So Long, Son!

     Today, I sent my (8 year old) son to Cub Scout Camp. It took approximately an hour and a half to pack for it. I noticed the weather indicated rain and thunderstorms for the next several days, and sent in 2 disposable ponchos and an umbrella. He was pretty sure that, equipped with a flashlight and pocket knife, he is able to take on just about everything.

     After several threats directed toward his little brother, some of them pretty graphic and dire, for any touching of his stuff, and informing the rest of us that he will probably miss the dog the most; he was ready to go.

     We arrived at the required pick up spot a little early, and were followed by another scout and his Dad, and then the Scout Master for our pack. We were waiting for Joe's Scout Leader, and fell into conversation with the other parent and the Scout Master. It ran along these lines:

"Well, I really hope it goes better than it did last year. There was the tornado that blew right through the Scout Camp...." Mentions the Scout Master casualy.

"Oh yeah! Didn't the Scouts weather right through it, too? It was all over the news!" Says the other parent, all impressed.
     "Yeah, they stayed through it! It was the week before the Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts were there for it."

     "Wow!" Grins this insane other parent.

     "Yeah. But, with the power outage, some of the food was spoiled. It's all donated to the Scouts, and we hated to waste it. Maybe some of it should have been wasted though. Some of the kids got a touch of food poisoning. Had the 'back door trots', if ya know what I mean." The Scout Master went on. "They were okay though. It was the bear I was worried about the most."

     "You had a bear?!" Exclaims the other parent, all excited.

     "Oh yeah! Some people forgot to mention to keep food away from the camp site, and no one emptied the garbage. It was a 350 pound bear, couple feet from our tent. I chased it away though, so it was all good."

     "That big?! That's a good sized bear!" Gushes crazy Dad.

     "Yep. Gonna have to watch for the bear this year. My poor kid last year though, not only did he get food poisoning, he also ended up with spiders in his sleeping bag."

     "Spiders! Well, that's part of camping, right?" Comments overly okay with this other parent.

     "Yep. My poor kid's legs were bit up so bad they were red and swollen out to HERE!" Scout Master demonstrates with his hands an alarming span screaming hospital stay and I.V. Treatments to me.

     "Oh, wow." Nods other parent, all impressed.

     "Oh, hey!" Another Scout Leader turns to me, " there is no cell phone service where we are. If Joe gets upset or homesick or anything, we will try to distract him, or something."

All I could think was, every fear my kid has: rotten food, spiders, tornados, and bears, could be confronted in the next four days. Sort of like a pediatric version of a cross between Jason movies and Freddy movies. Good times and memories, and all that. What can ya do? I kissed him goodbye, told him to have fun, and let him go. Hopefully I get my kid back in roughly the same shape I sent him in. It would be in George's best interest though, for enough trauma to happen that Joe does not notice George was into Joe's stuff approximately 30 seconds after Joe was gone....