Tonight I went to the West End Fair with my kids and Linda's kids. It was a $5.00 fee to get in and ride all the rides you want. Not bad for a local county fair. I hate to much greasy food and the kids got to ride ponies as well as a few carnival classics (like salt-and-pepper shakers and the tilt-a-whirl).
I stopped by a booth that was selling hand carved walking sticks and animal figurines mounted on finished drift wood. The salesman looked familiar. I thought it might be Ralph 'Butch' Sprenkle. Then he laughed at something a customer said and I knew it was him.
Butch Sprenkle was the go to guy for superior Boy Scout Events. He was the guy who founded(?) the Camp Karoondinha Loggers Day. Logger's day was the real deal. Butch brought in pole climbers, double bit axes, two man saws, log rolling, and all sorts of other stuff. He also treated his event staff well. I remember going to Loggers Day as a staff member when I was 19(?). We would set up Friday and he would have a lumberjack of a feast waiting at the lower cabin for us when we finished. And then we would settle in to watch lumberjack themed movies on, what at the time was a rarity, the video tape player.
Butch's events were always great events. I realized tonight that his attention to detail and willingness to go the extra distance to make his programs the best for both his staff and the participants, are characteristics that I learned by being in his tutelage as a youth. It amazes me to look back on my youth as I get older and realize how much I am a composite of the influential people who I was exposed to in Scouting.
MyMusicCode.com
My first attempt at embedded music is above. I hope it worked. The music of Camp also influenced me. It was no coincidence that on the way home from the fair, 'cat's in the cradle' came on the radio. I remember Mark Scott and others singing this song at camp. The music of the late 70's and early 80's is still the music I find most moving. I will always remember hearing 'stairway to heaven' as a young scout on his first week away from home.
It saddened me tonight to hear 'cat's in the cradle'. It made me think about how quickly the young people I have been working with grow. How many of them do not even have a reasonable father? They will not look back at having not spent any time with their fathers. They do not even get to have a real father. What lesson do these children learn from being in foster care? How will they raise their children? Who will, like my parents and Scout Leaders, serve as role models for them to exemplify as they grow into adulthood? It saddens and scares me.
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