my scouting days

i should have been a cub but i wasn't. i was inducted into scouting in my primary six year at newton boys' school. i think my form-teacher did not quite approve of my joining the scouts in my crucial psle year. it was a short stint but it was long enough for me to develop a love for singing. nostalgia fills me when i hear songs like 'home on the range', 'tipperary', 'happy wanderer', 'spring time in the rockies', 'red river valley', 'waltzing matilda', 'clementine' and many more.

although, most of the songs were related to places far away and which we had not seen, they somehow seemed meaningful. as i sang, i could see in my mind's eye the places and scenes mentioned in the songs.

my scout-master - i cannot remember his name - used to play the accordion as accompaniment to our singing. ours was a small troop and he was the only teacher in charge. i can vaguely remember attending a campfire where we sang lustily all the songs we were taught.

we also learnt the scout yells, and yelled we did although most of the time we could not make sense of what we were yelling about. some of the yells were humorous, like the onion yell and the char kway teow yell.

i also have fond memories of my one and only scouts' job week. it was supposed to be a one-week programme but i was involved on two days only. i had not been clear about the instructions and so did not turn up on the first few days.

a few of us went to perform some simple tasks at the home of a kind european lady and we were each 'paid' two dollars. we also did some cleaning of book shelves and some gardening at other places.