My Boy Scout Summer – Eagle Scout Project

After stealing a canoe with the intention of wandering through the forbidden terrain of Big R's young daughter, I was forced to gingerly tread a minefield of disaster.  I mentioned before that the man was big, but perhaps my description didn't inspire the fear that was part of my being that summer.  His arms were steam engine pistons the diameter of a fire hydrant, and his hands were made to crush the throats of horny boys with designs on his angelic girls.  Every time Lisa came near me I was looking around all for him, nervous and acting like a meth addict jonesing for a fix.

So, one day I arrived home early having quit a job moving sprinkler pipe (which is a whole other story involving an insane farmer and a rattlesnake), Lisa was waiting for me at my house.  I circled the block twice before parking, like an undercover agent losing tails on a top secret mission.

“I talked to my scout leader,” Lisa said.  “They need some showers built at the camp, and it would be a good way for you to make it up to her for all the trouble that night.”

Now, I might be a dimmer bulb than many so this was one I had to slowly digest.  “You want me to build showers for the Girl Scouts?”

“Yes.  My dad says that it could be your Eagle Project.”

Again with the slow digesting.  “Big R knows about this?  He's signing off on me building showers for the Girl Scouts?”  This was going to be trouble.  I knew it and I was all for it.

“He just doesn't want me up there when you install them,” she said.  Naturally, he wasn't too dumb. Then she added, “But I've thought of a way to go up separately.”

“I'm in.”

For those of you who don't know, Eagle Scout Projects are the culmination of a Boy Scout's craft.  They are supposed to combine skills of creativity, planning, and leadership to produce a result that's a benefit to the community.  Usually boys will build park benches or paint some city building.  I even knew a boy who went to a nature trail and built wheelchair ramps for a handicapped stream-side stroll.  The two toughest things about the project are coming up with the idea and getting volunteers.  Now I had the idea and getting the volunteers was the next challenge. 

At Scout Meeting the next day I stood up and presented my design, and asked for volunteers for help on the project.  Predictably there was a huge groan because no one liked working on someone else's Eagle Project.  “We'll be installing them ourselves at the Girl Scout Camp.”

Everyone went silent and twelve hands simultaneously shot up in a whoosh.  I told them that I only needed four helpers and that I'd be out in the parking lot when the finished choosing among themselves.  The four biggest, strongest boys came out to meet me.  I had two sets of brothers, Dean and Joe, and Blaine and Shane.  For me it was great, for the Girl Scout Camp, trouble was brewing.

A bit about the showers.  We constructed the floors out of Red Cedar slats and the corner supports out of Red Cedar square poles.  For the top we bent some PVC pipe around and attached some durable waterproofed canvas curtains to the assembly.  The shower itself was a series of long trays which gave a lot of surface area for the sun to heat the water, and then we put hand valves right above the shower heads so the girl could shut off and turn on the water as she needed it.  At the base of the whole assembly I put in a hand pump so that the trays could be filled right from any available water supply. 

After a week of construction, we threw everything into a truck and drove back up to the camp.  This time instead of being intruders, we were bringing the possibility of warm showers, so we were heroes. 

5 Boys.  Only 3 Adult Supervisors. There was no way for them to keep track, so we worked in shifts.  Two on the project, and three on the prowl.  Dean and Blaine hooked up two of the counselors almost immediately.  Shane was so damned goofy that I don't think he managed to find any girl while we were in a Girl Scout Camp.  Joe was the youngest (and the biggest, but that's another story as well), red-headed, freckled and built like a truck. He hung out with me when I went to find Lisa, and sure enough she had driven up with another friend, Diane.  So Joe and I were both set.

Funny thing was, the showers just weren't going together easily so we decided we'd have to be there at least two days.  The adults were frantic, trying to ensure that we'd leave the camp at night and that their innocent charges wouldn't be tainted with the corruption that we brought with us.  And, of course we had brought some corruption, in the form of a hand-crank blender, bags of ice in a cooler, and bottles of alcohol.  Dean proceeded to make Banana Daiquiris (all preplanned, of course)  We told the girls that we'd be at a campsite about a mile away. 

Sure enough they came, all of them and friends.  Dean's girl was this really cute blond lifeguard who just came to work during the daytime since she lived so close.  She was already falling in love – not good with Dean since his idea of a long-term relationship began and ended on the same date.  She brought a friend, Mandy, from Rexburg, the nearest town where they both lived.  Mandy was brunette and really got into the daiquiris, trying to get me to match her drink for drink.  It was obvious that Lisa didn't like her, but I was a teenager and had no clue about either alcohol or girls, so I drank too much and got sick.  This didn't do much for our idea of making out, which made Lisa even angrier.  The party got wild, others got laid, some got sick, I lost consciousness.

The next day, with a raging hangover, I climbed the trees to mount all the overhead hardware for the showers.   I couldn't have been more miserable.  While fastening everything to trees, I also built a small maintenance platform out of the rest of our wood.  It gave me a place to sit and work.  Then, we tested the showers out for the camp and despite all the trouble of the night before, which the resigned adults seemed to accept as a part of adolescent behavior, everyone was thrilled.  The girls lined up for their showers, which on the first day was to be hair washing done with bathing suits on, a treat for the camp girls to get clean hair and the proper thing to do so long as us boys were around. 

Remember Mandy?  Well, there she was in line despite the fact that she didn't even go to the camp.  We had made five shower stalls in all and they were separated with the canvas curtains, and the water was plenty for all to be going at a time with only a ten minute break between for the replenished water to warm up.  Mandy was in the second set, and I was on the maintenance platform.

The first thing she did was look right up at me and I was the only one in the camp who could see her.  Then she took off all her clothes and started touching herself all over. Holy crap, I had never seen such a thing.  I almost fell off the platform.  I turned red as a fire engine.  When the shower time was over she dressed, blew me a kiss, and walked out and into the camp. When I looked over, Lisa was staring at me and she was mad.  She couldn't have seen what I saw, but she saw that my eyes had never moved from the one stall and it was obvious. 

So, I went down the tree and tried to make things up to her, assuring her that Mandy meant nothing to me. It seemed to be going well, until we went out to the parking lot and Mandy was there, waiting in a little blue convertible.  When she saw me she called out, “Look on your car.” Then she sped off.

Lisa ran over to my car and found a note under the windshield wipers.  It was a phone number.  She started crying, didn't want anything to do with me, and as soon as she could, her and her friend, along with Joe, took off to go back home.

What did I do?  It wasn't my fault. 

So, I did the only thing I could do at that point.  I sent Blaine and Shane back in the other car we'd brought while Dean and I stayed in Rexburg and made a phone call.

- rick, a foolish horny boy.

Up next:  Big R and the Penny Jar  (or why it's not a good idea to hit on a guy's daughter, but even a worse idea to dump her – you just can't win.)

Beginning post of My Boy Scout Summer.

Comments

[mark]

and here I was expecting secret panels and peep holes! Not peep PLATFORMS!

[Cherise]

LOL! You poor baby, what a hard summer THAT must have been!

[Success Warrior]

Yeah, platforms,that's sneaky. Hide in plain sight.

[Graeme]

niiiiice!

I like the new look.

[CV Rick]

Thanks, Graeme.

[The Angry Young Man]

Rick, your writing never fails to impress me. These stories remind me of "Youth in Revolt" by CD Payne. I think you'd enjoy those books.

[CV Rick]

Thanks AYM . . . Since I admire your rapid-fire prose and edgy voice, it means a lot that you enjoy my own posts as well.