Chapter Two- Curtis Brown, my best friend
Curtis lives next door to me on Pine Street, I’ve known him my whole life. We are twins from different mothers. We learned to walk together, he talked first and would not stop. Curtis’s mom is a teacher at the middle school, my Mom stayed at home with my sister Erin and me, so Curtis stayed with us when his Mom was working. Our Dads work together at A.B.B. in New Stanton.
Erin started school 2 years before us, so Curtis and I did everything together. Curtis became my voice, he was the leader and I was happy to follow. If Mom asked us, ” What do you want for lunch?” Curtis always answered for us, ” Bologna and cheese, with chips and an apple.” I just nodded my head.
We got along great,we enjoyed the same games, same T.V. shows and Mom read stories to us we both liked! When we started school, kindergarten, we were in the same class, but the mean teacher made me answer questions, wouldn’t let Curtis speak for me. I survived, the teacher couldn’t separate us, we were bound together, a package deal!
A couple of years ago, our Dads taught us to play baseball on a field we created on a vacant lot behind our houses. The other boys in the neighborhood joined us. We put in bases and a pitchers mound. Our Dads helped us cut the grass and even put benches on each side for two teams. We play Baseball after school and on Saturdays. But when summer comes we play during the day! Joe likes to pitch, and guess what? I’m the catcher! We play on the baseball team for our Borough, our Dads are the coaches and we love baseball, playing on a team!
My Dad takes us fishing at the county park. So far we have learned to bait the hook, cast and to throw the little blue gills we catch back. I like fishing better than Curtis, he doesn’t like to sit so long, waiting for the fish to bite.
One thing our families don’t do is camping, our Dads aren’t into it. So when we heard about Scouts from the email and when Pat Klocek, Erin’s boyfriend told us about his troop in Mt. Pleasant that his brothers and he belonged to, we were interested. Pat said they go camping every month and go to Yough lake to fish and water ski. That sounded great to us and our town has a great troop too, that meets at our church up the street.
Chapter Three- We’ re in a wagon, but where are we?
Curtis looks out of the wagon and shouts ” Where are we?” ” All I see is a big field with a flag pole in the middle,” I reply. We both jump out of the wagon and start walking towards the flag pole. I look to my left and I see a building with lap siding with a big porch on the front. Bounding down the steps and then running towards us came a Scout in a Class B uniform.
Mr. Ivory had given the troop a presentation on the Scout uniform both Class A and B. Class A was a full scout uniform, shirt, pants or shorts, belt, socks and troop neckerchief. Class B was with a Scout Tshirt, pants or shorts,socks and belt. Our SPL Tom Jones made it clear that no jeans were to be worn with our uniform in our troop!
As the Scout approached us, I could see he has a sun visor on, with a whistle around his neck and I can smell sun screen. It’s Scuba Steve!
“Welcome, Scouts, it’s a beautiful day at Camp Conestoga!” ” I’m Steve McCune and I can tell by your puzzled looks that you just put your wooden nickels in your left pockets and ended up in our wagon!” he said with a big grin. We both just shook our heads. Curtis was the first to speak, as you could imagine, ” Holy Crap!” ” How’d you do that?” , he said in disbelief. ” YEAH”, I said, “we thought that you were pranking us when you told us that story at the Troop meeting.”
” It’s the magic of Scouting, believe it or not!” said Steve smiling from ear to ear. ” Let’s not waste a minute, Mary is waiting to meet you two.”
We run over to a large building that has a sign that says Rohrbacher Lodge. On the right side of the building there’s a ramp that leads to a side door. Steve knocks on the door and says, ” Hey, Mar! We have 2 Scouts for you to check in!”
“Hi, Scouts, come on in, ” called a pleasant voice,” I’m Mary, the Health officer.” She’s in her class B uniform with a nametag clipped to her tshirt. “What are your names and what Troop are you from?”
” I’m Curtis Brown and this is Joe Snuffy and we’re from Troop 414″ recited Curtis. Mary turned her mouth into a super big smile and said,” I’ve been expecting you, Mr Ivory told me all about you two and sent me your medical forms.” “You both have no meds for me to worry about, so here are your buddy tags,” as she looked up from her clipboard.
How did Mr. Ivory know we would be here I thought? Curtis spoke up holding his buddy tag, ” what are these for?”. They were both colored red, white and blue with our names and troop number in the middle.
“You’re going to the lake with Steve, ” Mary explained, ” you’ll need them to check in there. ” ” They will explain more, ” said Steve. ” Hurry, guys your paddle boarding class starts in 5 minutes, follow me.”
We were out the door and down the hill behind the building running behind Steve as he took us to the lake. When we got there we were greeted by Pat, Erin’s boyfriend who was teaching the class. ” Give me your buddy tags, grab a PFD and meet me on the dock.” he said. ” Glad you made it, Squirt!” he said to me. I just turned red and ran to the dock. ” Nice sister I have,” I said to Curtis, “she told Pat her nick name for me when I was five.” ” Big deal, everyone on Pine Street knows that!” laughs Curtis.
It was a 50 minute class, Pat shows us how to mount the board and the strokes to use with the paddle. We both fell off a couple times but before the class was over we were all over the small lake. It’s a beautiful sunny day, 79 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Curtis and I are in heaven, 2100 feet above sea level in the Laurel Highlands to be exact. Who could ask for more, I think.
” See you next time,”said Pat, as he took our paddles and PFD’s as were leaving the class. Scuba Steve met us at the gate and said ” you two rookies better get back where you came from!” ” While you’re there at Camp Tenacharison get Uncle Ben to introduce you to Ed Lewis and Betsy Fulmer.” Steve said “the next time you put your wooden nickels in your left pocket yell, UNCLE BEN! “Now get going!”he whispers to us both.
“On a count of three”, I said to Curtis. He mouthed the numbers and we both put our wooden nickels in our right pockets.
Whoosh, a gust of wind sweeps us up, spins us around and we’re back in line at the flag ceremony. Tom Jones yells, ” Troop Dismissed.” Mr. Ivory walks by us and with a wink of his eye says,” Glad to have you back!”