Mark had a troop meeting last night. He was very excited to go, and I stuck around so I didn't miss any info about the new Scout outing next weekend.
The adult Scout leader welcomed the boys and gave them all sorts of information. He told them about upcoming trips, including white water rafting, which he sold as being super fun, mostly because the boys were almost guaranteed to fall out of the raft and into the river at some point. He promised there would be water fights, and they'd shoot each other in the face the whole time with squirt guns. And oh yeah, he added, the river would be ice cold, so they had that going for them.
He wasn't exaggerating about ice cold river water, because the next thing he brought up was how they'd wear wetsuits to keep them warm. And with the thought of being pelted by ice cold water to the face, I was out of the rafting trip.
The next adventure they discussed was the weeklong camping trip in the redwoods, which actually sounded like fun. They'll drive to San Francisco and camp by the bay the first night.
The next day, they'll take BART into town and ride the streetcars, go to Ghiradelli Square and walk to Chinatown.
"Yeah!" one of the young Scout leaders interrupted. "And just so you know, guys, you can buy a Samurai sword in Chinatown for only TEN BUCKS!"
The room immediately burst into simultaneous cheers (from the boys) and groans (from the parents). One of the moms reassured us that that the boy was actually trying to inspire the other Scouts, and not just freak out the parents. I remained unconvinced.
And with that, the informational portion of the meeting was over. The boys jumped out of their seats, and began doing...I don't know what. Two boys began jumping over the chairs, while another did an impressive Roger Rabbit dance.
The older boys stood in a circle discussing something, and shoving each other, while our younger boys, also in a circle, knocked each others' hats off.
"I'm waiting for them to start the toe-stomping game," I whispered to my friend Liz, who nodded in agreement. She noticed the boys each had a piece of paper.
"Are they supposed to be doing some activity?" she asked. "Are those the instructions?"
I wasn't sure, but a moment later, an older Scout rounded up our boys and herded them outside. Liz and I watched as a group of older boys outside grabbed on to a rope. We thought they might be doing a tug of war, but then saw they were forming a giant circle with it.
I noticed some other parents completing paperwork. I realized those were probably permission slips for the new Scout outing, and asked if we should complete them as well.
"Yes," the mom in charge told me. I waited for her to hand us the slips, but she said the boys had them. We realized those were the papers the boys were holding earlier. Liz and I also realized at the same moment what condition the papers would now be in.
"Let's go get the papers before they lose them," she said, and we hurried outdoors.
The Scouts were in full swing with the rope activity. And I literally mean full swing, because as we left the auditorium, Liz almost got clocked by a group of them flying toward her with their rope circle.
We braved the blacktop, heading toward our boys, and I realized that a) we were the only parents out there not in uniform, and b) we were the only women out there.
This fact did not go unnoticed. The adult Troop leader intercepted us ("Moms trying to ruin the fun at 11 o'clock!"), but we told him we just wanted the permission slips from the boys. He let us pass.
I was surprised to find our boys still had the permission slips. I was not surprised by the condition they were in. Mark reached into his pocket and tossed this to me.
The other slips were folded up tightly or equally crumpled. We couldn't help but laugh. We completed the forms and turned them in, and the woman in charge laughed just as hard as we did when she received them.
The meeting ended shortly after that, and to Mark's dismay, there were no cookies, like after Cub Scouts.
"What, no snickity snack?" he cried. I shook my head sadly.
"Rip-off," he grumbled, forgetting he'd just spent 90 minutes having a blast.
During the ride home, I asked him what the rope activity was all about.
"I have no idea," he confessed. "I really don't! They told us to hold the rope, and then half of us let go. And the other half fell down! It was HILARIOUS!" He couldn't help snickering at that.
So, he had no idea what was happening, but he had fun. Turns out, Scout meetings are pretty much like any other day for Mark.
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