Northern Dancer
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Do you have one?
Here is one of my bad stories.
At the time I was a Scout Leader and with a colleague, had taken the senior boys out for an advanced program in camping skills. The day was beautifully bright but exceptionally windy. The tenting area was at the old Lions Club camp and was considerably hilly. When asked where to set up our tents I decided not going to top of the hill but a plateau that would provide some shelter from the wind. I prohibited an open fire and advised we use the Coleman Gas stove [can't believe they still sell them]. We put up a shelter to protect us from what seemed to be an increasing wind strength. Things seemed to be in ship-shape when another leader with his ragtag group was passing us. He stopped, and said to his group, "Now ya see ya shouldn't be camping where these guys are because if it rains they could be washed out." "Good day to you too Buddy", I whispered under my breath.
We were chowing down when all of a sudden we heard these gwad awful screams. My partner asked one of the lads to go check out the scene and report back. He was back in a flash puffing and panting, "The whole place is on fire he screams!" At that instant, we were up and out and got to the site. Everything was ablaze and there didn't seem to be any direction and no one in command. "Pull that tent down", I ordered. "Kill the grass fires", I shouted. When the commotion was finally over I approached the Leader of the Group, and asked, "What...did the hell happen here?" Simply reported - the three tents where close together in scout fashion, and apparently the fire was too. With a gust of wind, flames hit the first tent and in no time two of them were ablaze. We managed to get the third tent down before the flames spread.
They lost most of their equipment including their uniforms all neat and tidy in the tents. The Leader? Well, I listened to his conversation with the firefighters who were now on the scene. Needless to say that my opinion and impression of this guy hadn't improved since our first encounter.
To make matter worse, my group, when it was dark and the winds had gone, raided the scene and dug up what they had buried to see what they might be able to salvage.
Do I have other stories? Of course.
Here is one of my bad stories.
At the time I was a Scout Leader and with a colleague, had taken the senior boys out for an advanced program in camping skills. The day was beautifully bright but exceptionally windy. The tenting area was at the old Lions Club camp and was considerably hilly. When asked where to set up our tents I decided not going to top of the hill but a plateau that would provide some shelter from the wind. I prohibited an open fire and advised we use the Coleman Gas stove [can't believe they still sell them]. We put up a shelter to protect us from what seemed to be an increasing wind strength. Things seemed to be in ship-shape when another leader with his ragtag group was passing us. He stopped, and said to his group, "Now ya see ya shouldn't be camping where these guys are because if it rains they could be washed out." "Good day to you too Buddy", I whispered under my breath.
We were chowing down when all of a sudden we heard these gwad awful screams. My partner asked one of the lads to go check out the scene and report back. He was back in a flash puffing and panting, "The whole place is on fire he screams!" At that instant, we were up and out and got to the site. Everything was ablaze and there didn't seem to be any direction and no one in command. "Pull that tent down", I ordered. "Kill the grass fires", I shouted. When the commotion was finally over I approached the Leader of the Group, and asked, "What...did the hell happen here?" Simply reported - the three tents where close together in scout fashion, and apparently the fire was too. With a gust of wind, flames hit the first tent and in no time two of them were ablaze. We managed to get the third tent down before the flames spread.
They lost most of their equipment including their uniforms all neat and tidy in the tents. The Leader? Well, I listened to his conversation with the firefighters who were now on the scene. Needless to say that my opinion and impression of this guy hadn't improved since our first encounter.
To make matter worse, my group, when it was dark and the winds had gone, raided the scene and dug up what they had buried to see what they might be able to salvage.
Do I have other stories? Of course.