Story Eleven (A).                 A LIFE IN THE CLOSET  by  AARON THE AUSSIE.

If you are under 18 you should NOT be here, so DO NOT read on.  Just EXIT NOW.

"A Life in the Closet" is total fiction, but it is very largely based on my life experiences, so quite a lot of it is an attempt at recording in a slightly changed way, some of the significant events in my life.  And of course, names etc have been changed.

Each Story that I have written, ( and I have used that word rather than the word Chapter ) can be read quite independently of all the others, because each is a complete, stand-alone story.   Some are longer than others and some have less or even minimal, if any sex.  But, the basic Boy Lover theme is there in each story.  Occasionally, a character will be in more than one story.  

However, they are all written from my point of view and I have tried to keep them basically in an order of chronology.  So, they can be read as a Series in number order giving, an overview and flow to a significant number of the things that have happened to me over the years.

I became a Scout Leader in my mid-twenties and managed that same Troop for close to 15 years. The stories which follow provide some brief highlights from those years and feature just a few of the many boys I felt very proud to have as Scouts in my Troop, back then. This is Part A of Story 11.

      

I have tried to make each story as interesting and as sexy as possible, whilst keeping them all as REAL as I can, particularly as regards things like; the language used, the ages of those involved, the time period relevant to the story and the prevailing attitudes of the community at that time.    

All of my Stories are completed and I don't plan to make any changes to them, but I would still be very interested in your feedback. I'm sure most Nifty Authors really like to feel appreciated for their efforts and we all love positive feedback. So, please email me at: aarontheaussie@bigpond.com

Just a reminder too, that Nifty needs our financial support.  Please help with what you can, if you can.  Every bit helps, no matter how small.

So... Here goes, I hope you are still finding these stories OK.

Aaron.

 

DUSTY – THE SCOUT LEADER AND SOME OF HIS BOYS. ( PART A. )

( Please Note: Because of the length of this story I have broken it up to submit in 2 Parts. Whilst there are a few sexual references made here and there throughout both Parts, there is no actual sex at all in this story. However, I hope that doesn't deter you from reading and enjoying both Parts. )

 

It was August here down under, winter but with the prospect of springtime just ahead.  I was 24 and looking forward to a new phase in my life, which would involve some changes.  Most importantly, by the end of the year I would complete my professional qualifications, meaning that all the years of required intensive study would finally be over and I would be entirely free to use my time to dance, ( my major passion at the time ) or do whatever else I might chose.  Further, I was contemplating the purchase of my own `pad' so that I could leave home, enjoy some independence and be my own man.

That all happened just as I had anticipated.  The only problem was my very good friend Ken.  He was my greatest idol and inspiration when I was a kid, the person who got me to join the Scouts and who when I joined was my first Patrol Leader. ( See Story 2 )  Now Ken was the District Scout Leader and he was concerned that our old Scout Troop was in serious trouble.

There had been a couple of Leaders running the Troop since the superb Leader of our particular era, Mr Hedley had left. But, neither really had the time or enthusiastic commitment needed to do the job properly and in fact, for something more than the last 12 months, the Troop had been without a proper Leader at all.

At the very best of times, being able to recruit anyone at all to Adult Leader positions, which in Scouting here are all jobs that are entirely `voluntary', is quite a hard enough task. Finding someone with the time, energy, commitment and enthusiasm to take on and do such a job properly, is entirely another thing.  In me, Ken thought at the time that he might have the right person for the job.

So he asked me and initially I politely declined. He cajoled me more and I expressed the usual concerns about the responsibilities involved, as well as the time and commitment needed. Finally he really started to apply pressure but, I still only agreed to think about it.  I definitely wanted to complete my studies and move into the new residence I was then purchasing for myself, before making any decision. This probably gave me until the end of the year to consider my very personal and secret major reservation. Namely being a Boy Lover, my strong sexual attraction to boys of the age I would be dealing with.  In truth I really liked the idea of the job and was keen to say "yes!!" and accept the challenge, which would require all my enthusiasm.  I just had to be absolutely convinced that I could resist any possible temptations. 

As I saw it, this meant getting myself even deeper into the closet and staying there.

Having finally said "Yes, OK" I went along with Ken on a Friday night just before Christmas and was introduced to the boys using the Scout Name I had chosen, which was "Dusty". 

All 8 or 9 of them present seemed nice enough kids, but the Troop Meeting, if you could call it that, was very poor, bearing no resemblance to the fabulous nights in my memory when the Troop had 4 Patrols and a membership of 30 plus. Quite clearly, in the New Year I needed to begin the huge re-building job I had ahead of me.

Like every other new voluntary Adult Leader, I was expected, whilst doing the job, to complete in my own time, initial and then further required Training, within the first couple of years, which of course I did.  It was beneficial, but I found that for me, it mainly helped by supplementing both my own experiences as a youth member and the ongoing support and advice I got from Ken.

Ultimately however, I assessed my own success on the basis of the response of the boys and the progress I felt I was achieving in re-building the Troop, because every challenge I faced was unique and how well I dealt with each one was my responsibility alone.  

In the beginning.  

In actual fact I found that I had 7 apparently invested real members, who mostly attended in uniforms of a sort. There were about 4 others who had been attending informally on and off for some time and I made it clear that if they wanted to join, they needed to decide and commit. 3 joined, 1 didn't and by the end of my first month, I invested those 3 and we had a membership of 10, all attending regularly and in full and correct uniform.

I wanted to establish 2 Patrols, but we needed to increase our membership to do so. Until then I formally made Hans Patrol Leader and Owen Assistant Patrol Leader of our silly little `one big Patrol' Troop.  It was a bit unwieldy, especially because our numbers did gradually increase a bit.  But the 2 boys handled it well and by mid-year we were able to make 2 Patrols, each of 7 boys.  Colin became APL to Hans and Owen as the new PL had Yan as his APL.

By the time we established the second Patrol Hans and Owen were both nearly 14.  Hans had a Dutch background. He was tall for his age, slim and blondish and he was my first secret challenge as I thought he was absolutely beautiful.

 

Owen was also a good looking boy with straw blond hair.  The Pharmacy his family still owned and ran was the one at which I had worked as a kid, doing deliveries for his then, very young Father and his Grand Father.

My concentration during that first 6 months, working most closely with Hans and Own was on re-building basic Scouting skills in the Troop generally and on developing the Leadership skills of the more senior boys.

To this end I got the whole Troop back to camping again. We did a couple of weekends under canvas at established Scout campsites and then several in the bush. I had my own tent and as a matter of policy, slept alone well away from the boys tents. Considering the limited experience of even the older boys, despite some problems, these camps all went fairly well.

During our first camp I had a minor rebellion occur with some boys over showering, but insisted on it as an important health / hygiene issue and I stayed around each time, to ensure that they all showered properly. Naked both Owen and Hans were magnificent. Like most of the younger boys, initially Owen was a little shy and he was somewhat embarrassed because he got a stiffy which he knew I saw. Hans didn't, but he seemed to have few inhibitions anyway, with little apparent concern as to who saw his stuff. 

Later there was also a problem because it was cold, with a few boys choosing to get straight into sleeping bags still fully dressed and I insisted that Hans and Owen ensure against that happening again, as it was not healthy to sleep in what had been worn throughout the day.  I was interested to note that after that, Hans always insisted that his Patrol all stripped right down, undies off and all, to sleep in either just PJ's or nothing at all.    

When it came to camping in the bush, as had been the norm when I was a Scout, again I introduced the custom of having everyone strip right down to bathe properly at the creek each day, usually around dusk. ( irrespective of the season or temperature )  As a result, whilst I tried to keep discretely aloof, I always enjoyed seeing all of the boys in the buff.

Prior to establishing the second Patrol, I organised a training weekend just for the older boys, Hans and Owen as well as my potential future leaders; Colin, Yan, Marius and Hugh. We used the Districts "Cooringal" Camp and rather than camping out, I arranged to use a bunkroom.

I was very pleased with the training I was able to put the boys through that weekend, as well as with the fact that I managed just for that weekend, to participate more with the boys as a part of the group, rather than maintaining my entirely adult status and keeping myself at arm's length. At the same time I was careful to ensure that nothing untoward occurred.

For just that weekend, I showered with the boys and amidst a little yahooing, and towel flicking, I briefly saw some arousal happening.  Marius, ( who later became one of my better PL's ) was the one who really turned me on. His father was French and for a 13 year old, he was small and gorgeous, very cute indeed.  Yan, who came from a quite poor Slavic immigrant family, was very nice to look at too, but he was very shy and reserved.

After a fairly hectic full Saturday, back at the bunkroom following our showers, as it was quite late, I tried to encourage them all to get ready for bed.  Once they were settled, I turned out the light and then walked across to ascend into my upper bunk. Despite the sudden darkness, there was sufficient light from the windows to see reasonably well and I looked straight at Hans, who was in his sleeping bag in the bunk directly below mine.  He gave me a huge broad grin and then threw the top flap of his bag back to reveal his total nakedness and his stunningly magnificent solid erection.

I'm not sure if he was inviting me to join him, but sadly there was no way I would have and I just returned the smile and then continued on up to my bunk.  It was not long afterwards, that I felt a noiseless but regular rhythmic swaying of the bunk that continued for a period before stopping abruptly. What could that have been ??   

Given his lack of modesty, I sometimes wondered about Hans. Not that I ever did, but had I ever overtly shown an interest in him, how might he have responded?  What I mentioned above and 1 other incident suggested to me that it just might have been quite favourably.

That other incident occurred on a Bush camp a short time later, which was kind of successful, but badly marred by one big disaster.  That was the presence at the time and in the area where we happened to be camping, of a major infestation of `Ticks'.  I spent more time that weekend extracting Ticks from kids bodies than I did running a good camp.

Hans happened to be the one who got himself a Tick in his cock, just at its base near his balls where there was some pubic hair starting. I had to try and remove it cleanly. What's more, he found it getting ready for bed and came to my tent alone so that I could take it out for him, which I had to do by lamp light.  In retrospect It was actually fairly hilarious, because no matter how careful I was and how concerned he was about the Tick, the more I handled him, the stiffer and more aroused he became.  Eventually I succeeded in cleanly removing the Tick and I sent him back to his tent. However, had I allowed it to happen, it was the perfect opportunity to take his arousal further and I'm nearly sure he really wanted me to.

Vance.

The shop next to Owens Dads Pharmacy was Bruno the Greeks Milk Bar and Bruno made the best milkshakes in the history of creation.

Vance was Bruno's son and he was in Owens Patrol.  In those days most kids still came to Scouts by bike and it was a huge tradition that after Scouts each Friday night, we nearly all ended up with Vance back at Bruno's for milkshakes.

Unfortunately, Vance was a big, strong 14 year old boy, but he had an intellectual disability and needed a lot of looking after.  He rode his bike and seemed physically OK. But, he couldn't speak or make himself understood even though he kind of gabbled a lot. Like some others with similar disabilities, Vance also had a fairly major problem with "dis-inhibition".  This regularly caused him to do quite inappropriate sexual things at the most bizarre times. It often involved quite openly trying to play with or interfere with other boys and on more than one occasion I saw him take out his own cock and just play with it or wank himself, in full view of everyone else during a Troop meeting.       

I was always amazed at the way that all the boys fussed over him and looked after him. On the other hand I sometimes felt it was a big added responsibility to expect of the boys, especially Owen.  But, I knew that allowing Vance to be in Scouts had made Bruno so happy and so very grateful to both me and young Owen.

Vance wasn't able to go camping and he rarely even went on single day outings or activities, even though his father said he wanted to.

On the one occasion that Vance did attend a single day bush walking trip, it turned into something of a disaster and it actually caused him to decide to leave Scouts.  About an hour into the walk Vance was still really excited, looking all around himself in complete wonderment because he had never ever been in the bush before and everything was really going well.  Then, we saw a fairly large snake sunning itself on the track way up ahead.  It immediately slithered away and had never been any kind of a threat to us. However, Vance had seen it and he decided that he was not going on under any circumstances.  He sat down on the track with his day pack in front of him and nothing in the world was ever going to induce him to move forward.  It was impossible to simply explain and get him to understand, or alternatively to force the issue and make him go on because Vance was too big and strong. So, given his state of distress, we eventually just had to give up, abandon the walk and take him back out, retracing our steps.

A couple of weeks later Owen advised me that Vance wouldn't be coming back to Scouts, even though he said he tried hard to have him change his mind and he asked me to go and talk to Bruno. 

Bruno told me that the decision Vance made was probably for the best. But, he said that he would still be forever grateful that we gave Vance a go and he added that Vance actually got a lot more out of being in Scouts, than it might have seemed that he did, especially the way he was accepted and well treated by Owen and the other boys.

I was actually a little relieved by Vance's decision.  But, I was very impressed with Bruno's attitude and extremely proud of Owen and all of the other boys.

Success breads success.

Things seem to go really well once we had 2 Patrols and I re-established a `Troop Council'.  ( the body used in Scouting to involve the PL's and APL's in the management and running of the Troop )

However, 12 months later having sadly lost Yan, who's family had moved to Melbourne, plus Vance and 2 others, we had only added 2 new members and 3 boys from the Cubs. A net gain of only one and of course it was nearly time for Hans and Owen to move on at 15 to Venturers.  So, I was rather despondent at my apparent lack of success, when things had seemed to be going so well, we would soon be back to only 13.

Then there was Greg Tong, an 11 year old Asian boy with a head that was much too big for his tiny body and the biggest ear to ear smile I ever saw.

Greg just appeared all on his own and asked if he could join. No one knew him at all as he went to a local school attended by none of my existing Scouts. But we welcomed him, as just one extra. A possible new recruit, that's all!!

Absolutely wrong!!  The next week Greg was in full brand new uniform and he had 2 mates with him, both also in full brand new uniforms, and I had never even laid eyes on them before.  It would have been too bad given the uniforms, had I said no, they couldn't join!!

It was totally amazing.  Three months later our numbers had doubled to over 30 and we had to quickly establish a third and then a fourth Patrol.

I had failed at that stage to recruit an assistant Adult Leader to work with me and in a way that wasn't a bad thing.  It made me rely heavily on my PL's, in particular Marius, but also Colin, then Hugh and most recently Walter, ( who was Hans's younger Brother ) to help get us through this sudden major expansion process from which we never looked back.  The Troop went from strength to strength, as did the Troop Council, I think largely because my PL's rose to the task and set the bar at a high level for the future.

Within a further 12 months membership was around 40 and Dean became the PL of our Fifth Patrol. We remained stable at about that level with 5 Patrols for quite a few years.

Colin and Hugh were good kids and effective if not outstanding PL's and once they followed my wonderful Marius to Venturers, Dean became my most effective PL and like Marius, he turned out to be one of the very best Scouts I ever had.

I believe that I was lucky enough to be in a position to have a very strong influence for good on many, many boys whilst I was a Scout Leader.  I'm sure that most looked up to and respected me and some gave me a hero type status, as boys tend to and I certainly did at that age.  With all due modesty, I also believe that a few tended to idolise me a bit.

Walter was one of the nicest kids imaginable and I place him in that final small group. It seemed that to him, I could do no wrong and there was nothing he wouldn't do for me.  Walter didn't have the intelligence or good looks of his brother Hans ( although for me, whilst again nothing ever happened, he did have a certain sex appeal that was a bit hard to define ) and he was certainly not in the same league as Hans, as a Patrol Leader.  Although he basically did an OK job, his greatest virtue was his absolute enthusiasm and the fact that he never stopped doing his very best to please.

I recall for example a torrentially wet night in camp, when Walter as a PL did more work than all the other PL's combined, totally drenched to his skin, digging trenches in the mud, to ensure that all our tents and all the boys in them stayed entirely dry.  That was just typical Walter.

I still have and treasure today an item, which I can only describe as a sort of `Swagger Stick' come `Walking Stick'  combination lovingly hand carved and made into something really special just for me, by Walter, basically from a piece of natural timber he picked up in the bush.    

All the Gregs.

By the time Greg Tong became a Patrol Leader, the Troop seemed to be over-run by Greg's.  I recall too, a later period when we seemed to have few names other than David and another period when the name Chris was very predominant. 

But the Greg era was the worst, primarily because it mainly affected my senior ranks.  I had 5 Patrols and as well as Greg Tong, My PL's were, Greg Potter, Greg McLeod, Greg Williams and Greg Dexter.  Greg Lester and Greg Kowalski were both APL's and there were a further 2 younger Gregs. A total of 9 boys named Greg or nearly a quarter of the total membership.

It was during this period that I had little choice but to use family names. But, I was not entirely comfortable with that ( we were not an old fashioned British Prep School ) so I got into the habit, which I then maintained of addressing all of the boys as Mr whoever.

All of my Greg's were very good PL's. Greg P was perhaps the best of them, an excellent natural leader and he was also the standout for me as regards looks and sex appeal. I saw him naked up close a few times and he was solid and muscular, but with the tiniest waist and a really nice looking package. Add to that his boyish good looks and impeccable grooming and I was smitten again.

     

Boy power – A successful Troop Council.

Every new boy was encouraged from the outset to consider his Patrol the important unit in the Troop and to aim towards one day becoming a Patrol Leader himself. Each PL represented his Patrol at the Troop Council and whilst I gave guidance and even occasionally said "No", I largely permitted the Troop Council the power to make all the major decisions.

The incidents described below provide a couple of good examples of the power of a good Troop Council.

1.   It had been a very successful Patrol Camp in the bush and Greg W and his 6 Patrol members were walking out from their campsite, on their way home.  As they emerged from the bush with only a short distance to walk along the road into the town where they would catch the train, they were confronted and harassed by 3 older boys. 

 

Despite Greg doing his best to avoid trouble, the harassment turned into aggression and several of the Scouts were physically roughed up, one fairly badly.  Greg's APL Ricky even had his glasses smashed.

Then the 3 boys, who obviously saw the entire incident as great fun, jumped into their hotted up car, laughing uproariously and drove off at top speed.

Once the boys were home and I received word of what happened, I took immediate steps that Sunday night to console all the boys involved, Greg and Ricky as the extremely upset leaders in particular and to pacify all of the upset parents.  It was a big job, but a necessary one and I then felt satisfied that everything that could be done had been. End of story.

But, I was wrong. The next night without warning, I had 5 Patrol Leaders plus APL Ricky arrive together at my place to insist that as the Troop Council, they felt that we should take the matter to the Police.  I was not convinced that the Police could do anything and told them so, because I didn't want them disappointed when in all probability nothing would come of it.  The boys unanimously accepted the view that it would probably achieve nothing, but still thought that making a formal complaint was the right thing to do. So, before I knew it, we were all 7 of us in my van and driving to the Police Station.

 

I was impressed that Greg W had managed to note what he thought were the number plate details of the 3 boys' car and he and Ricky provided a fairly good description of the driver, as well as the other 2 boys.  However, the Officer who took the complaint, although happy to do so, also seemed sure that it was a waste of time.

Whilst then very pleased, that what the boys wanted had been done, I again thought that would be the end of the story.  But, less than 2 weeks later I was back at the Police Station with Greg W and Ricky, sitting in a room with 3 very scared 17 year olds being given a really hard time by a massively huge Police Sargent, who made it very clear that they would all be charged with assault. The Sargent gave me an opportunity to give all 3 a piece of my mind on behalf of my boys and I was pretty angry with them, especially when they had no excuse whatsoever for their actions and claimed that it had in fact all just been a bit of fun!!  I was later advised that all 3 were put on `Good Behaviour Bonds'.

2.   At one stage a lot of the older boys in the Troop going to a particular local High School were very much into the School Band, which I thought was very good and I actively encouraged their participation.

Together with the members of my Troop Council I was very much into the planning and preparations for that years Easter Troop Camp and I was excited at an excellent response of 37 ( out of a possible 41 ) applications together with fees, to attend the camp, including all 5 PL's and APL's.

About a week before the camp, when everything was finalised and ready to go, I was advised by a parent that the Band Master was very upset because he had planned to schedule a final practice during the weekend for a concert the band was to take part in on the Friday of the following short school week.  He had suddenly found that most boys were unavailable and had reprimanded them and advised them that they would need to change their arrangements to fit with what he required of them.

It was a Holiday Weekend and the School was not a private one where weekend, let alone holiday weekend School commitment could be enforced and without exception the boys simply said they couldn't change their existing commitment.

Each family involved then got a formal take home notice from the school, signed by the Band Master demanding that all the parents involved direct the boys to attend the Saturday afternoon practice he had by then scheduled.

When I saw a copy of the notice, I personally phoned the Band Master and gave him my thoughts in quite strong terms. In fact, I lost it a little and must admit that I may have been just a little abusive. I think this was understandable however, as my camp was in ruins as every PL and APL plus a couple of others would be withdrawals. 

In fact I had a phone call that same night from a father to say that although he didn't much appreciate the tone of the notice sent home, it was a school thing and that came first, so his son Scott, one of my APL's would definitely have to withdraw from the camp.

 

Then the next night I had a visit from Ricky, by then my most senior and one of my very best ever Patrol Leaders, with his dad.  Ricky had a letter he said he and the other PL's had drafted together at School that day.  It was addressed to the School Headmaster and at the bottom it was signed off  "For and on behalf of the Troop Council".  The signatures which followed were those of the 5 PL's and the 4 APL's other than poor Scott, who said he wasn't allowed to sign.

Ricky wanted me to OK the letter and endorse it by adding my signature, if I wished and he told me that the 5 PL's intended to personally present it to the Headmaster the next day, which they did.

 

I am really proud to say that 37 out of 37 of the boys, even including Scott attended my camp that Easter, as the Headmaster directed the Band Master to reschedule his practice to school time on the Wednesday afternoon of the following short school week.

We never had any further conflicts or difficulties over that School Band.

0o0o0o0o0

In many ways our little community of Scout Families was also important to the Troops success as was my involvement with them.   Brothers were common in my Scout Troop, in fact large families of Brothers were not uncommon at all.  By way of example, the 2 stories which follow are both primarily about a boy who was 1 of 3 Brothers and they came in each case from 2 very different families.

Achieving in the most difficult circumstances.

Bruce was 12 when he first came to Scouts. Not long after that he brought Tim along. He was only just 11.  A few weeks later again Charlie, the eldest of the 3 brothers appeared on the scene. He was already 14 so would not be able to be a member for long and in fact, he was never invested as a proper member as he never managed a uniform.

All 3 boys seemed quite keen, but were grubby and unkempt. It took a long time before Bruce had an acceptable uniform and could be invested as a member.  Subsequently, I was also able to finally invest Tim, but it again took a long time before he had an acceptable uniform.

When I say acceptable, I mean that the uniforms were basically complete. But, they were clearly second hand, very old and quite rough.  Still, an effort had been made to acquire all of the necessary bits for both boys.  As I subsequently found out, full credit for that effort belonged entirely to Bruce.

Further once they were invested, Bruce alone made the effort to sew all of their new badges onto both their shirts.  That the sewing was the work of a youngster was obvious, as the stitching was big and rough unlike anything you would normally expect from a parent, even one who was very poor at sewing.

As was my normal practice, once the 2 boys were Invested I visited the family home, but was quite appalled at the squaller I walked into. The Mother of the 3 boys' was friendly enough and welcomed me, but was as grubby and unkempt as them. She seemed unfazed and made it clear by her attitude, that I should accept the family as it was or not at all.  Further, she was quite happy that the boys wanted to be in Scouting but expressed the view that their continued involvement would depend entirely on the resources they themselves could apply to it, as she certainly couldn't help much, if at all. So, it was entirely up to them and the enthusiasm they had.      

Although Charlie never officially joined and he certainly didn't even try Venturers, he kept hanging around and he and I became quite good friends.  I probably shouldn't have let him and I normally wouldn't have – My normal policy was: "Either you're officially in or if not goodbye and If you're of Venturer age, either go to Venturers or goodbye" - But, I liked him and right or wrong I let him keep hanging out with me.

My friendship with Charlie had its benefits.  I considered him a good looking and definitely a sexy boy. More importantly, he was a very nice person and despite his grubbiness at times I think I had a good influence on him, which over time saw him try much harder to at least keep himself as clean as possible and influence Bruce and Tim to do the same.  Over time, he also gradually opened up to me a lot about the family.

I learned that Dad had a major alcohol problem and was rarely in gainful employment. As a result the parents had split up. Mum did hard manual work as a cleaner and was herself as hard as nails and really tough on the boys, although she was always fair. There were several other older siblings who had moved out.  Tim had a limited intellectual capacity and lots of other problems and as a result was picked on and bullied a lot, which was why he and Bruce in particular were very protective of him.

Charlie made it clear that Bruce was the real Scouting enthusiast and as far as he was concerned, the family star.  He said that if Bruce set his heart on achieving something, he usually did.  But, he expressed concern that staying in Scouts might be too hard even for Bruce, basically because of the participation costs, even though I did my best to keep them to a minimum for everyone.

Unfortunately, Tim didn't stay with Scouts and I know that Bruce was very disappointed about that. In fact, in the early stages Bruce himself struggled, just as Charlie had predicted and on a few occasions I actually advanced him the cost so that he could participate. But, he insisted with a fierce determination that he would pay me back and without fail he always did.

Then he asked me about odd jobs he might be able to do to earn some money and of course I helped him out. But, there was no question of a token effort, he wouldn't take the money until he was totally satisfied with his own work.  He kept working for me and I gathered from Charlie, for lots of other people too, for some years.  Not only did he make enough to cover all his ongoing Scout activity costs, but he was also eventually able to buy his own good quality sleeping bag and other personal camping equipment, which allowed him to be rid of the old second hand rubbish with which he had made do, until then.

Meanwhile, his shirt was covered in Achievement Badges. ( all sewn on by him personally )  He became a Patrol Leader and was eventually one of my very best.

The enthusiasm and determination Bruce had was an inspiration and he went on to become a very impressive young man.  But I will always remember the bear hug I got from a supposedly "hard as nails" yet tearful Mother, one night when her boy Bruce got virtually all the major Scout Achievement Awards for our Troop for that year. 

Despite what he achieved as a Scout and I was told, being able to do very well at school, Bruce continued to find the time to always be there for his younger Brother Tim.            

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder... or    A.D.H.D.

Today its' got a name. Back then trying to deal with Nick was just a nightmare.

The youngest of three boys from the one family, to say Nick and his brothers were bright would be an understatement. Now days Stephen is a highly respected architect and Cameron who like his local GP Doctor Mother, went into medicine, is a paediatric specialist.  Nick himself, like his nuclear physicist or similar Father, became some kind of a mad scientist.

Stephen was a bit eccentric but basically both he and Cameron were good scouts and quite reasonable Patrol Leaders. Nick was a very likeable kid who was a constant major behaviour problem.

The Parents were very strong supporters of our Group who as members of the Parent Committee did a lot of voluntary work for us and were very upset and disappointed when Nick was suspended from Cubs and then told that it would be best if he did not return to Cubs at all.

As soon as Nick was 11 about a year later, his Mother wanted me to permit him to come into the Scout Troop and I felt I had to agree.  So, I took him in on a trial basis and boy what a trial he was.  He was not really bad with any serious mal-intent, just totally disruptive, whenever he became bored, which was during any activity that didn't immediately challenge him personally.

       

There were lots of times when Nick was in big trouble, particularly during his early time as a Scout. Ceremonies for example were very fraught, as they are of course necessary and important, but passive and boring, if one is not directly involved personally.  So Nick would find himself a diversion, which usually involved a boy or boys near him, such as pulling their hair or something that often resulted in retaliation and culminated in an all-out fight.  Too bad about the ceremony in progress or the poor kid to whom it was important.

The final crunch came about 18 months later during a camp when I had the biggest confrontation with Nick I ever had with any kid, before or since.  I was really upset about it at the time, because I more or less lost my cool totally and was sure I had handled it badly and had probably lost Nick altogether.

It started simply enough with Nick taking exception to being asked by his PL to do a menial job. ( help with the Patrols washing up after lunch ) The confrontation between Nick and the PL became a screaming match and I was called.  By then Nick had run off and climbed way up into a tree. He refused to come down and in the end the screaming match continued, but now it was between Nick and me and Nick gave as good as he got.  In the end I left him up in the tree and it was several hours before he finally came down.

Unlike our Cub Leader, I chose not to suspend Nick, thank heavens because that confrontation proved to be some kind of a turning point. To this day I know not what I did right but whatever it was, whilst to some degree Nick would always be something of an odd-ball, I had no further major trouble with him and over time, his enthusiasm increased to such an extent that he eventually became the best Patrol Leader of the 3 brothers.

Even more amazingly, it was Nick of the 3 who stayed with Scouting right through Venturers and actually took my place as Scout Leader when I eventually gave it away.  By then he was a very impressive, even if still slightly odd-ball twenty something year old and he became a very, very good Scout Leader.

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In this Part A, I have but scratched the surface, often with little more than brief passing mentions and there were many boys and many happenings I have obviously not covered at all.  The same will apply to Part B of this Story.