About six of us formed a boyscout troop. The only one in town. One of the scout's mother volunteered to be the troop leader. By the time we made it through and was ready to move on to boyscouts, she suddenly left town with children in tow.
Always wondered if it was something we said.
Years later my son started boyscouts and went through the same drill. Dad enjoyed helping on the little competitive balsa projects. Let's see: one year it was a car, one year a rocket ship, etc. His entries always looked pristine.
His last year they did the rocket ship again and junior informed me that this time he wanted to do this one all by himself. Hey no problem. Been waitin for you to say that. So off he goes to build his entry in "secret".
The night before the competition he brings it out and shows Mom and Dad his pride and joy. Both Mom and Dad had the same look of shock. This thing looked like it came right out of a mail order porn magazine. It was even painted brown and slightly curved. I'm thinking "There ain't no way in h__ I'm showing up with this thing." But Mom prevailed in support and so we sucked it up and went.
For those who don't know the "rocket ship" had a wind-up propeller on the front powered by a rubber band that ran internal the length of the fuselage. The whole thing rode along a 20 foot string via a little carriage at the top.
Sooo,,,, there we are looking at all these beautiful rocketships (that every scout's dad had made), sitting on the table in front of the judges...and then junior presents his lust mobile. After a few "Oh my's ...." followed by a sworn affadavid that Dad had nothing to do with it, junior proudly placed his entry next to the others.
The competition started as they raced two at a time in a double elimination tournament. All the runs were pretty close with one ship beating another no more than maybe a foot or two. Junior was in the 6th heat. I'm thinking, "Ok we let him run his two races, get beat and then we can shove that thing back in the paper bag it rode in on and get the hell out of here." So he winds up his propeller and hands it to the judge who mounts it to the carriage on the string.
I kid you not...when they released the ships, junior's reacted like it had been shot out of a cannon. I mean it not only beat the other ship, it creamed him by half the length of the run. Everybody is kind of looking around at each other wondering what just happened. Of course junior was just pleased as punch and quickly ran to the end of the line for the next run.
Heat two and all the successive heats the same thing happened again. He not only wins, his bludgeon special literally waxes the floor with all these neat looking ships. No one gets within eight or ten feet of him and he wins the first place trophy going away.
Of course when it came time for the picture for the paper, there was some fast talking to keep the you know what out of the photo.
If there's a moral to this story, I don't know what it is. Maybe something like, "Sometimes its better to handle things yourself."?
About six of us formed a Cub Scout pack The only one in town. One of the scout's mother volunteered to be the pack leader. By the time we made it through and was ready to move on to boyscouts, she suddenly left town with children in tow.
