Yesterday we picked up our son from summer Scout camp. After a brief report on what was the best
meal (steak), and what was the worst weather (the thunderstorm that threatened
but never happened), we got down to business. “So, did you earn any merit
badges?” My husband was hoping Son
earned the badge for Auto Care Including
Oil Change.
“Well!” Son says, “I earned the Space Exploration merit badge!”
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| Space: the Final Frontier. My attempt to photo the Super Moon in March 2011 |
What?! This is like
when Oldest Daughter told me she had earned a state boating license by paddling
a kayak around in the school swimming pool and taking a written test. (It’s true.)
Our Boy Scout camp is not anywhere near Space Camp or Spacex, so the
likelihood of earning a space badge was just ludicrous. My husband
said, “So how was it out in space?”
“Dad. We didn’t go
out in space.”
“What did you do, put on a spaceman suit and walk around
camp?”
“No. We shot off model
rockets.”
“Ah, so it’s the Estes
Rocket merit badge,” I said, thinking back fondly to my childhood, when my
brothers narrowly avoided losing their fingers shooting off Estes® rockets
in the back yard while I stayed inside and baked tiny cakes for them in my
EasyBake® Oven.
My husband, at least in this respect, had a childhood
similar to my brothers, and he and Son eagerly began discussing the intricacies
of Estes® rocket engines. The Boy Scout instructor ignited the rockets
using a battery pack. Great
disappointment from my husband. “No
fuse? That takes out half the fun.” And three-fourths of the danger.
My husband nursed an unreasonable hope that my son had also earned
the Pouring Concrete merit badge,
since one of the steps at our synagogue needs to be repaired. “How about the Welding merit badge?” says Husband.
“That would be pretty useful.” It
turns out the Welding merit badge was just created this year. I still hold out hope for the Sewing merit badge, but it hasn’t
happened.
The other merit badges he did earn were Climbing, Motor-boating, Orienteering, and Fingerprinting, which is just as surprising a merit badge as Composite Materials, but probably less
messy.
I’ve been saving the best news for last. Just before he left for camp, Son passed his
Eagle Scout Board of Review. So we are
the parents of an Eagle Scout! This was
due to his hard work and perseverance, and the same from many dedicated adults
in his scout troop. The only thing we
did was show up with doughnuts and pizza at crucial moments.
We’ll have the formal ceremony a few months from now, but I couldn’t
wait to recognize my son for his fine accomplishment. And that’s not all - his patrol at camp got
the second place prize in the Steak-Dinner-Cooked-at-Camp contest!
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| The Common Household Mom salutes you, Scouts. |
3 comments:
Congratulations! to Ben. And you and Bob, too, cause I know Scouting is as much work for the parents as it is for the Scouts.
My husband is totally on board with that "auto care including oil change" merit badges :-)
Isn't "orienteering" a great word?
Congratulations to your son!
Congratulations on the board business!
T's doing climbing next week at his camp--and small boat sailing. He did composite materials a year ago and it SMELLED and burned grass--quite toxic stuff.
I need to get him on the oil change badge stat. Why isn't that required???
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