Rory Cripps With .50 Cal Machine Gun 1963

Hugh: I was laughing out of embarrassment and frustration  because I couldn't cock the SOB and a bunch of kids were standing around laughing! If you notice, the sergeant was laughing too! JEEZ! It was humiliating enough without you throwing in your corn flake two cents almost 50 years later!

We never got to do cool stuff like that in Cub Scouts. Had a drunken sot for a den leader, Mrs. Falkenroth. She would be totally tanked sometimes at our weekly meetings...at 4:00 in the afternoon. Showed up once at a Pack meeting (where all the dens would be together), staggering, falling down. We all got disbursed to other dens after that.

Man, must have some hard core leaders to get guns!  We had physical training and knot tying. This was in Queens? Makes us bumpkins look like a girl scout troop.

While i managed a short go in Boy Scouts, i shamed my older brother, who was the big cheese scout in the troop, by getting kicked out after about 3-4 months. He loved the regimented life - spent 20 in the Marines, did well. As a civilian, he doesn't do so well.

Hugh: Had great times and wonderful experiences in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. In fact that's were I first started smoking cigarettes and cigars and drinking beer and wine. I loved going to the rifle range every Wednesday evening and smoking Kools during the walk back home.