Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975 Page: 53
68 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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QUESTIONS-
QUESTIONS-
QUESTIONS
BY GERALD A. SPEEDY
Director of Program Development, BSA
*
Church services were over and we were gathered around the coffee table.
"Hi, Jerry. How's it going with you?"
"Fine, Fred, how's it with you?"
"Fine, Jerry, how's it. . . Whoops! We've already done that, haven't we?" We
both laughed.
How many thousands of "conversations" like that have I had, I wonder? In the
past I was more content to let them stop there, but I must be getting more curious
about people as I grow older. So I pressed it one step further.
"How's Jimmy, Fred?" His son was 8 and we had talked about him before.
"Oh, Jimmy's fine I guess, but his old man is worn to a frazzle!"
"How come, Fred?"
"It's all his questions. He just constantly bombards me with them."
"You're a lucky father, Fred." I'm never sure how to respond, but sometimes
the shock treatment works.
"Lucky! You can say that because your kids are grown. I'm afraid you've for-
gotten what it's like."
"Yes, I probably have, Fred. But what are a father's alternatives?"
"How do you mean, Jerry?"
"Well, I mean . . . where do you want him to take his questions?"
"You sound like Jimmy. He corners me all the time like that." But he was smil-
ing as he walked away.
But let's look at it a minute. It's a healthy sign for an 8-year-old to be curious,
isn't it? And isn't it a sign of a healthy relationship when a boy brings his ques-
tions home? In all truth, what better place to bring them?
So it's tiring and difficult to answer them, says Fred. Well, that's tough! It's the
obligation of a father to struggle with that as best he can, because the alterna-
tives are impossible to accept.
"Dad, why are people warring all the time?"
"Dad, did God make David sick?"
"Dad, why are girls so different than us?"
"Dad, what's 'eek-a-nomicks'?"
"Will Butch [his dog] go to heaven, Dad?"
"What's the sun made out of? Where is rain stored and why don't the clouds
leak all the time? If we all prayed at once, wouldn't God get all mixed up? Where is
God, anyway? Why do people die, Dad, when rocks don't? What makes time
keep going, Dad? Why do the people in church look so unhappy? Where does
the sun go at night and why doesn't it fall down, Dad?"
Well, if they didn't ask their questions I suppose we wouldn't know how all the
Jimmys are doing. And how would we know how to help them?
So it's tough. But where is a guy going to take his questions? ■
Wet Foot (from page 44)
and often a crew does manage to set
out by late afternoon. But it means that
crew has selected a short leg for the
first day at a put-in point not too far
from the base. It also means that
crew's orientation got the utmost co-
operation from various unpredictables,
including the weather. There are days
at Seboomook when the wind will be
brisk enough to double the normal time
needed to complete swimming tests
and canoeing practice.
CrewAI decided that before actual-
ly setting out on the first leg they
would enjoy some rump bumping and
"Samoa boating." That meant the first
day out would be a full day, so camp
was pitched on one of the base home-
sites for the night. Bruce Ferrier would
camp with them, even though the
homesite was close by. Bruce would
be full time with A1 until Troop 178
boarded its own bus and departed the
base 11 days after arriving.
The next morning, as the crew was
breaking camp, a carryall pulling the
canoe trailer arrived. Eugene Hensler,
base manager of transportation, has
two drivers but frequently handles one
of the rigs himself. He and his two
drivers also keep busy on general
maintenance around the base.
The carryall can hold the entire
crew. The trailer, with its three tiers of
side by side racks, already held six
canoes. The sixth would be taken on
to a fast water site called "The Horse-
race." There on the previous day an-
other crew wedged a canoe so tightly
between rocks they were unable to
free it against the fast water. There
were no injuries, except to the dignity
of the guide. He trekked to a short-
wave radio post to send the message
"Canoe on rocks. Bring replacement."
Gene Hensler also brought along
two rubber boats for A1 's white water
boating. He would pick these up again
the same day, as they might have been
needed for some crew coming in be-
fore A1 returns to base.
The ride to the put-in point below
Roll Dam was a little under an hour. So,
in a little more than an hour six mem-
bers of Crew A1 had started to paddle
and portage a quarter mile upstream
for the rump bumping and white water
boating. They took both rubber boats
and one aluminum canoe.
Rump bumping is an exercise —and
"exercise" is a poor word for such
boisterous fun — in keeping your head
above the surface after you have been
dumped out Of your (continued on page 62)
53
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975, periodical, January 1975; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353656/m1/53/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.