Longhaired_Mac

In the late nineteen eighties my Scoutmaster was a rather jolly fat man with a curly beard and a chew-can ring in all his back pockets. He found laughter in most everything as I recall, appropriate or not. When I hear things at Scouting U like, "if you can't act like a 10 year-old, then you shouldn't be in scouting," well he comes right to mind.

He had a brown with tan stripe truck that hauled scouts and equipment every direction for a few years. Inside that 80's Chevy Scottsdale of his at all times was a cassette tape of Chuck Berry's greatest hits. The last song on the B side was My ding-a-ling (2 bells on a string). There wasn't a hike, camp-out, camparee, or outing where he didn't manage to squeeze in at least one play. And if one of the boys riding with him was quick enough to hit the repeat button on the tapedeck before his hand got smacked, we might hear it an extra time or two. It always started us off with a laugh or lolled us to sleep smiling on the drive home. I still sing it now and again when camping or flirting. Or showing off for my son.

Now the Scoutmaster was far from Santa and the song is equally distant from anything that could be called a carol, yet as the end of the year draws near and the holiday cheer comes around...some of the coincidental similarities have my brain humming that old Chuck Berry tune. Any time I hear a Salvation Army station outside store fronts ringing thier bells, or clanky bells on doors. Happy Holidays to all my friends in scouting, new and old.

https://youtu.be/UaEC-lWSlmI