Out of the Closet

No, not that closet. This closet: I'm an Eagle Boy Scout. And I'm proud, gosh darn it!

Today, the international scouting movement is 100 years old. After the "More," I present my theory of the three kinds of Boy Scouts. Be Prepared. As I said, there are three kinds of boy scouts.

1) Kids who joined the Boy Scouts because it feels like a youth military program, complete with medals and badges. I wouldn't go so far as to say, the same type of people who became brown shirts once upon a time in Germany, but _ let's just say they believe in discipline.

2) Kids whose parents made them join because it's a good clean religious organization, a way to instill children with virtue and teach them about public service: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. (See? I really was a scout).

3) And finally, those who join Boy Scouts because they love hiking, campfires, and freezing their gonads in icy cold mountain lakes.

Guess which kind I was?



(The picture is of Huntington Lake, home of Camp Oljato, where I shriveled my scrotum many a summer with Palo Alto's Troop 52).