Nov 10, 2011

Boy Scout Basic Training Other times

After I attended Scout Basic Training I became very involved in scouting on the District level. I started helping with the basic training courses as a staff member and eventually as the Scoutmaster for a couple of times. I always enjoyed the training and was able to see a lot of men and women become very involved in the programs and then the programs begin to move because they had leaders that were trained and willing to carry the load for the benefit of the boys.

In basic training there are a few specific times that stick in my memory. I liked the skit that we would do where each staff member had something that represented a job on the scout committee of the unit. I still have a small stepladder that has the three rungs or steps labeled with something for advancement in the unit. We had one person labeled as the Scout Master and each staff member would bring out their thing and hand it off to the SM, who before long was very loaded down with all of the items that we had. The ladder was usually the last thing we would pile on at which time the SM would look very frazzled. Then the committee member for Advancement would come back and take the ladder and explain the duties that he would then do to help the SM. By the time each staff member representing a committee position had come and retrieved the item the SM would be left holding a small sign with one word written on it, BOY. This would then very quickly illustrate that the only responsibility that the SM should have is that of working with the boy.

There was also the dividing of trainees into patrols. It was always very awkward for new trainees to be put with someone they didn’t know and have to work with them for the next three sessions of the training. It was always interesting to me though to see the Lord’s hand in the process of dividing the trainees because every time there was a fit for each person with that group that would manifest itself through the rest of the course in such a way that we knew the Lord had put them together not just dumb luck.

There was always the singing of songs that would really pull the course participants together into one purpose. Song are usually quite silly but by the time the course was completed it was obvious to every person there how much use there was for music in the life of a boy. There is always a lot of distractions for the youth now and music is one of the main ones so when you teach them songs with a purpose it really would carry home a message that would help combat the lousy messages in the music they are use to hearing.

Our overnight camps were always a highlight. The Friday evening meal was always fun since we just asked everyone to bring a can of their favorite soup and then we poured them all together into one large pot and that was the main course. It was always really good.

Then there were the short courses the next day. I remember one where we had everyone blindfolded and then asked them to raise their hand at the end of a minute. One man raised his hand at exactly one minute, it was the only time I ever saw it happen. We asked him why he was so correct and he simply explained “I count out loud to my children every night as they brush their teeth for exactly one minute.” He was obviously a very good father when it came to teaching his children and we knew he would also work well with the boys.

The ceremonies stick out in my mind also. There was one that we always used for the closing where we took each patrol on a hike in silence along the trail of the 12 points of the scout law. They could not speak to anyone but were just asked to put a small rock next to the sign if they would commit to living that particular point of the law as they went to each one. It was always a very powerful ceremony.

I have been greatly blessed trough my participation in Scout Basic Training and have many wonderful friends that I met while on each of these courses.

Nov 9, 2011

Basic Training 1st Time.

Scouting has not always been a major part of my life. I was a Blazer Scout Leader in Primary when I was 17 before I received my Eagle and have the feeling the reson was so that I would somehow be made to have a desire to get it while setting an example to the youth in the Blazer Patrol. (There was never a problem of having a desire to get it just a lack of swimming ability.) I was an Eagle Scout thanks to a dedicated Scoutmaster Brother Ray Hansen and a loving Committee Member Sister Caldwell.  I did do some in college thanks to Brother Findlay as he asked me to help with merit badge Pow Wow sat the college and then later in the 4^th ward after I was married I was called as  a Webelos Leader and later Cubmaster. It was something that I had fun with mainly because I wanted the boys to have fun and knew that if they were going to I had to be having fun as well. I did know from my youth the importance of Scouting in the lives of boys but it hadn’t really become a passion UNTIL I attended Basic Training.

I was second counselor in the 4^th ward Bishopric responsible for the scouting program.  I had a great Scoutmaster Bruce Palmer, Marie’s cousin, so I didn’t feel the crunch of doing much about it. Even our cub program was running pretty well. But my mind kept getting in my way and telling me that I really ought to be learning what I was supposed to do. (Also Brother Findlay kept asking if I had been to Woodbadge yet.) So I finally signed up for Basic Training. I felt totally out of my element and was very nervous about my scouting skills but was assigned to a patrol which we later named the Quacker Patrol. I have no idea anymore why we decided on that name but I am sure it was due to one sister in the patrol who suggested it and made it stick. We had a lot of fun for the next three weeks as we grew close together as a patrol and performed fairly well in all of the events. I learned a lot about scouting protocol and organization. I learned the value of scout committees and Key Scouter meetings, which I had been holding but not using to their full potential. I learned the importance of putting the s from scouting at the end of the word instead of the beginning to find the real value for boys, outings. We spent a lot of time discussing the committees and how to help them function so as to prevent burnout in the Scoutmaster and Cubmaster positions. We played a lot of what I had thought to be silly games until we associated them with boys and what we could teach boys by using them. I remember having won the fire starting contest and receiving a big wooden match (12 inches long) that had to hang from our staves. My stave was a short crutch like piece of wood that I had cut for a stake road show in which I played a Lepricon and had to have a short stick for the part so that match was a bit overwhelming for it. Later between weeks we had a ward father’s and son’s campout at Jolley’s Ranch so I took a hike up onto the hill and found a worthy piece of wood for a better stave for the rest of the training. That second stave later became my history stick as I carved it and labeled my positions in scouting.  Our overnight campout was a great experience that introduced me again to Dutch oven cooking. Dad had been a great cook with Dutch oven’s but I really hadn’t picked up the skill too well from him. It was fun to see them in use again and find out how easy it was to cook with one of them. (Later at woodbadge we did most of our evening meals in Dutch ovens and after that I was hooked. I now have at least 9 of varying sizes and get to use them once in a while.)

I will always appreciate that experience and later the experiences of being on staff several times and being the Scout Master several times as well and taking a lot of pride in finding those who were timid as I had been and making them feel extra welcome in the training. I also ended up staffing three or four Varsity Basic Training courses as well. Some of those I will write about later.

Nov 8, 2011

Baptisms for the Dead.

There were a number of church activities that I had opportunity to attend during my youth. I loved the trips down the Green River for Father’s and Son’s commemorations, the youth conferences, trips with the school for debate and band and trips with the seminary for special events. One such trip was a trip to the Salt Lake Temple to perform Baptisms for the Dead. It was a great trip and there were a number of boys and girls that got to go. Leesa and I were together on the trip as I remember.

I don’t remember if we went to eat somewhere when it was over or if there were even any other activities but I do remember seeing the font held up by the oxen for the first time in real life. I had seen pictures of course and knew what it looked like but to see it in real life was really special. I have tried to remember  how many names we were given and the number that keeps coming back is 150 but that seems to be a lot as I judge it by today’s standard where 10 to 20 names seems to be the normal number. It could possibly have been 50 per youth but I really can’t get the number of 150 out of my head. It really doesn’t matter however but I know I felt like it was an awful lot by the time we got done and really a lot for someone afraid of water.

When I attended Snow college I again had the opportunity as a freshman to be baptized for the dead a couple of times that year and then when I returned from my mission I had the opportunity to then perform those baptisms as the Priesthood brother. That first experience was such a positive thing that I have always loved that ordinance.

Nov. 7, 2011

Electronics club photo and my tennis shoes.

   There are times when you do something and fear not the wrath of any consequences because, well , you just don’t expect any and that is the way it was for me when the yearbook photographer at Snow college came into the Electronics lab and asked to take our Electronics Club photo.

I took electronics for two years at Snow College. One before my mission when I spent quite a lot of time there but still had Music Appreciation class and other generals that had to be taken which took me out of that room. The second year though after my mission was when I spent pretty much the entire day in that room from 8 am till 5 or 6 pm. I had one welding class that I remember that was next door in the welding lab in the same Applied Sciences building. I usually wore not the best of clothes to the lab because there were no girls that had to be impressed in there and they were just plain more comfortable which was a major concern when spending the entire day in one room. I also didn’t care what I wore on my feet and always tried to get the most out of my clothing and consequently wore them until there holes in the shoes and about to be holes in the other articles of clothing. I never could let myself wear any clothes with holes in them especially the pants. That just wasn’t appropriate in those days and of course still isn’t appropriate today even though many manufacturers take great pride in turning them out of their factories in just such a manner. Shoes however were cover by the pants and with air coming in to circulate around the toes made them easier to wear for several hours in the lab as well and I didn’t care if a hot spark would land on them and burn them in the welding lab, they were worn out and it just didn’t matter if another small hole would get burned into them which did happen on occasion.

Well the day of the photo came just like any other and I didn’t know the picture would actually happen that day until the photographer came in and seated us in a group photo. I was the smallest in the group and thus I was appointed to be the one in the center. Some were standing and others sitting to each side of me as I remember in the photograph, (which I hope to add to this story).  I ended up in the center and on a stool so of course my feet wouldn’t reach the floor so they were put on the 1^st rung of the stool instead. Yes you have probably guessed it by now but those ventilated shoes were almost the main point of attention in the photograph as it appeared in the yearbook. At least in my mother’s eyes it was the only thing that could be seen in the photograph and for years it had mortified her, in fact it probably did until the day she died. (Something she felt like doing every time she saw that picture or when it came up in a conversation.) Every time it was mentioned my mother would again remind me that I should have gotten rid of the tennis shoes long before it ever came to that point.

Nov 6, 2011

Baptism Interview at the County Fair

Rural communities and counties seem to have their own special characteristics. I remember all the years that I was growing up our Duchesne County Fair. I liked going to it when I was young because of the candy and other treats that we were able to buy at the booths set up around the fair grounds. We always had a ferris wheel and a rodeo also. I remember only once going on the ferris wheel but I remember quite a few rodeos. In fact the stories form my father about his days in the rodeo were always a lot of fun to listen to and repeat.  I should probably include my memory of some of them in these stories also. Anyway each August near the time of my birthday we would get the chance to go to the county fair if the hay were in the stack yard and the chores were done. I went to a number of rodeo’s and always enjoyed them but the things that I remember most are the exhibits that were in the old buildings. You could walk from one building after looking at all of the jams and jellies that had been made to the next building with the quilts and handmade throw rugs to dollies made by many grandma’s loving hands.   There were also pressed plant specimens and other forestry  and 4-H exhibits that I would actually have of my own later when I turned 12. There was one year though that I will always remember because my Bishop, Bishop Phillip Moon was a sheep farmer and so the county fair was always a place to exhibit his prize livestock as well. But he was still a Bishop and a busy farmer also so he did his duties where ever and whenever he could. At the county fair that shortly followed my eight birthday I remember Bishop Moon calling and setting an appointment for me to meet him at the fair to have my baptism interview. We held it in his truck and I still can also remember that even though it was in a truck it was conducted with the spirit of the Lord by a very loving Bishop. I don’t really remember the words or what I was asked but I do remember the feeling of climbing out of that truck relieved that I had passed my interview. I must have recited several of the Articles of Faith  perfectly for I had studied and memorized very hard so that I could and I must have remembered some of the primary lessons because I am sure I must have been asked about the gospel and what it meant to me in my life. I can’t remember how long it was either but I remember it was long enough for an 8 year old taking his first big test. Later at the start of September I was baptized by my father just as all 8 year were supposed to be baptized. (At least that is what it seemed like to me at that age. I have since learned otherwise.)  Dad baptized me but the two of us had a hard time getting our act together. The first time he missed a couple of words and the second time my toes came out of the water or maybe it was the other way around but the third time we succeeded. I was baptized in the Duchesne Stake Center font only a few days after the county fair.