ill girl to the
restroom around the corner and then to the nurse's office.=20

Mrs. Stevens returned to the classroom, where the noise level was loud and
teasing. She asked if anyone lived close to Maxcine to take her homework to
her. Although I knew that three of us lived in the same housing area, nobody
raised their hands or even coughed. I finally raised my hand and told the
teacher that I would do it.=20

That afternoon, I rode the number 5 bus to Rose Terrace and got off at the
ninth stop as it made its way around the circular outside road which
makes up the "main street" in the Rose Terrace Housing Area. I found
Maxcine's home and cautiously knocked on the screen door.=20

Maxcine's brother came to the door.=20

"Hi, is Maxcine here? I have her homework from school". I smiled for effect.=
=20

Her brother yelled "MAXCINE!! It's your boyfriend!!"=20

"Whoa!!! I'm not her boyfriend!", I yelled. It was too late. I heard some
thumping sounds and then Maxcine came to the door, smacking her brother on
the backside of his head, telling him "I ain't got no boyfriend!"=20

"Hello." Then she added, "Hi Mike...sorry about the peabrained brother of
mine. You ever had the mumps?" She held the door closed, awaiting my answer.=
=20

"Yeah, I had them about three years ago. Sorry about you being sick."=20

Maxcine let me in and asked me to have a seat in the kitchen. She then
introduced me to her mother and excused herself as she went back upstairs to
change clothes.=20

"Mike. Thank you very much for bringing Maxcine's homework home with you. I
guess you figured out that she doesn't have many friends around here. Most
of the kids here are in elementary school like Stanley, her brother..."=20

I nodded, adding, "...and those in high school are two or three grades
higher than her. I know, I have the same problem." We then exchanged small
talk about where I lived and about my family.=20

Maxcine came back downstairs, wearing a sundress which actually enhanced her
slender body. I turned the chair around and commented on how nice the dress
looked. It did look a lot better than those pants she has been wearing all
of the time.=20

"My mother made this. She makes all of my clothes for me. She's really good
at it.", she stated proudly, as she closed the front door. Something told me
that she did not want anyone to see her in a dress. She kept looking at the
windows as we talked.=20

"This is none of my business, Maxie, but why don't you wear dresses to=
school?"=20

She paused, then bowed her head. I started to apologize for my lack of tack,
but her mother spoke up. "I don't know if you've noticed, but my husband
doesn't make a lot of money. He's only a Staff Sergeant. With a child in
college, Maxcine's older brother, and these two, money doesn't go a long
way. That's why I make her clothes."=20

I was embarrassed and at the same time, looking at Maxcine's light summer
dress, was impressed that someone could make something so "store-like".=20

"She could wear this one. I like it." Maxcine smiled at me. So did her=
mother.=20

"Can you stay for dinner, Mike. We're having roast and potatoes."=20

I accepted.=20

Maxcine and I continued to see each other in school and at her home, for she
had to babysit her younger brother afterschool. But like the rest of
reality in living on a military base, the Robinsons moved to Germany a month
later, at the end of our freshman year. I got two postcards and two letters
from her a couple of years later.=20

The last letter had a photo inside. There was E. Maxcine Robinson, no longer
in that straight hairdo, with the bottlebotttom glasses and the straight
hair...she had a perm and contacts. She was holding a newborn child, "her
child" as she was so proud to write. I never heard from her again since. I
know that her family later retired somewhere in Alabama.=20

My favorite image, however, was not the photo that she sent. It was the
larger-than-life smile on her face on the last full day of freshman high
school when she sat beside me in Civics. She had those same glasses on, and
her hair was rolled and puffed up with lots of hairspray.=20

She was in a *dress*, that same sundress I first saw her with. And I was not
the only boy admiring her new look and confidence.=20

Settummanque!=20
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Services of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |]
(H) 502.827.9201 (F) 502.826.7046 (W) 888.284.4848 (yea!) coffee?
anytime!
(Email) blkeagle@midwest.net/kyblkeagle@AOL.COM
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