Cub Scouts

     John asked me to write about Jack’s first couple of years in Cub Scouts. This is hard as, for me,  scouts is mixed up with school.

     Jack started scouting in second grade, when he was at Amherst Montessori School. My brothers had all been in Boy Scouts, as had my nephew, Jason. My sister Karen, Jason’s mother, asked me if Jack was going to join. I hadn’t known about Tiger Cubs, which is for first grade boys; I thought that Cub Scouts started in second grade with Wolf Cubs. Since first grade had started out so badly, it was just as well that we hadn’t explored scouting that year. Things settled down in second grade, at Amherst Montessori School. I saw a notice in the newspaper for boys interested in joining Pack 515 in Amherst, which mostly drew boys from Fort River Elementary School. I contacted the pack leader, who told me that there wasn’t a Wolf den that year and did I want to start one at the Montessori School?

     There weren’t enough boys of the correct age at Montessori but the pack leader told me that the age requirements weren’t written in stone, so I recruited Jane Macomber, the mother of Justin and Caleb Satterfield, to help me. Justin was a year younger than Jack and Caleb was younger still but both boys quickly became part of the den, along with Dorian Walker. We also got a boy from one of the Amherst public schools, too, who joined us midway through the year. He was a big, slow kid who didn’t understand why one of the Montessori girls, Hannah, often attended the den meetings. The reason was simple; Hannah didn’t like the activities in Girl Scouts and decided to join us. I didn’t object; Montessori did not allow that kind of discrimination and we could have lost our meeting space. Besides, Hannah was another bright, creative child and the Montessori boys worked well with her. So, when I informed the pack leader of our non-traditional den, he told me to just omit her from any paperwork. And I did.  

     At the same time, a mother of one of the second grade girls had formed a Girl Scout troop; we often combined forces for major activities – it was typical in a Montessori school to have mixed group activities. Together, on a bright Saturday, we climbed to the top of  Mount Norwottuck, part of the Holyoke Range, on the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, from the Visitor’s Center for the Mount Holyoke Range State Park. We crossed over the summit and climbed down the far side, to Daniel Shays’ Horsesheds, a series of tight caves on the side of the mountain. I had brought a rope; we needed it to negotiate one part of the trail. The kids scampered like little mountain goats up and down the trail while the adults walked much more slowly. We had a picnic lunch at the summit; the Girl Scouts had made and brought “sit-upons” for everyone and we used them on the soggy ground. The boys started a fire to roast hot dogs and toast marshmallows for s’mores. They carefully and correctly extinguished the cookfire once we were done. Then, we walked down the trail to the parking lot, one and a half miles below.

     We had purchased the “Wolf” book at the Scout Shop; the books, different for each year of cub scouts,  detailed the different activities that scouts needed to do in order to earn their rank badges. First, all cub scouts had to earn their “Bobcat” badge, then, as second graders, they worked on the “Wolf” badge. Then, they could work on extra “Wolf” activities. After every ten extra activities, the boys got an arrowhead. Jack got two arrowheads this first year, one gold and one silver. I sewed them onto his shirt, below his “Wolf” badge, to show that they had been earned in the Wolf year. In addition to weekly den meetings, the Pack also met one night per month. The pack organized award ceremonies and the Pinewood Derby but usually, they were very chaotic. The boys liked the snacks best; otherwise, much of the rest of the time was spent on adult-organizational activities, which was very boring for a bunch of seven through ten year old boys.  

     The next year, Jack was a Bear Scout. The Girl Scout troop at Montessori had disbanded when the leader moved out of state. We still had only the five boys plus Hannah. One pack activity that the boys loved was the Pinewood Derby in February. I still treasure the little blue car that Jack made and raced one year. We continued to meet weekly and work on the different activities in the Bear book. Now in third grade, Jack was very busy after school. He also had gymnastics practice three days a week, from 3:30 to 6:30 PM. One Wednesday per month, we raced from gymnastics to the Cub Scout Pack meeting, grabbing dinner at Macdonald’s on the way. A lot of the activities in the Bear book were things that Jack was already doing, either in school or for gymnastics. Jack earned nine arrowheads that year, in addition to belt loops for gymnastics and physical fitness. To get that many arrowheads, he completed most of the activities in the Bear book! Wolf, Bear, and Webelos all wear the blue cub scout shirt, but only Webelos can also wear the khaki Boy Scout shirt. I bought Jack a khaki shirt when he was in his second year of Webelos. 

     The Montessori school was only for kids through grade three. Jack, Dorian, and Hannah graduated in June of 1999. Justin and Caleb were still enrolled at Montessori, so the Cub Scout den could still meet there, but it was difficult for me to drive from Amherst to South Hadley to pick up Jack, then back to Amherst for the den meeting, then back to South Hadley for dinner. Although Jack continued to work on his Webelos Scout requirements, the den didn’t meet as often as it should have.

Webelos is for boys in fourth and the first half of fifth grade. They work on activity pins, which then count for the Webelos badge, the compass badge, compass points, and for the “Arrow of Light.” Once a boy is presented with the “Arrow of Light”, he becomes a Boy Scout.

     We continued meeting at Montessori for the first year of Webelos. We visited the Amherst police station one afternoon and attended their ropes course one Saturday morning. Jack earned his Webelos badge that year but we left for Mexico in April. After we left the country, the den at the Montessori school pretty much disintegrated. Justin still wasn’t old enough to be an official Webleos, never mind Caleb, and Dorian had moved back to England after third grade. Hannah had also dropped out, busy with her new school-life after graduating from Montessori. Jack had met Kevin Regan in his fourth grade class in South Hadley. Kevin’s mother, Maureen, led a Webelos den in Pack 303 in South Hadley. Maureen Regan invited Jack to join her den at Camp Chesterfield, after he returned to the States from Mexico. Justin was also invited but couldn’t attend. I made all of the arrangements; Jack spent a week at gymnastics camp in Pennsylvannia with his teammates from Hampshire Gymnastics and, the following week, he went to Chesterfield Scout Reservation with the Pack 303 Webelos. He had a good time at both camps. In the fall, he continued to work on his Webelos activities, mostly on his own. Over the course of the year, he earned all of the activity pins, the compass, and its points. When Maureen Regan’s den earned their “Arrow of Light” and “crossed over” in February, Jack joined them (he had also earned the “Arrow of Light”) and became a part of Troop 303 in South Hadley.

     Jack went to Chesterfield with Troop 303 every summer from 2001 to 2007. He didn’t earn his Eagle rank, but he made Life Scout in 2004 and earned a total of sixteen merit badges. He earned: swimming, canoeing, cooking, archaeology, first aid, horsemanship, citizenship in the community, camping, environmental science, communication, citizenship in the nation, lifesaving, wood carving, small boat sailing, wilderness survival, and whitewater. He also attended the National Jamboree in 2004 and earned scuba certification while there. Jack might have earned more merit badges, but I never sewed them on his sash. For example, I know he taught the chemistry merit badge when he was 16, while a camper at Chesterfield, but I don't have it sewn on HIS sash!

     This is Jack's merit badge sash. The scuba badge was sewn on his swimming trunks.

      Mishaps occasionally occurred while he was on trips with the scouts, but injuries were a part of being an active boy. The boys went on a campout on horseback in the Berkshires, to earn their horsemanship merit badges. Jack had ridden while at day camp in first and second grade. He was a very good rider but somehow, this horse ran away with him, “clotheslining” him on a low-hanging branch. Jack's throat was very bruised – he looked like someone had tried to strangle him - and he had a hard time speaking above a whisper. Still, he had gotten back on the horse and rode it for the rest of the weekend. This was the last time he rode, however! 

     Another time, Jack sprained his wrist badly on a troop ski and snowboard trip in Vermont. I had gone on this trip as a chaperone and was present when he casually displayed a swollen and bruised wrist, asking if I thought it looked all right. The mishap had occurred on the morning of our return home but he didn’t stop riding and come to show it to me until everyone was assembling in the late afternoon to go home. So, we drove home in the convoy on cars, stopping at Cooley Dickinson Hospital for x-rays. Jack's wrist was splinted and he wasn’t allowed to use it for two weeks.

      A few days later, Jack drove a four-wheeler down a hill, only to have it roll over on his leg, bruising it badly. The following week, he got a concussion in gym class. His short-term memory was badly affected by the concussion and, to this day, he denies ever receiving such an injury but I was the one repeatedly giving him the same pieces of information at the time.

     The gym class was playing soccer with an Earth ball, a five-foot diameter inflated ball. The game had gotten rough; another kid took a flying leap at the ball and bounced off of it; his trajectory taking him in such as way so his chest impacted against the side of Jack’s head. Jack had been totally blindsided; he was knocked out, briefly. At Amherst Regional High School, if a kid is even momentarily unconscious, a parent is called and the kid is sent home. I got called. Jack had no idea why he was in the nurse’s office or why I was taking him home. I called the doctor. Jack objected strenuously, then got nauseated once we got in the car. It took five minutes to get to the doctor’s office. Jack wasn’t sure why he was there. The doctor confirmed that Jack had a concussion, informed us that Jack was not allowed to participate in sports for at least a week, and that he shouldn’t go back to school until he wasn’t nauseous. He also wrote a note that Jack couldn’t have gym class for a week after his return to school or take any tests as long as his memory was impaired. The school ignored this part of the letter and Jack failed most of his classes that trimester.

     A few days later, Jack went to his weekly Boy Scout meeting. Mr. Roberts, the scoutmaster, pulled Jack and a few other boys aside at the end of the meeting. He told them that there was a special event a few days later in Northampton and he wanted the boys to be the color guard. Jack listened intently to the plan, including the directions for when and where to meet. Finally, Mr. Roberts turned to each boy and asked him if he could help out. Jack responded, “Sure. Now, what was it that you wanted?” Mr. Roberts turned purple. Before Mr. Roberts could explode, I stepped in and told him that Jack had been hit in the head at school and had a concussion. Jack looked at me with a surprised expression. He didn’t remember the injury. Or Mr. Roberts’ request. It was about a month before Jack started to reliably remember things again. He did a great job in the color guard, however.