Historical June 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
(Editor’s Note: The following poem was written by Gary White, Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 98, upon receiving his Eagle Scout Award on Scout Sunday.
Congratulations to Gary.)
I am truly very fortunate,
To have had the times I’ve had.
The memories of my years of scouting,
Some good, some bad.
Mr. Kennedy, I remember, the time,
When we camped out at S—F.
It was my turn to cook the breakfast,
And I was pretty confident in myself.
I put soap on the bottom of the skillet,
And the grease, I put on the top.
I was going to make the best breakfast ever,
At least, that’s what I thought.
But, what I took to be grease was soap,
And what I took to be soap was grease,
And when the food was finished,
You were a bit upset to say the least.
It was on the Buffalo River in Arkansas,
With Troop 98 that I cruised,
Down that beautiful winding river,
In our shiny aluminum canoes.
I enjoyed every stroke of the way
And at the end of an adventurous day.
We would pull into another dock,
And entertain ourselves by skipping rocks.
Of course, I skipped some good ones,
Oh, it must have skipped 15 to 20 times
But I must admit, Paul had me beat,
Only because his rocks were better than mine.
But now let me give credit,
Where credit is due.
Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Bender, Mr. Mattli,
I thank you for seeing me through
And all the other adult leaders,
I certainly thank you, too.
I thank all my friends,
and the scouts of Troop 98.
I love you.
You’re really great.
Mom and Dad, I thank you,
For all you’ve done for me each day,
For guiding me in the right direction,
And helping along the way.
To Norma, Steve, June, Linda, and Gwen
I say thank you once again.
Most importantly I thank God,
For blessing me every day
And for giving me an experience in scouting
That will never fade away
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, June 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1987_06.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
