Funny stories in Scouting

[pchadbo 60]

Just had to share a funny story along these lines.

 

One night after working all day, changing, rushing to pick up Scoutson and make it to a meeting, leaving meeting, dropping off Scoutson with Mom and heading for home to finish moving the pick-up truck full of shelving from the old house. Got home, after dark, drove to the back yard and proceeded to unload a pickup truck full of metal shelving that I had gooten when a store I worked at got new stuff. Not a quiet endeavor at 8:30 at night in the dark.

Got finished and was heading in the house when I saw two police cars coming down the road. . .officer gets out and asks if I live there I say yes and a third cruiser shows up. . .they search backyard and come back to the driveway where I am still hanging out with two police officers and my State Trooper neighbor in his BDUs . . .when the supervisor comes from out back we recognize each other from around town growing up and Roundtable and he looks at the other officers and says "it's always the Scoutmasters causing problems!!"

[moosetracker 132]

I would say my funniest is my son when he was doing his orienteering merit badge..

 

He has around his neck the compass. And his merit Badge instructor asks him to explain to him how to the compass is used..

 

"Sure!" says my son.. He stretches the compass out on it's elastic cord and let's go.. TWANG! It smacks him in the face.. Not only that but the compass arrow leave a perfect imprint on his nose so that as he looks around the room the arrow moves on his nose, points out the direction that you are facing in.

 

And that my friends is how you use a compass..

[raisinemright 13]

OK which one to use.

 

One cold winter night on a patrol campout I hit the sack a little before the other leaders. We had two tents pretty far from the scouts. I heard two leaders crawl into their tent and beging to cary on a muted conversation. Then my tentmate came in. He was going to use a silvery mylar emergency blanket inside his sleeping bag for a little extra warmth.

 

Now, if you've ever opened one of those up, you know it's absolutely impossible to do it quietly. But he tried. I never let on that I was awake. The otehr two guys were still talking. After about two minutes of the loudest crinkling you've ever heard, I said "Would you guys be quiet, I can't hear Sam opening his blanket."

 

Needless to say, we all giggled like a bunch of girl scouts.

 

One of those guys got me back though. On a high adventure trip, my campstove had a prety massive mechanical failure and caught fire, I ended up with my hand on fire. Since I was wearing synthetic clothes, I refrained from batting it out on my shirt and proceeded to wave it fast and put out the flames. Stop,Drop and Roll on gravel just wasn't going to happen. This guy looks at me a couple minutes later as I'm beginning some first aid and said "Hey, that happened pretty quickly. Can we redo it so I can get a picture?"

[NealOnWheels 73]

One camporee the scouts had finished their lunch and were hanging around the campfire waiting for events to begin again.

 

I layed down in the tent to relax. As a lay there listening to the conversation around the campfire I soon became drowsy. While half asleep I heard someone say "don't put that in the fire!". Followed by someone else saying "do it!". They went back and forth a few time but in my drowsiness it really did not register. Then someone said "everybody run... its gonna blow!". At that point I became completely conscious. I had images of one of the 20 lb propane cylinders sitting in the fire.

 

I jumped out of my tent and looked around. No scouts anywhere in sight. To my relief I could see nothing in the fire.

 

I turns out one of the scouts wondered what would happen if you threw a hand warmer in the fire. I did not find it very funny but the scouts sure got a chuckle out of my reaction.

[Eagle92 110]

This is a true story I swear.

 

Leader had a Scout get sick at Summer camp. Everything was OK with the scout, but he needed a prescription and the leader didn't pick it up when out with the scouts due to being a poor college student. After dropping off the scout and getting money for the med, he goes to the pharmacy to get it. He's in full uniform, not a field uniform, as it is late and he planned on getting back to camp just before dinner.

 

Well while driving back in the pouring rain, someone pulls out in front of him, and runs him off the road into a ditch. Can't get out and just as he's about to call a tow truck at the pay phone across the road, one appears. Driver asks what's up and why in a uniform. When he founds out, tow's the car out, check for damages, and let's the leader off saying " hadn't done my good turn for the day, just help someone who's broken down on the side of the road next time you see 'em for me." So the leader returns.

 

A week later the leader is driving to his girlfriend's house after a meeting, so he has his uniform hanging up in the car. He see a young lady with what looks like a broken down car. remembering the tow truck driver from the week before, he stops, offer's to take her to a mechanic and tow truck down the street, and she jumps in the car.

 

WWWWWEEELLLL let's just say her car wasn't broken down, and she wasn't stranded. She offered her services until she saw the uniform hanging in the back seat, thought the leader was a cop, and quickly gets out of the car.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Its been awhile since I talked about my son's medical condition but here goes

 

Well, first you have to know a little background. Due to a birth defect my son has to cathetrize a stoma every 3-4 hours to drain urine from a surgically constructed bladder and has to sleep with a urinary drainage bag. The medical term is epispadias, its a form of extrophy

 

We were on a cabin campout a few years back. The boys were in the two upstairs rooms, the older boys in one (where my son was) and the younger in another. The adults were all downstairs. Well, as it often happens the younger boys were being very rambunctious and noisy and wouldnt settle down. The older boys kept telling the younger ones to be quiet. Well, eventually my son has had enought, he walks over the youner boy side, and flips on the light. There he is, with his catheter bag 1/3 filled raised to eye level and he says "Hey, you guys be quiet, this thing is loaded and I am not afraid to use it.

 

The place went totally silent and stayed that way till morning, then he told me what happened and I laughed for 10 minutes. I was always worried how he would react to wearing the bag, he turned it to his advantage

 

I was/am so proud

[skeptic 992]

We had spent four days camping during spring break, three adults and a half dozen scouts. All week we, the adults, had been feasting, as we planned very well. And, all week the boys ate their mediocre or worse suppers, then gazed longingly while we ate. Last night out, we had spaghetti planned, including a fancy tomato based sauce. To this day not sure where my mind was, but I neglected to rinse the spaghetti, but instead thought I would save time by using its water to make the sauce. So, I stirred it all together, and we all savored the great aroma, then let it sit while we finished up the rest.

 

Came time to eat, and we broke out the paper plates (we were not exactly being ecological examples, as we were burning our plates and bowls .....hanging head)for our feast. The spoon had been left in the pot sticking out from under the lid, and when I went to dish some out to one of the others, it almost did not move through the pasta. I managed to pry and dish out three servings, and we started to eat. It stuck to the forks, once we got it off the plate, and it was like chewing tar (though the flavor was pretty good). Well, after a few minutes, we gave up and simply threw the plates with pasta on the fire. Now it was April at 4500 feet in the mountains, and we had a very warm fire. To this day, I can still picture my plate, with this large glob of orange pasta in its center, sitting on top of the large central log. An hour later, the glob was still there, though the plate had disappeared.

 

Have often wondered if anyone has ever investigated the properties of pasta starch as a fire retardant. Of course, the boys did not let us forget either, especially since they too had had pasta, and it came off without a hitch.

[shortridge 184]

First camping trip as a Boy Scout, on a cold blustery spring weekend at Assateague Island, Md. Wind blowing over the dunes off the ocean and freezing everyone. The Rattlesnake Patrol, all of us freshly-graduated Webelos, are huddled around our campfire cooking lunch. The Scoutmaster wonders what's taking us so long - we're just boiling hot dogs, after all. He wanders over, to find us indeed boiling the dogs in the giant patrol cook kit pot ...

 

... one hot dog at a time.

 

Our cooking skills could only improve from there.

[AvidSM 11]

A scout runs into the first aid station at a Klondike claiming that he has gone blind - his vision was clouded.

 

The nurse takes a look at him and asks that he remove his glasses - he is miraculously cured of his blindness!!

 

He had been too near the campfire and the surface of the lenses on his glasses had clouded up due to the heat.

 

[Crew21_Adv 25]

Fellow Scouters,

 

Greetings!

 

I was chuckling as I read thru this string. Then I got down to Shortridge story. I started to cry, then Mrs Crew21_Adv was wondering why I couldn't breath. Oh my.... Shortridge story sounds so familiar, and so many times, and then I think it even happened to myself as well. Thanks Shortridge! I laughed with my Crew tonight, and I was really laughing, crying and rolling at home reading this.

 

I've laughed with others, during many Scouting events. But for now the only story I can think of. About 15 years ago, our Cub Family Camp, about 9 p.m., we had about 100 Cubs and parents. After a long day, families were relaxing by their tents chatting in different groups. With about 5-6 parents and maybe 15-20 cubs/siblings were around the glowing coals of our large campfire. The flames were out, but there was a golden glow still sparkling, and up to 20 of the kids were roasting marshmallows to make Smores.

 

Eventually, One of the young sisters of our cubs caught her marshmallow on fire. Great! A flaming marshmallow. So she definitely wanted to extinguish the flames on her roasted marshmallow. She began to swing her stick in the air, just like during fly fishing. A perfect 10 and 2 (clockface) swing, back and forth, back and forth.

 

Maybe three seconds later the flaming marshmallow, flew airborne, with a high arch flying 10 feet to the other side across the fire.

 

Of course, where else could a flaming marshmallow land..... On Crew21_Adv youngest son's left cheek. Just below his eye. With the flaming marshmallow being slightly melted, it just stuck there. Still flaming. Still below his eye.

 

My first thought was to put my son's "flaming" face out. I slapped him so hard, he easily did a 180, but the flame on his face was definitely out. (Then all the ladies at the camp were slapping probably a gallon of butter, mayonnaise and any ointment that had onto his face).

 

At the time, it was scary. Don't worry about me being an abusive parent or heartless, I was terrified at the time. But slapping his face was the quickest way to put the fire out.

 

Over the years, my oldest son asks me to tell some of our funny stories again. My oldest laughs. I laugh. And well, my youngest son giggles and laughs just a little recalling how Crew21 flipped him over. Maybe it was a full 360, I slapped him so hard.

 

Just to be fair. We also laugh about my oldest son, going with me to the Emergency Room at 2 a.m. with a simplex fracture. Then later my wife waking up the next morning with me wearing a cast in our bed. But that wasnt Scouting, that was just me acting like I was still 15 with my boys.

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21_Adv

[AlamanceScouter 10]

A couple of years ago when my son was a Tiger his den was doing science projects. One the first things they did was to see what would happen when they somebody puts mentos (I think that was what it was) in a soft drink. Now....you have to know my son....he is the kid who just HAS to be first. The first in line, the first to put his hands on something when he is not supposed to touch it, etc. I am sure you all know those kids.

 

Anyway, the leader puts the stuff down in the 2 liter soft drink and my son promptly runs to it an looks down into the bottle.....after the big explosion of Pepsi-Cola drenches him we all (other than my son) laugh out loud. Leaders still get a kick out of that story.

[SMT224 10]

Several years ago at summer camp, I took the opportunity to discuss food safety as we prepared for the Friday foil dinner. I saw this a an excellent teachable moment that would last a lifetime.

 

After lunch, I gathered the Scouts together and explained the possible health risks associated with ground beef and how stay safe. I said that only I, the Scoutmaster, would handle the beef patties supplied by the camp, placing one on a foil square. The Scouts would then take the foil square, holding it only by the edges, over to a different table and add the onions, potatoes, carrots, and seasonings. This way the potential of contamination would be significantly reduced since they would not ever touch the meat. Everyone seemed to understand and went off to their afternoon merit badge classes.

 

Later in the afternoon, we built up the fire so as to have a good bed of coals, & had Scouts cut up the onions, potatoes, and onions. I carefully cut a pile of foil squares and set up the beef patties so everything was ready for the assembly line of foil dinners. We assigned an older Scout to flip the foil dinners in the fire pit and an adult to time each one.

 

At dinner time, I had everyone wash their hands, and again explained the process. Everyone lined up to receive their foil square with a beef patty, then moved on to table to add the veggies.

 

Things seemed to be going very well until I turned around and looked at the veggy table. Imagine my shock as I saw about six Scouts standing there kneading the vegetables into the hamburger, their hands covered with burger! I ask them what they were doing! They looked at me with all sincerity and said that the foil dinner would taste better this way!

 

I was absolutely floored! So my teachable moment on food safety became a lesson on through hand washing! It was also a lesson for me that teenagers are not little adults, but a different creature entirely - one that does not necessarily see things with the same logic we do!!

 

[Stosh 3452]

I posted this story earlier under homesickness, sorry for the re-post, but some may have missed it.

 

NSP boys went down to bed Friday night, first night in tent for many of the new boys.

 

As adults we were listening to the boys settle in and we heard one of the boys crying. My ASM's know that they are to get me up if there's a problem, but the process we use usually works best. All the adults first lay quiet until it gets really serious. Too often adult intervention makes the situation worse. So we waited.

 

Because we didn't do anything, the crying boy's buddy tried to quiet him down as best he could. Finally the boy got quieter and his buddy rolled over only to be interrupted with a request from the homesick boy for some kleenex. The buddy didn't have any and told him to go to sleep. About five minutes later the boy was crying again and his buddy asked him now what was he problem. He said he couldn't get to sleep because he was "covered with snot!"

 

Stosh

[Gary_Miller 10]

Told to me by my son a BSA camp staffer.

 

One night he was awaken by the yelling of help from some boys in a camp site up from the staff area. When he arrived at the site he saw two scouts tied to a tree with his SM and Troop all sitting around the campfire laughing.

 

It seems that there are these two troops that always go to camp at the same time. They are always competing with each other. It seems that the game for that night was a hugh water fight between the troops, soaker guns, water cannons, buckets, water balloons where all in play. All the scouts and tents and equipment where soaked the entire camp was wet.

 

Anyway it appears that the other troop captured these two boys and tied them to the tree right in the middle of their own camp while the other boys where attacking the other camp.

 

My boy said it was the funnest thing to see the SM just sitting there in his chair as if nothing had even happened, while his scouts screamed for help.(This message has been edited by Gary_Miller)

[Tha_Mensinghe 10]

About once every two years, a bank in our town gets robbed or so, and the police turns to our cub pack for help getting the robbers. Our cubs are always able to arrest the criminals, usually in the nearby forest, although it requires some action and bravery. These are the meetings they still talk about among each other when they are venture scouts or have become leaders themselves.

 

So, a couple of years ago the bank had been robbed again, the police turned to our pack for help, and luckily we found the car of the bank robbers at the entrance of the forest. So far, so good. Following the footsteps the robbers had left behind all kids followed by the leaders went hunting for the robbers. After some strategy deliberations they caught all three of them and the moneybags. One of the leaders reported the catch to the police and we walked them back to the forest entrance, filled with pride.

 

To the leaders surprise one of the cubs came walking up in the other direction. Apparently he had managed to escape our attention when we were done examining the car that was used by the bank robbers. He proudly told us he had managed to sabotage the car in case the robbers would return to their car and escape before we would have gotten hold of them.

 

The leaders of course could do nothing but praising him a little, but were a bit worried about what they would find. The kids father owns one of the local garages so the kid is a bit knowledgeable about cars. Turned out he had managed to cut all the spark cables.

 

Well, with a bit of teeth grinding we praised him a bit more and decided to pay for the repairs ourselves, which was a very acceptable amount. We were not able to borrow that car once more though.