What makes this story so strange is I think my patrol just happened to catch our Scoutmaster, Mr. Brasher, at a bad moment. I'm sure something had to have happened to him earlier in the day to put him in a foul mood. What's funny, is that, I wasn't even the one who was:
A: Being a pain.
B. Running my mouth.
C. Trying to get his attention.
D. Or even talking in general.
The conversation started with two of my Patrol members, Mark and Brian. They were top notch quality human beings. Eventually, they both ended up earning their Eagle Scout rank. This was back before they changed the rules and made it much easier to do so.
We were talking about our upcoming campout, and what we should cook. We had gotten into a bit of a rut. You know, sandwiches and hot dogs. Brian brought up the question of if we could actually make a pizza outdoors? The flour didn't need refrigerated. We could carry a stick of pepperoni as well as vegetables.
The only question Brian had was how to keep cheese from spoiling. Mark brought up that we could carry a can a parmesan cheese since that didn't need to be refrigerated. Brian immediately thought, "Oh yeah! That's a great idea!" He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it.
It was at that time that Mr. Brasher came out of nowhere, and laid down the law. "We're not cooking pizza out camping!" I have to admit I was completely caught off guard. I said, "But we have the grill that we use for hot dogs. Couldn't we just set the pizza pan on top of it?"
Again came the stern and final decision. "We're not cooking pizza on a campout!"
I have no idea what set Mr. Brasher off. I mean, our patrol was just spit-balling ideas when he came in with the drill sergeant routine. What made him so angry about pizza. Had he never heard of wood-fired pizza?
Was he afraid our pizza would turn out ugly?
I want to reiterate that I've been in troops with Boy Scouts who didn't act like Boy Scouts. But Mark and Brian were some of the best troop members I've ever come across. They really were model Eagle Scouts.
I think back to the words of wisdom from my Father. "I don't know why you stayed (in the Boy Scouts) as long as you did?" Maybe I was gathering material for all this writing gold? No, that's not it. But if art is suffering, then I suffered during quite a few backpacking death marches. So now I don't feel one bit terrible about writing my "Idiot Scoutmaster" series.
For more great reading of my Idiot Scoutmaster series, follow these wonderful links:
Idiot Scoutmasters: I'm The Idiot Scoutmaster!
Idiot Scoutmasters: The Idiot Committee
Idiot Scoutmasters: The Dishwashing Paradox
Idiot Scoutmasters: Once Bitten, Forever Stupid
Idiot Scoutmasters: A True Story of a Scout's Canteen
Bored Scoutmasters and the Tale of the Wampus
Adrian reminisces about his childhood days with the Boy Scouts
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