Scout Weekend

This weekend my younger son D- is going camping with the scouts. Not his usual troop but with a bunch of kids who will be sealing their membership in the Boy Scouts Order of the Arrow by participating in an "ordeal" weekend.

The Order of the Arrow is kind of like Scouting's honor society. It's been around since 1915 or so. Some people think it's some sort of secret society. But it's not. Any scout leader or parent who wants to attend may do so. It's just that they like to keep the ceremonies and ordeal events veiled in mystery so that the new kids have a special experience.

And just like most other honor societies, mostly what the Order of the Arrow does is service. Because D-'s Ordeal Weekend comes at the end of the summer, I imagine most of what he'll be doing tomorrow is putting away all the stuff left out from summer camp. (When I did my ordeal all the way back in 1969, my weekend was early in June before summer camp began. So I helped get things set up for summer camp. I still remember hauling telephone poles down to the obstacle course. Talk about heavy...)

Anyway... the one thing the Order of the Arrow does really well is ceremonies. There will be a ceremony tonight to start things off and and ceremony tomorrow night when they've passed all the "tests". And another nice thing about the OA for D- is that his older brother was never asked to join. I like it that this is one achievement D- got that his older brother missed out on.

I asked if I could attend. I think it would be neat to see my son inducted. They told me that since they expect about 150 campers they could really use my help in the kitchen. So I guess I'll be working in the kitchen. Tomorrow the high temperature is supposed to be about 88.

Looks like I'll be having an ordeal of my own.
K-