Scout's Honor!

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Now, on with the Blog!

This summer we discovered that Handsome wants to be a Cub Scout. I had no idea. I was never in the Scouts when I was growing up, so I had no clue about them, but some of Handsome's friends are Scouts and he's heard them talking about it. What he heard must have sounded like fun, because when I asked him about it he perked right up. I asked him about it while he was watching TV, and just the fact that he heard me talking to him without waiting for a commercial was impressive.

"Hey, Handsome, would you like to join the Scouts?"

His head came right up, and his eyes were bright, and he answered with no hesitation.

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

Well ... wow! Mentioning the Scouts ripped his attention right away from ICarly like the TV wasn't even on!

Well, that was in the summer, and Scouts runs during the school year (I had no idea), so it wasn't until last week that we could really do anything about it. What we did about it was that I went to a parent meeting for the local Cub Scout Pack. I went to the meeting so I could turn in Handsome's application to the Scoutmaster, but since it was a parent meeting Handsome stayed home. He made sure I had the application with me though, and he was anxious to hear what happened about it when I went to pick him up afterward.

Well, I went to the meeting, and it was the first time I heard anything about really being in the Scouts. The whole meeting was interesting as all get out! They were planning out Halloween activities and fund raisers, and after the meeting I got to talk to the Scoutmaster about Handsome joining. We got everything squared away, and he talked to me in a little more detail about the requirements for being in the Webelos Scouts. Some of what he had to say I found to be very interesting indeed.

But what I was really interested in was Handsome's reaction when I relayed what I had learned to him. I hustled on to his house, where he was waiting to hear any news.

"Well, Handsome," I said as I walked in, "you are now a Cub Scout."

"Cool!"

"And," I went on, "it looks like your first Scout activity may be a Halloween party."

"Sweet!"

"We have to do a little shopping, though," I went on.

"Shopping?"

"Yup. We need to get you a uniform shirt, and a kerchief, and a few patches ... "

He was looking pretty pleased about it so far. So I dropped the bomb.

"... and we have to get the book."

Handsome froze.

"Book?"

"Yep. The Webelos Scout Handbook."
"There's a handbook?"

"Yup. And the one for Webelos is about twice as thick as the ones for other Cub Scout ranks."

"Do I have to read it?"

"Handsome," I smiled, " you get to do a lot of fun things in the Scouts. You get to go on hikes, and canoeing, some field trips, maybe even camping ... "

"Yeah?"

"But mixed in between all that fun stuff, you're gonna have Cub Scout homework."

Eyes wide, Handsome threw his hands in the air.

"I don't want to be a Scout!"

To late, Handsome. Too late.

(Cue the Evil Laughter...)

Talk to you later!