Boys swiping food

[roguedawg]

I just got off the phone with my brother and he reminded me of an incident that occurred in our old troop. So here it is. In my troop we used to have an adult leaders patrol and three scout patrols. They would all camp close but separate from each other. We started to notice that some of the food would come up missing in our adult patrol campsite on one of our camp outs. We heard through one of the patrol leaders that the kids were to lazy to cook their own food and were swiping ours instead. (as well as fire wood, water, and washing dished in our wash tins) So we tried to think up a good way to keep the little thieves from raiding us.

 

So the next camp out we made our menu. We decided to swap labels on all of our canned food and label paper bags with the contents. So our "deviled ham" became "fancy feast". Our "chilli" became "Alpo". A bag of chips was placed inside an empty bag of dry cat food. Beef jerky was placed inside a bag of "Beggen Strips" Our grocery bag of snacks was labeled "Freeze dried liver". Dry cereal was put into a dog biscuit box. I think you get the idea. So after we ate some of our meals we would leave the containers out in the open so raiders would see what they were eating.

 

Some of the boys came up and were having a fine dine, until they noticed what they thought they were eating. We found uneaten sandwiches left in the fire. One of the dads stayed behind in a tent to see who was swiping food. He said he almost wet himself holding back his laughter. He said he had to scream in his pillow.

 

Later in the evening we had our usual campfire sing along and snacks. The boys came up to the campfire since they knew we had broken out the snacks. We opened the freeze dried liver bag and started taking out the contents. We brought out the beef jerky and chips and started passing it around. For some odd reason, they didn't want to partake of any goodies that night. They decided to return to their own campsites and do some of their own cooking.

 

So we never had this problem again.

 

I hope you liked the story. RD

[evmori]

Now that was a great way to solve the problem! And funny! Thanks for sharing!

[Stosh]

Age and treachery will win out over youth and exhuberance any day!!!

 

Stosh

[SSScout]

Most excellent.

Goes to show how important marketing and labeling is. The food is tasty because we say it is! Ha!

[IM_Kathy]

I love it!!! I'll remember it if we ever come to a time when we need this. so far the troop rules have done well... any food not eaten by a patrol may be shared to other patrols as long as they've eaten already with their own patrol. The nice thing with this is gets the younger boys a chance to try something new and ask questions about how it was made. My sons favorite meal he learned from the adults patrol meal - he even asks to make it at home and refused to us a real oven, has to use the dutch oven.

[packsaddle]

I often let the parents know that I realize their sons have about the same moral compass as raccoons when it comes to food. Good story.

I'm a little concerned about missing an opportunity to teach them a lesson about deception. But it sounds like fun otherwise. I often swap the labels on small cans of salmon pate with labels from Fancy Feast. It really grosses them out. Some just stare in stunned disbelief. Others pretend to throw up. The older boys let the young ones wretch for a while and later let them in on the joke. We all get a good laugh. The pate isn't bad either. And (knock on wood) so far I haven't made a tragic error.

[roguedawg]

IM_Kathy,

 

In rangers, we would call your son an "IRON MAN" since the cooking equipment of choice is the dutch oven, "CI" AKA cast iron. We had a scout named Steve that was an "IRON MAN". When he was SPL, he planned a hike. He carried that dutch oven 10 miles! We tried to get him to do foil cooking, but he would not. We even offered to drive the D.O. to the campsite, but he said he just told the scouts that you had to carry everything on your own back.

 

We had an unwritten rule in my troop concerning left overs. If members of another patrol were still hungry, the could eat the left overs from another patrol. The kicker was that they had to clean the container it was cooked in. My patrol started it because the other two patrols consistantly had crappy meals, not Happy Meals, but crappy meals. It actually was started as a joke since we had burned a meal. My brother was about to clean the dutch oven and they came in the nick of time. He offered the burnt offering as a joke and they jumped on it. So we figured why should we clean-up. So the tradition was started. I remember them scrapping off the charred food and eating it. Yuk. I guess if you are hungry enough, you will eat anything.

 

Another rule to put an end to poor cooks. If a person burned a meal really bad, then they had to clean the burned cooking equipment. We had one scout that did not like the other patrol members and would intentionally burn the meals he was assigned to cook so he would not be asked to cook again. After cleaning up a few ruined meals, he changed is attitude.

 

Even if the boys ruined all their meals or ate everything in sight, they knew that if they came to the leader's campsite, they could get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We always had that as a back-up. But sometimes these boys would have awesome meals and still be hungry and there would go the jars and bread. RD

[IM_Kathy]

roguedawg:

 

I can see my son doing the same with the dutch oven and hiking it in. My son and 3 other boys started with one troop that never used camp stoves so got so use to using the dutch ovens. the troop they switched to used camp stoves most of the time - our boys came in handy on 1 trip when they forgot to pack the pipe you hook onto the propane tank.. they quickly adjusted all the meals they were planning so they could all be cooked over fire. was a nice lesson for a couple of younger boys who were along and had only used the stoves.

 

my son loves to volunteer to be the cook because he knows he knows how to cook - he worries whenever a "new cook" takes the job. but I have to say I don't think I've ever seen any of our patrols destroy a meal. I have sat there and thought oh my god I wonder how that's going to taste - but they all seem to turn out.