Re: Calling All Boy Scouts (and Scout Leaders) Jenny jennyg@compuserve.com Fri Feb 4 13:54:27 2000 Hehe. I have to admit that I didn't a great Scouting experience myself.*p*When I was a Girl Scout (back around 1970) the local troops were dominated by... well, ditzes. The most archly conservative "proper" women in town. And they felt their job was to teach us all to be "proper" ladies (a difficult task with those evil bra-burning feminists seducing girls away from proper feminine behavior). Theoretically there were lots of non-traditional merit badges available, like hiking or camping. But we ALWAYS were forced to work on the "feminine" badges like the "Mother's Little Helper Badge" or the "Housecleaning Badge".*p*I just didn't have the personality for this sort of thing. As a kid, I bore more than a passing resemblence to Wednesday Addams. And a lot of my Scouting experiences ended up sounding like episodes from the Addams Family.*p*Like, one day we went to a Moosehead State Park (as part of our work for some stupid badge... "My Town" or something like that). Our assignment was to wander around the tiny park and draw a picture of the most interesting thing we found.*p*All the other girls turned in pretty pictures of light houses, the ocean, sea shells, adorable flowers, etc. *p*Not me.*p*I managed to pick my way down to the bottom of the Moosehead cliffs, where I found a deer that had tumbled to its death a couple weeks ago. So when all the other little girls turned in drawings of happy Scouts playing hopscotch on the beach, I proudly produced a full-color sketch of a fly-blown white-tail carcass.*p*My troop leader was horrified and told my mother that I needed therapy. To add insult to injury, she wasn't even going to give me my merit badge. But my mother (the Gods bless her) stood by me and insisted that I had fulfilled the requirements for the badge, even if the troop leader didn't approve of my choice of subjects.*p*So I don't have great memories of the Scouts, either. However I wish Reverend Jim all the luck in the world. Because I, too, love the image of Governor Bush staring at a Pagan Religion Award on some Scout's chest. <g>*p*Jenny*br* Re: Calling All Boy Scouts (and Scout Leaders) Aicerno 241 Thu Feb 3 22:51:46 2000