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Catapult!
That night, I got on the Internet and, right away, found the home page of the World Scouting Organization. This tells of the 142 countries and 28 territories where recognized Scouting organizations exist. There are 25 million Boy and Girl Scouts in the world. Scouts hiking in the Alps and the Andes, Scouts aiding refugees in Rwanda, Scouts staging national kite fights, Scouts helping with natural disasters --- 25 million Scouts doing good deeds and having a good time. I spent a couple of hours visiting the home pages of Scout troops in South Africa, Canada, Australia and Scotland, where winter campouts are called Brass Monkeys. It was very interesting to read about and infer how Scouting is done in these different cultures; and so I sent email to a number of the national Scout headquarters asking how I could buy their Boy Scout Handbooks. A few days later, what do I find in my mailbox but a mail order catalog from Scouts Canada. What a delight! I ordered $50 dollars worth of stuff that very day, and a week later I had my very own Canadian Scout Handbook, Fieldbook for Canadian Scouts, and Life of Baden-Powell comic book. It was the fourth book in the package, though, that flung me off on my next adventure in Scouting. Written by an Englishman named John Sweet, it was called Scout Pioneering. Pioneering seems to be an activity that only Boy Scouts pursue with anything approaching devotion. You take a bunch of sticks and a heap of rope and you build things. In my days as a Boy Scout, the classic construction was the monkey bridge ¾ a footrope and two hand ropes suspended between sheers across a stream. I had thought that this was the ultimate project, but my new book gave the monkey bridge just four pages and termed it a moderately hazardous project for younger Scouts. In Scout Pioneering, the ultimate project, 13 pages of diagrams and warnings, was the Aerial Runway. This is essentially a long, thick rope tied high up in a tree and sloping down to a landing area 100 feet away. Scouts take thrilling rides down the rope hanging from a pulley! That was too ambitious for me and so I went looking for something my younger Scouts could make quickly and get some fun from. I found towers of every description, a ducking stool, a derrick, a draw bridge and many other mouth watering ideas; then I saw plans for a catapult and knew that this was just the thing! I bought 16 broom handles and some clothesline and took these to the next troop meeting. Then began two months of learning how to tie clove and timber hitches, square and diagonal lashings. Using Tinker Toys and rubber bands, I would build models of various small contraptions and the Scouts would then build the same gizmos using broom handles and rope. Gradually, they got good at it. When winter faded away for a few days last month, I spent a pleasant afternoon with my buddy, Bob Megnin, chopping down 20 saplings on his farm out near Crates. Later, I bought 300 feet of 1/4 inch Manila rope and two pulleys and settled down to impatiently await the big day.
We arrived at Megnin's Farm at 8:30 in the morning last Saturday. There were 18 Scouts and five adults attending this, Troop 51's Spring Field Day. We quickly made our breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and orange juice, then the 10 experienced Scouts were given a small model of the catapult and set loose on the pile of raw materials in Bob's cow pasture. Steve Shreffler, our very able assistant Scoutmaster, stood by to observe and assist if needed, and I went off to train the new Scouts in tool handling and fire building. Had I stayed, I would have been hip deep in the construction effort, and it would have been my catapult. As it was, the Scouts built the catapult with a minimum of adult help, and that is as it should be. One desired end of the Scouting Movement is to give the Scouts the opportunity to do for themselves everything that they are physically and mentally capable of doing. A couple of hours later, I returned and found the catapult ready for use. Four Scouts sat on the corners of the device for stability while six others pulled like crazy on two ropes. This action sent a long arm arching 20 feet into the air and hurtled water balloons 60 feet down the meadow. The Scouts were amazed, I was pleased, and the cows were dumbfounded! Later, as we took the contraption apart, Nate, one of builders, said to me with a sense of wonder, "You know, I never thought we could build this thing by ourselves." That made me feel that I had accomplished something more than just the building of a catapult. His remark also started me thinking of the years ahead, when our Scouts will start dreaming up their own outdoor adventures and will set about making them happen on their own, as they play the Great Game of Scouting. |
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Last
fall, Pete and I visited one of the local Cub Scout dens to tell
them all about the Boy Scouts. We sat cross-legged on the floor in
the basement of a local church, sang a few songs and talked about
the adventures of Troop 51 for an hour or so. Near the end of the
meeting, the Cubs noticed the patches on my uniform shirt and
started asking the meaning of each. I did well enough at explaining
until they asked about the white Fleur-de-lis on a purple background
that is sewn just above my left pocket. I told them it meant I was a
member of the World Scouting Movement, but, having said that, I
found that I could tell them little else. Their curiosity sparked
mine, and I left the meeting determined to find out more about this
mysterious movement.