# Letter to Home (Boys Version)



## Silat Student (Sep 10, 2004)

[size=+1]"Boy Scout Letter from Camp" [/size]
*Dear Mom, 

Our scout master told us all write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried. We are OK. Only 1 of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yes, please call Chad's mother and tell her he is OK. He can't write because of the cast. 

I got to ride in one of the search & rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. Scoutmaster Webb got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? The wet wood still didn't burn, but one of our tents did. Also some of our clothes. John is going to look weird until his hair grows back. 

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Webb gets the car fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Webb said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance on it. We think it's a neat car. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the tailgate. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us. Scoutmaster Webb is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Terry how to drive. But he only lets him drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks. 

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Webb wouldn't let me because I can't swim and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Webb isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble. 

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Also Wade and I threw up. Scoutmaster Webb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken, he said they got sick that way with the food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out and become our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. I have to go now. We are going into town to mail our letters and buy bullets. Don't worry about anything. We are fine. Love, Cole 



Here's the boys version fer all you nail biting moms out there.
*​


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## bignick (Sep 10, 2004)

having been involved in scouting for the last 15 years...there's are a lot of shades of truth in that letter...which makes it all the funnier


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## Silat Student (Sep 10, 2004)

I've been involved in Royal Rangers (it's like a christian boyscouts) since I was 4 years old (I'm a commander now). I've actually done some of the things that are listed there. And I've had lotsa commanders like commander webb (i.e. people who ignore EVERYTHING during a fire).


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## Bob Hubbard (Sep 10, 2004)

I still remember the year one of our troop got caught with the camp rangers daughter...twice.


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## bignick (Sep 10, 2004)

hmmm...never had that happen...but i do remember the time a tree fell on my buddy's head....

i started when i was five...cub scouts/boy scouts...became an eagle scout when i was 17...have helped chaperoning and other things the last couple years


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## KenpoTex (Sep 10, 2004)

I'm having flashbacks to my Royal Ranger days.  Just for the record...wet wood WILL burn if you pour enough gas on it


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## Silat Student (Sep 10, 2004)

I remember the time on one campout when one of our commanders (he was a welder with the railroad company CSX) brought some sort of powder that they used to solder together railroad ties. I forget the ingredients but they included magnesium and (IIRC) phosphorous and iron flakes among other things....this was some fun stuff! We poured it into a hole in the ground filled with water and it bubbled up all of the water and fused some o' the dirt with the iron flakes. Stuff was still hot quite a while after it quite burning. We used old fashioned 'girl scout water' (gasoline) to start many a fire though.


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## bignick (Sep 10, 2004)

gas...GAS!!!!...what kind of scouts were you.....

sure if it was raining we were cold and wet....but never would we stoop to using girl scout water....(oddly enough, our scoutmaster was a woman)

although you better believe we(kids) wanted too...


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## Silat Student (Sep 11, 2004)

bignick said:
			
		

> gas...GAS!!!!...what kind of scouts were you.....
> 
> sure if it was raining we were cold and wet....but never would we stoop to using girl scout water....(oddly enough, our scoutmaster was a woman)
> 
> although you better believe we(kids) wanted too...




Well my commanders were pyro's, they liked seeing things burn bright and they liked seeing things explode....  One of the most interesting stories of my old outpost involves 80 ft. of discarded wooden privacy fence, 5 gallons of gas and some fireworks....


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## KenpoTex (Sep 12, 2004)

Silat Student said:
			
		

> Well my commanders were pyro's, they liked seeing things burn bright and they liked seeing things explode....  One of the most interesting stories of my old outpost involves 80 ft. of discarded wooden privacy fence, 5 gallons of gas and some fireworks....


That sounds like one of _MY_ outposts most interesting stories...However, in all fairness to my commanders, they probably...okay, definately kept us from killing ourselves or someone else numerous times.  Those were the days


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## Baytor (Sep 14, 2004)

I still remember my royal ranger days too.  Especially the part about starting a one match fire.  It required 3 things.  Wood, a match, and gas.  Hey, it worked every time!


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## bignick (Sep 14, 2004)

my scoutmaster was all about fire safety...we weren't....

you all know how well fire and bug spray go together...admit it!


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## someguy (Sep 14, 2004)

I never was in any type of scouts.  Now the pyro in me will always regret it.


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## Silat Student (Sep 14, 2004)

I was on a camp out for my birthday (a tradition in my family) and we were near some mangroves. Now some of you who have been in florida may know that mangroves harbor no-see-ums, a small, almost invisible gnat that bites in large swarms. It was at this campout that I decided to expirement with bug spray and fires. This caused great ire among my cousins as they swatted and cavorted in vain attempts to remove these little pests (and Mosquitos, the florida state bird) from their bodies. It was only after pointing out two things that I was able to escape with my life 1. I had the Machete and 2. I was also holding the only bag of marsh mallows over the water. Blackmail and intimidation work every time.


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## bignick (Sep 14, 2004)

it's all about bargaining from a position of power


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## Seig (Sep 15, 2004)

Silat Student said:
			
		

> I was on a camp out for my birthday (a tradition in my family) and we were near some mangroves. Now some of you who have been in florida may know that mangroves harbor no-see-ums, a small, almost invisible gnat that bites in large swarms. It was at this campout that I decided to expirement with bug spray and fires. This caused great ire among my cousins as they swatted and cavorted in vain attempts to remove these little pests (and Mosquitos, the florida state bird) from their bodies. It was only after pointing out two things that I was able to escape with my life 1. I had the Machete and 2. I was also holding the only bag of marsh mallows over the water. Blackmail and intimidation work every time.


You're lucky the gators didn't get wind of the marshmallows.


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## Seig (Sep 15, 2004)

When I was about 13 my Dad, super genius that he is, decided our compost pile was too big. Now understand, our compost pile consisted of two things, grass from the 3/4 acre lawn, and dog poo. To this end, Dad, who was tired of putting lime on the pile and feeling it didn't work fast enough, decided we needed to burn the pile. 

He had me run the garden hose out to the burn site, just in case, and he tried to light it. For some reason, it wouldn't catch, so Dad poured three gallons of gas on it. Dad then flipped his camel into the pile. Before he could yell "RUN!", a thirty foot fireball and mushroom cloud went up. The resulting explosion knocked us both down, rattled the windows, and almost sent my step-mother into labor (she wasn't pregnant at the time).

The morale to this story is that burning Dog Poo really stinks and is not very aerodynamic.


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## bignick (Sep 15, 2004)

i can almost top that...my friend saw a tv show when he was younger about a submarine that blew up due to a hydrogen peroxide leak...thought it was cool...


so he takes about a gallon of peroxide and dumps it on a tree stump...tries to light it...nothing happens...waits...tries again...nothing....gets some gas..lights that burns and quits...

finally not satsified...pours on some more gas...lets that soak in...pours on some more and lights it...boom, boom, boom, boom, boom....muffled explosions from all over the yard....the peroxide had soaked into the root system and created little pockets of pure oxygen, combined with the burning gasoline...made for a nice series of holes in the ground and was responsible for a couple dozen snakes coming to the surface...the yard was wriggling...


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## KenpoTex (Sep 15, 2004)

IamBaytor said:
			
		

> I still remember my royal ranger days too.  Especially the part about starting a one match fire.  It required 3 things.  Wood, a match, and gas.  Hey, it worked every time!


The only time I did that the way it was s'posed to be done (build the stupid little A-frame, tinder, kindling, fuel, etc.) was for the firecraft award (or whatever it was called) the rest of the time it was: dump an armfull of logs in a relatively safe area, pour gas, toss match and run


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## Silat Student (Sep 16, 2004)

Yeah, I do appreciate the little bit of grace that I got on that one. One of my largest goals in life is to leave it with as many fingers as I was born with. Still proudly tickin' despite a childhood association with power tools.


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