3 AM, a Boy, a Snake and Counseling

For those of us who have had the honor and privilege to serve on a Twin Arrows staff, you understand that given enough time you will experience some of the most amusing things. Pardon a few inside jokes, but I can only think of ‘cobbler’ as a perfect example. Well I honestly thought I had experienced just about anything and everything one could until I was Scoutmaster. This story is entitled “3 AM, a Boy, a Snake and Counseling”.

After two hefty days of course prep, I was already running low on sleep. Tonight was the first night with participants in camp. My tent mate and I went to bed sometime around one AM. I laid there looking up into the night sky that is wonderfully dark inside a canvas wall tent and thought ‘man that is in focus’. Yep, I forgot to take my contacts out. Couple that with the fact that I left my contact case inside the lodge, and I decided just to sleep with them in and deal with them in the morning. It was also a nice muggy night, so I asked my tent mate if he cared if I slept with my tent flap tied back. He agreed so we were all set.

Those of you who know me know that I am an astronomically light sleeper. Simple noises wake me throughout the night. So I laid there and suddenly wake up. The first thing that goes through my mind is what time is it? So I look up at my watch, hit the light and see 2:58 am. The next thought is truly odd. I think, what is that noise? It sounds like someone talking.

You know that split second when someone is trying to wake you up, and you think that you are coherent, but you aren’t? I was there. There was a whinny, youthful voice talking to me asking me if he could sleep in his tent. Sleep in his tent? Where was he sleeping, now? Then he is talking about snakes. SNAKES? That woke me up.

I then realized something. A youthful voice was talking to me and I was sleeping on top of my sleeping bag in my underwear. Those of you not current in your Boy Scouts of America policies will not know, but there is a huge push and major effort underway to comply with the very strict principles of the ‘Youth Protection’ policies. I quickly realize that a conversation with a youth at 3 AM in my BVDs is not Youth Protection compliant. I asked the young man his name and patrol. I will withhold that information for his protection, but I swear he told me his name was Jonathan Ramsey. I asked Mr. Ramsey to kindly step to the side of my tent and I would be with him shortly.

My tent mate did offer to assist me, but being 3 am, I let him sleep. This is what the Scoutmaster is paid for right?

I got dressed and started walking the young man back to his patrol site. In doing so I was told the following story in the most amazing whinny voice: “I have been awake since midnight. Each time the wind blows I hear something in the leaves. I think it is a snake so I get up with my flash light and look for it. Can I set up my personal dome tent and sleep in there tonight. I am scared. When I was at Sid Richardson for summer camp I woke up at a snake was three feet from my tent.”

It is 3am and this boy is scared of a snake crawling inside his tent, up a pallet, up a cot that is three feet off the ground to get him. Are you kidding me? He wants to set up a dome tent that is on the ground to protect him from the snake that is on the ground. I was very confused.

I now understand why some fathers go nuts. There is no rationalizing with a thirteen year old who is scared at 3 AM. So I did what any other Scoutmaster would do, I helped him set up his tent.

The next morning I went to check on the young man. He was in as good as mood as you can expect, until I informed him that he was not allowed to sleep in his tent tonight. With all the amazing transformations of Hudini, he suddenly became homesick, scared and wanted to go home. An hour and a half later of counseling about dormant snakes, irrational fears and a change of tent mates, he was convinced to stick it out.

Those of you who are not familiar with the new syllabus for Twin Arrows will be confused, but the new course has a overnight outpost hike. For that matter, the old course had one but we didn’t do it. As a part of the prep for the overnight the Scoutmaster gives a speech about emergency procedures. Do you know this young man, four nights after this event, asks me what to do if he gets bitten by a snake? It was all I could do to keep from cracking up.

There are several event of special blessing that I see in this. First, I never wear my contacts to bed, and had I not had forgot to take them out I would have been stumbling around since I left my glasses at home. Second, I rarely sleep with tent flaps open. He picked the first tent with flaps open and it just happened to be my tent. Lastly, I learned valuable lessons in counseling youth at irrational times.

And who says Boy Scouts isn’t good for instilling character?