You've got to keep in mind that Scouting is a new thing for me. I about dropped my teeth when I was given the calling. So I do occasionally do something that's maybe not entirely something that a thinking person would do.
Take, for instance, elective 1b in the Wolf handbook. It's writing with invisible ink. Did you know that you can use milk and also lemon juice as ink? I was experimenting with it just the other day, and it works great. You let it try for a while, then hold it over a heat source and the words appear. The recommended heat source in the handbook is a light bulb. Well, it was daytime -- I didn't have any hot light bulbs so I flipped on the stove really low and held the paper over it. Poof -- there were the words. I was in business.
My Scouts showed up and we did a treasure hunt, using the codes in elective 1a. That went pretty well, all things considered. The last clue was done in invisible ink, and, thinking nothing could go wrong because I'd practiced, I showed the boys how to make the words appear, saying that I would hold the paper. Well, the paper caught and went up in flames. I shook it and got it to extinguish itself, and then I made a very careful point of showing the boys that the book suggests using a light bulb. Why didn't I use a light bulb? Well, it was daytime and I didn't have any hot ones and I . . . was just not using my head.
No one got hurt and the boys thought it was pretty cool, actually. I double checked that they understood that my demonstration was of the wrong way to do it, and they all said they figured that part out. And, amazingly enough, I haven't gotten phone calls from five confused parents wondering why I started a fire at den meeting. I think it goes without saying that I'll be much more careful from now on. It would be terrible to get fired (no pun intended) from a church calling for being stupid.
5 comments:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Trist, you are so funny!
What a great story. Don't worry. I've heard no one gets fired from a calling in Scouts. I'll bet you're the most popular scout leader ever because at least you're not boring. Just don't get hurt.
Just a comment on your picks for Dancing with the Stars. I totally agree about Mario. He deserved to win. This year has some great dancers. I'm surprised Billy is still there. I'm rooting for Apolo. He and his partner are so dang (Sorry, Mormon cussing) cute. Don't you think it's harder for a woman to win. It seems the woman has to polish the look more and so it's harder for the non-professional females. But Laila is fantastic.
Now that it's over, we can laugh, right?
I have one son. The first thing I thought upon seeing him at birth was, "Oh, it's a boy!"
The second thing was, "Oh, no. Now I'll have to do scouts!"
Fortunately, I dodged that bullet. Good luck to you and thank you so much from all the rest of us who are exceedingly grateful that you, and people like you, accept that call, so we don't have to. :)
I so remember doing that when I was little. We used to buy lemon juice in those little lemons and write all kinds of secret messages--stuff like Richy (my friends brother) stinks.
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