These are my original poems,song lyrics and short stories made and constructed by me. If you are a professional and would like to use my material, please feel free contact me. I hope you will enjoy them. the thoughts behind them all have specific purpose and others a line of thought from my imagination. Some have said i have lost "it" but I say " there's been no real attempt to find it "

Saturday, August 27, 2011

One Time When I Was a Boy Scout

(Ok how about a true story)
Not too many people in my high school know this, but I was a boy scout for a few years and earned the rank of " Life" (which is 1 rank below "Eagle") scout. One year the troop was to go on an outing for 5 day- 50 mile hike around the outer mountain roads and by-ways of Paso Robles. It was a dark starry summer’s night on our 4th day and on the way to the camp ground we met some farmers working close to the road who said there had been a cougar sighted eating the livestock just before they saw us. We reached the camp site and put up our tents all the while worrying about the cougar as was expected. we all ate dinner and told campfire stories, then just before it was time to bed down we were instructed by the Scout Master to go up a small trail to a cave where a spring pooled to fill our water supplies in preparation for the next day’s hike.

Unknown to all of us at the campfire, two of the older scouts had slipped away earlier and ran up the trail and were hidden in the cave waiting for us to get close enough to scare us. I’m sure they could barely contain their laughter as they heard us coming up the path loudly. They waited while we all unopened our water jugs and proceeded to fill them. Then they roared and made noises
Scaring the whole bunch of us wickedly silly and all the other scouts ran for their lives down the path except me. What you need to know about me is that I had been raised on farms or ranches all my life and heard many tales of cougars, bears and wild boar hunts or even seen the ones brought in from the hunt. So I knew better than to run if it WAS a cougar as they would almost certainly give chase. So instinctively I instead hid behind a small tree barely sticking out of the embankment as best as I could trying to blend in being as still as a mouse. My heart and mind was racing with all the stories and my imagination on what to do or what may happen with this cougar when it found me as I really hoped it would miss me when it ran after the others. But something inside said I had to protect them, earlier I had strapped on my 9" buck knife after the farmers warnings from that morning and had it drawn poised ready to pounce on the cougar if it attacked me. My plan was to jump out and scare it away, don't ask me why it all happened in a flash.

It was then I heard the older scouts start talking "are they all gone?" the other said “yes they all went screaming like babies" and they pulled themselves from within the cave opening laughing so hard they could hardly stand. The older scouts came closer flashing their lights on the path not expecting anyone to be left around. I'm sure in their minds they thought we all ran away like silly rabbits. But hey aren't we supposed to be “Boy Scouts", brave, thrifty, reverent, trust worthy, etc blah blah, right? well  when I heard their voices my heart was relieved and my body relaxed, but I felt a payback was in order, besides in my family something like this was pretty normal to play practical jokes, so I jumped out from behind the tree yelling "ahhhhhhh  COUGAR" with knife flashing downward and around randomly like a crazed madman. The older scouts reeled back in surprise screaming "no ...no  ...it's us! IT'S US! Don’t stab us!" and fell to the ground on the path into the pool losing their flash lights.

I now in turn was laughing so hard I was barely able to speak myself, I then said " boy you two were real lucky you weren't a cougar and I didn't stab you with my knife" and they replied very angry " what are you doing here you ran away with others scared". I told them that was the worst thing to do is run from a cat and we walked back on the path to camp with them telling me NOT to tell anyone about any of the episode that just happened. When we finally got back to camp I didn't tell about the older scouts and what they did or what I had done. no one knew I stood there ready to protect them scared out of my wits, only that I hid behind a tree with knife poised at the ready and came back to camp when it was safe. I slept well that night, but the two older scouts and the others were pretty restless throughout the night.

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