Scouts, when I was enrolled, was basically a dodge ball league. From what I remember, the leaders tried their best to keep us interested in Scouting stuff… but, by the end of every meeting, someone was getting pummelled with volleyballs. After a few months, we could barely get through the flag salute before trying to knock each other out.

I had some of my first concussions in Scouts, but I think I can actually remember a session where one of the leaders pulled out a huge radio, put in a Clash tape and taught us to slam dance.

Anyway. Cubs was different… I think, in Cubs, we were still young enough to have that fear respect of parental authority in us, so we listened. We also had leaders who engaged with us — including, for a little while, my mother.

We went camping and hiking with the Cubs, and we built Kub Kars. Recently, hundreds of Cub Scouts from all over Eastern Ontario got together in Rockland, to showcase their Kub Kar building and racing abilities… and every single one of them was better designed, and ran better than anything we ever built. So, maybe there is hope for the future.

My oldest son, Andrew, has been in Cubs and Cubs Jr. (Beavers) for two years now, and he has had a blast. The kid has half a sleeve filled with badges, and he’s working on filling up the rest of them. He has most of the sports badges, but we’re working on the ‘cultural’ stuff as well.

Unfortunately, his car didn’t make it to the Kub Kar finals this year, but he came close enough that he’s looking forward and planning for next year.