My Days as a Cub Scout

[kybearfuzz]

Some time back, someone on my friends list posted that they had passed by the boy scouts selling their popcorn and stuff and had refused to buy any of their stuff because of their anti-gay stance. I personally applaud that idea.

Tonight, I was chatting with cincycub tonight, where I found out Brian was a cub scout for a year. I told him that I had lasted all of two weeks myself. I'll recount the reason why in this PWE (pre-journal worthy entry).

I'll set the wayback machine for 1980 or so. I was probably seven or eight. It was either my second or third grade year that I wanted to hop into the boy scouts. It seems like I remember someone coming to talk to the kids at school about scouting, and of course they made it sound fun and adventurous. My sister was already a Brownie scout, so selling my mom on the idea was relatively easy. I got my uniform, complete with dazzling yellow neckerchief. If that wasn't a gay selling point, I don't know what was.

I went to my first scout meeting around Halloween. I went in full uniform to my den mother's house with my Scooby-Doo mask on for a party with the guys (yeah, for some reason our leader was a lady, or maybe she was the den leader's wife). One of the guys in my troop was my next door neighbor Jeff, who coincidentally was sort of an in-law. His sister was married to my older brother Ronnie. Jeff and I and the rest of the boys had fun at the party, though I admit I don't recall much of it. I do remember my scout leader telling my mom that we had a joint clean-up of the Trademart shopping center in two weeks with the girl scouts. Mom had already heard about this through my sister's troop.

Two weeks passed and the Saturday clean-up day arrived. My sister Rhonda donned her get up and I put on my uniform. Mom drove both of us to Trademart and we stood there while whoever was in charge shouted orders. I remember looking around for my troop, but I didn't see them or anyone else male. Amidst a sea of green and brown girl scout uniforms, mine was the only blue uniform present. Not a single boy scout, other than myself, had shown up for this trash pick-up shindig.

I turned to Mom and begged her to take me home. I was both angry and afraid. Girls were icky and I didn't want to stay there with them. Mom must have been looking forward to having a quiet house for an afternoon, because she wouldn't do it.

"They've already seen that you're here," she said, "you can't just leave."

Like hell I can't, I thought. Mom was adamant that I stay though, saying it woudn't look right. She tried to tell me that it wouldn't be so bad, especially since I had Rhonda there with me. Mom hopped in her car and left. Though I know it's not in her character, I can almost swear I heard her giggling with glee at the idea of having a child-free afternoon.

So the head girl scout leader (think Anne Ramsey from "Throw Momma From the Train"), split every troop up and assigned them to a specific area of the shopping center. I went up to Ms. Ramsey and asked her where she wanted me to go. She asked where my troop was. I shrugged my shoulders and said I had no idea. So, life dealt me yet another cruel blow and she assigned me to the troop where all the girls had hit puberty, which was not the troop my sister was in. So Rhonda detached me from her arm with a crowbar and I went off with my assigned group.

We were assigned the eastern end of the shopping center, the Belk's through Curtis Mathes area. Though it was November, it was the middle of our Indian summer because the temperatures were very warm. I started sweating after an hour of picking up trash. The bitches of Troop PMS of course didn't bother to learn my name. They just referred to me as "Cubby," a name that I don't mind coming from a nice burly bear these days, but to hear these acne-ladden witches use it at the time just made me feel terrible. It was this time that I learned that sometimes I had to just bear it as it would eventually end.

I'm sure it was a couple of hours, but felt longer before the day was done. Mom arrived to pick up Rhonda and me and we went home. Mom asked me how it went and I remember being very sullen. I had hated it and more importantly I hated my troop for deserting me. When we got home, I went to my room and changed clothes, taking off my cub scout uniform and never putting it on again.

Days later I ran into Jeff and asked him what happened to him and the rest of the troop on Saturday. Jeff just shrugged and said he had no idea why they didn't show. Despite the money Mom spent on the uniform, she never said anything about scouts to me since that Saturday. I think she realizes that I got shafted by them and would never want to go back.

Strangely, the twin never wanted to join scouts. I guess Mom figured that my bad experience was enough. Rhonda on the other hand stayed in the Girl Scouts for several more years, allowing all of us to enjoy the experience of having huge cases of cookies in the house every year. So, support your local Girl Scouts, buy cookies....

Comments

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

I joined the Webelos for a year or so. I bypassed the Cub Scouts but didn't make it to the Boy Scouts ... though I had a copy of the old Boy Scout Handbook (circa 1970) and LOVED the homoerotic illustrations!

[madkevinp.livejournal.com]

WOW!!! I Was A Cub Scout...A Weblow, And A Boy Scout...I Never Made It After That...My Mom Was A Den Mother Though!!!

[bearland.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling..I was in some of them back in the 70's, and apparently I hated it so much I don't remember much about it, other than how cruel other kids can be, especially when they are supposed to be part of a close group.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I think kids can sense when one of the group is a little different from the rest and they jump on it. I was never that comfortable in a group of boys as a kid.

[ui-tomcat.livejournal.com]

lol! I was a cub scout, but hated it also, I switched troops twice because I thought all the kids were too lame, and eventually quit because everyone in my troop was too nerdy and this coming from a gay kid who played D&D.

[mikiedoggie.livejournal.com]

I was a boy scout all the way to the end of my senior year. ;-) Shhh.

But I was in a co-ed group, called Sea Explorers. All we did was go sailing all summer in small 15' sail boats. It was great! No uniforms! No weird handshakes! And best of all... no uniforms!!

[cincycub.livejournal.com]

You poor traumatized thing :)

Actually I was in the Cub Scouts all through the lower grades... even got my Arrow of Light. I only lasted a year after I graduated to the Boy Scouts :) My dad was even the Leader Of The Pack (vroom vroom) or whatever they called it - lol.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. what is the "Arrow of Light"?

[cincycub.livejournal.com]

why, it's the pinnacle of cub scouting!

Arrow of light and MORE bearish terms!

[cincycub.livejournal.com]

oops, check this link instead :)

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. that's great :)

I love the "tiger cub" beads!!!

[writerbear81.livejournal.com]

I was a cub scout pretty much from start to finish. Thought about doing Boy Scouts when the time came around, but none of my friends were doing it, so I didn't care to move on to it.

And in case you wanted some photographic evidence:

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I searched for photographic proof of mine. I know there is a photo of me in the uniform somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I may have burned it in effigy years ago :)

[chrisglass.livejournal.com]

I still have the cub scout book, with all my parents signatures indicating I had completed some task. The rest of the experience? Entirely blocked save for short uncomfortable blips which never last very long.

I was such a momma's boy.

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure I got the book. I certainly don't recall getting it.

Yay for momma's boys, they raised them well!

[canowhupass.livejournal.com]

My dad was a Scout Master and worked for the BSA in the 60s at a Scout Camp and I think he may have trained other Scout Masters. Of course, my brother and I were expected to follow in the grand tradition. My brother tried hard in spite of his asthma. I never made a good scout, although I enjoyed the camping. Our group seemed to attract a lot of "NRA survivalist" type boys and none of the cool kids. Living in rural Kansas probably had something to do with that.

On the up side, I still remember how to make cherry cobbler in a dutch oven over a camp fire! I should have had a melon baller on my utility knife. Oy!

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

LOL.. a melon baller on a utility knife! That would be great!

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

I loved being a Cub Scout. The troop was pretty much all my friends, so it was just hanging out with them, with a shared activity. And since you mention your age and the yellow neckerchief, then you were a Cub Scout, not a full Boy Scout. In Cub Scouts, the leaders are usually called Den Mothers, so yeah, they're usually women. :)

I never did move up to Boy Scouts. I went all the way through Weeblos, but the Boy Scout troop was made up of older guys (my big brother's friends and older) who were rather nasty/hazing to us younger guys, so I wanted no part of it.

[mississippicub.livejournal.com]

I was a cub scout, boy scout and later made eagle scout. I quit when I was in high school though cause the guys were so mean to me... told them to take the badges and shove them up their collective asses... LOL oh well... it was fun when I did it.

[cincy-dave.livejournal.com]

And that's the story of how Mark tuned gay.

:)


I was a cub scout for a long time. They learned I could sing and perform. I had to don a clowns costume and be the host for the variety show.