First Aid with Trooper Hooper
I was very timid as a youth (and somewhat still as an adult). Scouting was hard for me because I had a hard time learning all of the stuff that was required for merit badges. I very vividly recall when I had to go to the First Aid merit badge counselor Trooper Hooper. I wasn’t unaware of who he was since I had liked his daughter a little that was in my grade at school and also in our ward. I was probably more afraid of him though because he was a highway patrolman. I can remember that it was pretty hard to get a merit badge passed off by him according to others whom had already done it. So I went with great fear and trepidation that I would never be able to pass it off to him. I was sorely wrong however and had fun, even though it was pretty hard. He was very kind and understanding of me and my abilities. I learned to love him a great deal and in fact years later came to appreciate something else about him as well. He was very perceptive and once when I was working a job at the Texaco station in town from 10 pm to 6 am seven days a week, I was very glad that I knew him as well as I did. There was a van that pulled up to gas up and about 12 men got out of the van and circled the station. He was coming down the road and glanced over noticing the van and pulled into the station next to the building where he got out and started talking to me while the men slowly returned to the van, paid for their gas and left probably a lot poorer than they had expected when they first pulled up and found that I was the only attendant. He told me after they left that things looked pretty dangerous for me and decided to pull into the station even though he was about to turn around and go home for the night.
