September Cub Scout Roundtable Issue

Volume 7, Issue 1

Pockets (Webelos Communicator & Citizen)

PRAYERS AND POEMS FOR SCOUTS

Do Something
By Baden Powell
Indian Nations Council

You should not be content with sitting down to defend yourselves against evil habits, but should also be active in doing good. By 'doing good' I mean making yourselves useful and doing small kindness to other people - whether they are friends or strangers.

It is not a difficult matter, and the best way to set about it is to make up your mind to do at least one 'good turn' to somebody every day, and you will soon get into the habit of doing good turns always.

It does not matter how small the 'good turn' may be - even if it is to help an old woman across the street, or to say a good word for somebody who is being badly spoke of. The great thing is to do something."

I Took His Hand and Followed
(Author Unknown)

My dishes went unwashed today,
I didn't make the bed,
I took his hand and followed
Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring
My little son and I.
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the summer sky.

We waded in a crystal stream,
We wandered through the woods
My kitchen wasn't swept today
But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade
And now my small son knows
How Mother Bunny hides her nest,
Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,
We climbed a sunlit hill
Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,
We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,
That I didn't brush the stairs,
In twenty years, no one on earth
Will know, or even care

But that I've helped my little boy
To noble manhood grow,
In twenty years, the whole wide world
May look and see and know.

I Am A Den Leader
York Adams Council

For any of you that have never had the experience of spending a great deal of time with bunches of little boys dressed in blue and yellow, I am going to give you a glimpse at an incredible phenomena of nature-yes, you are going to get your first (and probably your last) peek at what it's really like to be a Den Leader.

A Den Leader is a man or woman who signs up to "help out for a month or two," and ends up "helping out" for two and one-third years per son, times the number of sons they have. Any Den Leader having more than 2.7 sons is eligible for the Grand Award of the Rubber Room, if they can stick it out that long (at least that's what they promised ME!!)

Den Leaders are people who go to Day Camp!! Hey go with great enthusiasm, high expectations, and a bright smile! They come home with at least two blisters, sand in their teeth, Sloppy Joe down the front of their uniform, and a heavy backpack that contains three neckerchief slides, one old tennis shoe, someone's damp T-shirt, and that tooth Freddy Benson lost when bit into his celery at lunch. You can always spot a Den Leader coming home from camp. They're the ones in the car with 6 sleeping boys, holding a wet swimming suit over their foreheads, and babbling to the steering wheel about a hot shower. THAT person has been to Day Camp-you can bet your life on it.

A Den Leader learns early to over plan for every den meeting... way over!! Show me a person who can run a successful den meeting, and I'll show you a person who has learned the hard way that every planned 90 minutes of activity will be accomplished in 12 minutes flat.

Den Leaders are highly educated people. They know how to tie knots, and sometimes which is often more crucial, how to untie them. They know how to come up with 14 consecutive "quiet" indoor games when it hails on a picnic day; the know how to take 11 boys to the circus and come home with at least 8 or 9. They know how to decipher an 8 year old's directions on just where his house really is, in the dark, and how to mentally block out the last 47 verses of "99 bottles of beer on the wall" when they are driving.

A Den Leader is a person with a strong back, very sharp hearing, an extremely patient spouse, and preferably a minivan.

They are also people who have participated in the development of a truly marvelous creature-a boy. And when they see a group of 3^rd year Scouts receiving their Webelos colors, they get a lump in their throat. Because even though there were many days of frustration, even though they remember finding gum under their chairs and chocolate on the car seats, and even though only one of the boys in the group is actually their own, they have become, and will always be, their boys.

Charlotte Nelson Abenth, "Through Strands of Redhair."

1996 Pow Wow Book, Blackhawk Area Council, BSA (Dixon, Illinois)

My Pocket
York Adams Council

My pocket is a special place
That's full of all neat things,
What Mom once called old junk
To me's like diamond rings.

I gather things as I walk home
In case they're gone tomorrow
'Cause you'll never know just when
Someone has a need to borrow.

The things that go in my ol' pocket
Say more than words can say
They tell about things important
To me from day to day.

They are not money, or expensive goods
I don't need them right now.
It's more important to find a stone
Or a broken piece of plow.

Someday I won't see things like
I see things now, you know.
I'll get too tied up in the world
To see the wildflowers grow.

So while I can collect neat things
And put them in my pocket
Please don't think it's yuck or dumb
And please don't go and mock it.

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Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern that they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy!

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