RETURN TO THE DAILY GRIND
With the holiday break over, a new year rung in, and the kids forced out of warm beds at a seemingly unnatural hour to go back to school, it was time for Troop 281 to resume the Tuesday meetings. It was an important meeting, as new Patrol Leaders had to be elected to replace the old ones at the upcoming Court of Honor. While the elections didn’t take that long, the soon-to-be Patrol Leaders were not announced until the end of the meeting.
After the elections was the Skill session for that night. Led by John R., it was another 101 course in the basics of some field of knowledge needed by all Boy Scouts. This night it was Tree and Plant Identification. Quickly reviewing all the need-to-know aspects on identifying plant life in the wilderness, the review of natural skills was a good refresher course for older scouts and for younger scouts still working on the identification requirements for higher ranks. It served as a good explanation for just how to do it.
Towards the end of the skill session, it was noticed that some of the adults and youth staff were putting up what can only be described as “The Net.” The fact “The Net” was being put up meant that some part of the game to be played involved flying balls, and usually the most common game involving flying balls was the always-popular dodge ball! While dodge ball was the game of the night, this meeting had a somewhat different version of the activity. The main idea of the game is closely related to how “Ultimate Football” or “Ultimate Frisbee” is played, as there is only one ball in play and the person holding the ball can only take one step before having to toss the ball at someone. If someone goes out, then everybody that was eliminated from the game because of that person get s to come back in, and so the chaos would keep going. As usual, Alex R. was the primary target of practically everybody in the game, or at least until Will C. got Nick B. out right as Nick had tossed the ball to Will. The opinion held by Nick towards Will was something along the lines of “BACKSTABBER!” throughout the rest of the game.
It had been a mad frenzy of the same purple dodge ball flying back and forth in the meeting hall when the last call to fall in was made. After Avery asked how the rest of the scouts had enjoyed the game of “Ultimate Dodge Ball” (to which there was resounding cheers of approval from everybody), the new Patrol Leaders were announced: Justin K. for the Flaming Arrows, Alex S. for the Falcons, Nick B. for the still-unnamed joint patrol formed from the Kodiak Bears and Vikings as of last meeting, and Greg B. was re-elected for the Hurricanes (who also had a much higher attendance turnout than usual). After the new leaders were announced, the troop formed its ever-ritualistic circular amoeba shape and Dr. Reynolds told an inspiring story about a New Orleans fisherman who was constantly lending aid and support even after losing everything because of Hurricane Katrina and suffering back problems. With that story of Good Sumaritanism in the air, the troop joined hands and did the single clap to end the meeting.
Ben Hallenbeck, Historian
* * * * *
Historian’s Note: A collection of my little Historian Blurbs, complete up to the Water sports campout from last year (with extra contributions from Ben M. and Nick B, who provided post-campout details when I was unable to go on those campouts), will be available soon, perhaps by the time the next newsletter gets out. For those interested, it will contain a cover page detailing instructions as to how to print it out and add it to the memories for scouts to look back upon years from now.
After the elections was the Skill session for that night. Led by John R., it was another 101 course in the basics of some field of knowledge needed by all Boy Scouts. This night it was Tree and Plant Identification. Quickly reviewing all the need-to-know aspects on identifying plant life in the wilderness, the review of natural skills was a good refresher course for older scouts and for younger scouts still working on the identification requirements for higher ranks. It served as a good explanation for just how to do it.
Towards the end of the skill session, it was noticed that some of the adults and youth staff were putting up what can only be described as “The Net.” The fact “The Net” was being put up meant that some part of the game to be played involved flying balls, and usually the most common game involving flying balls was the always-popular dodge ball! While dodge ball was the game of the night, this meeting had a somewhat different version of the activity. The main idea of the game is closely related to how “Ultimate Football” or “Ultimate Frisbee” is played, as there is only one ball in play and the person holding the ball can only take one step before having to toss the ball at someone. If someone goes out, then everybody that was eliminated from the game because of that person get s to come back in, and so the chaos would keep going. As usual, Alex R. was the primary target of practically everybody in the game, or at least until Will C. got Nick B. out right as Nick had tossed the ball to Will. The opinion held by Nick towards Will was something along the lines of “BACKSTABBER!” throughout the rest of the game.
It had been a mad frenzy of the same purple dodge ball flying back and forth in the meeting hall when the last call to fall in was made. After Avery asked how the rest of the scouts had enjoyed the game of “Ultimate Dodge Ball” (to which there was resounding cheers of approval from everybody), the new Patrol Leaders were announced: Justin K. for the Flaming Arrows, Alex S. for the Falcons, Nick B. for the still-unnamed joint patrol formed from the Kodiak Bears and Vikings as of last meeting, and Greg B. was re-elected for the Hurricanes (who also had a much higher attendance turnout than usual). After the new leaders were announced, the troop formed its ever-ritualistic circular amoeba shape and Dr. Reynolds told an inspiring story about a New Orleans fisherman who was constantly lending aid and support even after losing everything because of Hurricane Katrina and suffering back problems. With that story of Good Sumaritanism in the air, the troop joined hands and did the single clap to end the meeting.
Ben Hallenbeck, Historian
* * * * *
Historian’s Note: A collection of my little Historian Blurbs, complete up to the Water sports campout from last year (with extra contributions from Ben M. and Nick B, who provided post-campout details when I was unable to go on those campouts), will be available soon, perhaps by the time the next newsletter gets out. For those interested, it will contain a cover page detailing instructions as to how to print it out and add it to the memories for scouts to look back upon years from now.
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