Lights out (after the main feature)
It's time to hit the sack, er bag for lights out!
But first a quick story...
To every beaver, cub, scout or explorer, the chance to be in a tent is what makes scouting unique and so much fun!
To be in a tent, is to be amongst nature, secure and safe from those ‘wild mini beasts’, the mice, rabbits, voles, foxes, birds and moles. that inhabit the countryside, that's what being in a tent means!
To be in a tent snuggled warm in your sleeping bag, as you listen to the wind howling and the rain battering down on the canvas above you, unaffected warm and dry, that's what being in a tent means!
To be in a tent together with a spider, ant, caterpillar or beetle and staying calm is what being in a tent means!
To be in a tent with your friends and a smelly pair of socks and trainers and damp clothes is what being in a tent means!
To be snug and secure in your sleeping bag listening to the rain battering down on the tent and realising that the sound of the pitter, patter of the rain is the sound of water and that thought brings on other thoughts and you need the loo is what being in a tent means!
And with that in mind you convince yourself that you’ll go to sleep before the need becomes to pressing… and still the rain batters down on the canvas and the drips from the trees splash on the tent… and sleep won't come and the need doesn't go away. That's what being in a tent means!
And as you try to get out of your snug and warm sleeping bag and get dressed to go out in the rain you wake everybody else in the tent up in the process. That's what being in a tent means!
You unzip the tent, step outside and zip it back-up and trudge through the damp grass, the rain and the puddles. That's what being in a tent means!
And then you return, so much happier and more comfortable, as you enter the tent and get ready for bed and back into your sleeping bag you listen to the wind howling and the torrential rain pitter, pattering down on the canvas and the others who you woke-up in the process of coming back into the tent realise that they now have to do what you just did as they now also need to go to the toilet. That’s what living in a tent means!
But of course, bad memories soon fade and the attraction of
living in a tent never really does and you do it again and again and again and that's what being a scout means!
Tomorrow will be another fun packed day
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