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For what it's worth:

This is a hard one. I remember taking our Scouts on a campout on a reserve
base nearby in the 80's. We were invited to play basketball with a group of
reservists, who also invited us to share their burgers and drinks. I noticed
there was beer in the cooler and decided I better monitor access. I watched
from afar as two Scouts appeared to dare each other to take a beer. Finally
one boy reached in and quickly hid what he withdrew. They then nonchalantly
went outside the hangar. I followed them for what seemed to be an
interminable distance-finally tired of the chase I opened with, "Gee, I'm
thirsty. Y'all wouldn't happen to have anything to drink would you." After
two hemmed and hawed a bit I continued, "You know what would go down real
good right now? A beer, ya'll wouldn't know where I could get one.?"
Realized that the jig was up, one boy handed me the beer and there were a lot
of excuses bantered about. I cut them off and proceeded to lecture them on
the ramifications of underage drinking, what could happen to me if I allowed
it, what would their parents think, etc. I poured the beer out and told them,
that they were banned from the next two troop activities. How they handled
the explanations was up to them. I never told the other boys what happened,
and I didn't tell the parents. I don't recall ever having any further trouble
from either. One boy ended up going to National Jamboree and made Life Scout,
the other stayed with the troop and advanced normally until he moved. I see
the Life Scout sometimes, he is a department manager of a local chain store.
We had the occasion to talk a couple years back and he laughed with me about
the incident. He thanked me for treating it one on one with him, and admitted
it was a stupid thing to do. He has a family now and has learned a thing or
two.

I don't know if I treated the incident right. I am able to sleep at night. It
really gave me a warm fuzzy to see at least one of the boys turned out fine in
spite of an admittedly stupid mistake. If it should happen again, I think I
might do the same thing.

Bill Britt
I used to be a Buffalo

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