Pulling their leg

[frank10]

Ok, you all have done it at one time or an other. You've stood in front of a scout (or group of scouts) and just couldn't help your self. The fish story just came out. Harmless fun but it's time to confess.... I'll go first.

 

Troop was at static airshow / camporee. When the planes arrived they made a pass over the camp area before heading for the airport. Some how I found myself pointing to a Bi-plane and telling the boys that some of the planes at the airport had been damaged in the storm the night before and the replacement wings were being flown in lashed to the top of other planes since they were too big to bring in on a truck.

 

Ok, who's next? I Know I'm not the only one.

[Overtrained]

Although not original and many have done it - I like the current bush.

 

I had plugged my charged electric razor into a tree after returning from the shower. Some scouts asked what I was doing and I said the electricity from last nights storm was stored in the tree and I was using its power to shave.

 

The best I have ever heard though was my fathers. He and the priest from church had taken the boys to camp (where no bears have ever roamed) and taught them to stand at attention and put their hat in their mouth if they ever saw a bear. Bears hate hats. As a campfire evolved into ghost stories, there was a noise in the bushes. Soon the scouts recognized the bear (Father in a bear suit) and all stood at attention with their hats in their mouths accept my brother and his tent mate who dove head first into a sleeping bag.

[red feather]

chuckle...LOUD GUFFAW!

 

thanks I needed that, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle...

 

yis

[dsteele]

I've pulled their legs probably more times than is fair, but my favorite one was with two first year Webelos.

 

I was the DE at the time and they were complaining at having to wait in the cold Michigan weather for the school bus.

 

I played up on the old "walked five miles to school bit" and told them that my school district was so poor, they couldn't afford an engine for the bus. We had to take turns PUSHING the bus to school.

 

We had a good laugh at that.

 

DS

[eisely]

Several years ago on an outing to Havasu Canyon Arizona, I told the scouts that the tarantulas there had learned a special behavior to protect themselves from getting stepped upon. There was so much horse traffic on the trail that there was a great deal of horse poop on the ground. I told the scouts that if they looked carefully they might find tarantulas curled up to look like horse poop so they wouldn't get stepped on. After a few inspections they figured out the truth.

[evmori]

A propane powered light. Myself and one of my ASM's decided to have some fun at summer camp two years ago. We got an almost empty porpane tank and attached a workbox with a plug in it to the collar. We then got a piece of black hose & ran it from the relief valve to the back of the workbox. Then we fashioned a light to work when it was plugged into the workbox on the propane tank. Great gag! We even got a couple Scouters with it!

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Sparkie]

This year at summercamp about 15 of my boys did COPE, including my son. (Two days prior i had completed the COPE course ). So as they are about to be blindfolded and led down the path, one of the boys was asking "why do we have to be blindfolded?" Now i am not one to pull jokes (i haven't had enough scout tng. ), it's hard for me to lie with a straight face! Anyway, the words just started coming out of my mouth. "Well you see, there is an electric fence surrounding the COPE course DON'T TOUCH IT!. It's there for security/insurance reasons. They don't want you to know where it is so you don't come back at night, hence the blindfolds". So after lunch i went to watch my son do the course (much faster than i the little twerp!), and the head staff mem. asked me "did you tell someone the fence was electrified?". Needless to say, we both had a good laugh!

 

Sparkie

[keschmahalen]

Hello,

 

Mine is a double. For some reason the Webelos in our pack ended up without any scouts from our corresponding troop, nor the two deep leadership we had expected. When I told my DE, he told me which troops were ajoining our site, and I should try to hook up with one of them.

 

The SM of the troop we camped with made a big thing when one of the Webelos said that his flashlight batteries had died! Burial, headstone, and all. When his ASM said he wouldn't mind turning the tables around, I told him to just play along.

 

Then I asked the Webelos Scout if he wanted to bring his battries back to life. "Sure, how?" I called the rest of the Webelos to get their flashlights and asked the ASM to roundup his boys to do likewise.

 

I told everybody to shine their flashlights on the grave, and if there was enough teamwork and faith then there was no telling what we could accomplish!

 

Soon everybody was gathering around with their flashlights, trying to help out, and the young boy looked at me as if I were nuts. I adked him if he wanted his batteries to come back to life, and when he responded again, in the affirmative, I said "you just got to believe"

 

Right on cue, as if it had been scripted, the SCOUTMASTER, said, "DO YOU BELIEVE!!" He took over from there as if we were at a revival meeting, until finally I turned to the poor incredulous boy. "Your the only one who can do it."

 

What else could he do? But you should have seen the Scoutmaster's jaw drop when that flashlight worked.

[buffalo2]

While I don't remember the details clearly (too much oxygen down here I think) had some discussion last year at Philmont about the jumping turtle - didn't move often but occasionally would dive from cliffs and glide for miles. Just look at that clean aerodynamic profile and smooth underbelly for skid landings. About 10 more attributes and talk fast enough and got away with it until the next turtle!

Had to be there I guess...

[AnneinMpls]

Ok, this hardly compares to what's already been shared. I am in awe!

But, ok, so, I had this favorite parka that I always wore on campouts and hikes and things, and it had this long burn mark right across the front of it across one side pocket. Now the truth is, I had left it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs, and my stepdad had pushed the chair up against the radiator overnight. But what I always told the girls was, that it was Struck by Lightning jacket. No one ever questioned it. Not sure quite what that says about me....

[Eagle69]

My troop used to do a High Adventure Trip in the Summer and we would stay overnigh at Army Reserve Centers when we were traveling. One morning at breakfast after we had spent the night at one of these facilities one of my ASM's started talking about how nice the swimming pool had been the night before. We didn't know where he was going with this, but we were awake enough to play along. He knew we had a booth full of Scouts next to us that heard every word we said and by Noon of that day they had told the other kids that their had been a swimming pool in the Reserve Center and we hadn't told them about it. They were quite upset until we told them "Gotcha!".

[bsat4jb]

I may not be a SM or ASM, but as an "older scout", I've pulled a prank or two...or ten...thousand! Just kidding. But I have had some good ones. My personal favorite is an oldie but a goodie: snipe hunting. Once, my troop was on a caving trip in North Carolina. We had two new scouts, and one had never been snipe hunting. The whole evening we were building up to it. We came up with a rating system for the size of a snipe (in my troop it is a "large squirrel-like animal")in which each "one" means three inches. In other words a "three" would be nine inches long. We also came up with six or seven different kinds of snipes. For instance: the American Green, the Egyptian Yellow, the Canadian Red, the African Grey, the [insert country] [insert color]. Well, you get the idea. we never did go snipe hunting because we were in an RV park and didn't have much woods to use.(I know that's bad grammar, but i couldn't think of a better way to word it) On the way home, we started a snipe hunters club. You had to have caught at least a "three" to join. We haven't taken the young scout snipe hunting yet, but the stage is set for next time!

 

Yours in Pranking(is that a word?)

JB

[bsat4jb]

By the way, a snipe really is a small, brown, black and white spotted bird.

 

JB

[Eamonn]

I used to be a Service Team member at Walton Firs National Camp Site, back in England.

We would go to the site one weekend a month acting very much as Campmasters do.

The camp had a fulltime Warden (Ranger.)

Bill Cook, Bill was ex-navy and liked everything to be very prim and proper.

We used to pull in late on Friday night. Come morning Bill would be there in the old hut to make sure we were up and ready for the day.

He had a very big nose, which looked a lot like Bill Clintons, a kind of a line down the center.

When he talked his head nodded and if he got excited his leg also shook.

One Firday night, I hung a empty cardboad box from one of the roof beams.

Bill arrives in the morning, sees the box hanging. He asks what is in the box.

I tell him to shush and whisper that it's a bird.

A Bird - What sort of bird, asks Bill.

I act kind of dumb (Not that hard!) And tell him that I think that it's a kestrel.

A Kestrel -A Kestrel - You can't keep a kestrel in a box. He says.

By now both the head and the knee are in full action.

He then starts tapping the box making cooing sounds.

I leave the box there all day.

Sunday morning Bill is back. Box is still in place. He tells us that we have to let it go, that there are laws about keeping Kestrels.

We agree to let it go, but will wait till after breakfast.

As luck would have it on the cover of the Sunday Times Supplement, that Sunday is a big picture of a Dodo bird.

After breakfast I take the box outside, with all the team members and Bill , who is keeping a safe distance and open the box.

Of course nothing happens.

Bill very carefully moves till he can see inside the box, which has the picture of the Dodo in it.

To add a final touch, we had a turkey for lunch we dressed up the carcass with foil and left it on his bird table.

Guess who ended up painting the latrines next month.

Eamonn

[Fat Old Guy]

Oh my GOD! Snipe hunts! There are those in Scouting who would rather have you worshiping Satan than sending young Scouts on snipe hunts. Don't you know that you can damage their young minds. Heck, look at what happened to you. :-)