As a proud father I couldn't wait to see my sons in scout uniforms.

When my oldest turned seven, a few of his classmates joined the local cub scout group, Pack 128.  The year was 1996.  Tim and I participated in as many activities as he wanted.  Here is a picture of us after the Raingutter Regatta during his Wolf year.  He has his entry in his hand.  This was to be his only entry in a competition event.  He skipped the following Bear year and rejoined his group to complete the two years of Webelos . During those last years, his younger brother Jeremy tagged along to all the meetings.  He was fascinated with all the commotion and the end of Tim's tour, the bridging ceremony.  This is where the transition is made from Webelos to boy scout.  In addition to receiving a scout handbook at the end of the ceremony, the candidates also got the chance to shoot a real bow and arrow as part of the ceremony - possibly where they got the "arrow" portion of the Arrow of Light.  Jeremy's only desire after witnessing the event was to get the Arrow of Light like his brother. After "graduation", Tim tried out the next phase in scouting, the boy scouts, but decided not to continue after a canoe overnighter he was privileged to attend.  There were other things more important.  The Monday night meetings got in the way of homework.

When Jeremy was of age for the new Tiger Cubs at age six, his older brother Tim was in the last year of cub scouts as a second year Webelos.  Jeremy was so inspired that he couldn't get enough of scouting and participated in as many activities as he could.  His den was very active and the parents were very proactive.  As oppose to the after-school den meetings that Tim had, Jeremy's den meetings were done in the evening after supper (about the same time as the pack meetings but a week earlier) or on weekends as hikes or field trips.  Each cub's parent would host a month.  One memorable event was a fishing trip to the local trout farm in Half Moon Bay.  He was so proud of the new uniform that he earned that he wore it to the trip.  He is shown here with his yellow cub scout cap.  Scouting didn't come easy to Jeremy as he struggled with homework and scout badges.  Although he tried his hardest, he finally gave into homework and stopped before the start of the second year Webelos, never earning the Webelos badge or the Arrow of Light.

The boys had fun while in scouting.  They might even have learned a thing or two.  The bottom line is that scouting was not for them.  Its a different generation for them and for scouting, but at least they can say they tried it.