THOUGHTFUL ITEMS FOR SCOUTERS

Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month.  You can reach him at bobwhitejonz@juno.com or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org.   CD

Wheel Into Summer Prayer
CS Roundtable Planning Guide

Lord bless us and keep us safe from injury and give us guidance in good sportsmanship during our events on wheels.  Amen

Boys and Wheels
By Scouter Jim

A wise Scouting Sage once told me that boys needed to earn their Eagles before their noses start working.  The first thing they would start smelling was perfume, the second thing they would start to smell was gasoline, and finally, they would start to smell money, to afford the other two.    If they don’t earn their Eagles by the time their noses start working, they often don’t earn them at all. 

After the boys grow up to become men, and they have boys of their own, they find a point where they remember the smell of pinewood, as in wood shavings from Pinewood Derbies.  This is a smell they learned to love when they were Cub Scouts.  Like the smell of gasoline, the smell of pinewood comes with wheels.

The love of wheels comes early for most boy.  Most of the first toys many of us men can remember had wheels, be it toy trucks or toy cars.  Boys today in this technological age of bells and whistles, sometimes might miss the joy of watching something go fast.  Particularly if it is something they built with the help of their dads or moms.

Some boys start early with a love of wheels.  When my now grown son was a toddler, we couldn’t find him one summer afternoon.  After searching the house and neighborhood, we finally found him laying on his back in the garden on the straw mulch between two rows of tomatoes, eating cherry tomatoes and reading the book Big Wheels by Anne Rockwell.  It was his favorite book.  He no longer likes tomatoes, but he still gets excited by the sight of fast cars.

Most boys, young or old, love wheels.  Let’s help them Wheel into Summer and feed the hunger or their love of wheels.

Quotations

Quotations contain the wisdom of the ages, and are a great source of inspiration for Cubmaster’s minutes, material for an advancement ceremony or an insightful addition to a Pack Meeting program cover.

Don Murphy, Cub Scout Pack 280C, Manhattan Beach, California, created the Pinewood Derby in May 1953.  Each year since 1953, over 2 million Pinewood Derby cars are built worldwide by boys and girls in YMCA, Indian Princess, scouting, church and other youth group competitions

We wanted to get more of the families involved. Some dads brought in their cars from when they were kids.  They found them packed away in an attic.  There are still many Pinewood Derby cars hidden in attics and basements across the country that were raced many years ago during the childhood days of many of our great leaders and local community members just waiting to be raced again.  Todd Eipperle

There are many spokes on the wheel of life.  First, we're here to explore new possibilities.  Ray Charles

When he was young, I told Dale Jr. that hunting and racing are a lot alike.  Holding that steering wheel and holding that rifle both mean you better be responsible.  Dale Earnhardt

I liked the banana-seat bikes with the high handlebars - maybe a card in the wheel could have been part of it.  Stone Gossard

If the person at the wheel refuses to ask for directions, it is time for a new driver.  Jennifer Granholm

What a lucky thing the wheel was invented before the automobile; otherwise, can you imagine what awful screeching?  Samuel Hoffenstein

Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel, the greatest triumph of what we call civilization was the domestication of the human male.  Max Lerner