TOPIC: Whatever Lady

Robin was checking in to see about the whirly pop. 

Any Boy Scout knows about how to whirly pop popcorn over a camp fire...  it's the best way to have popcorn.

I was only a boy scout for a year

Just enough time to learn about smoke changers, bacon stretchers and snipe hunts.  Did you?

Don't remember. I think I was 8. I did a ton of hiking, backpacking, etc for the 10 years I lived in the mountains though. Plus several 5 day trips into Yosemite.

Eight made you a Cub Scout.  You can't go on an overnight as a Boy Scout until you are 11.

Smoke changers, bacon stretchers and snipes don't exist.  They are tricks used on the new kids.  During breakfast everyone complains about how the smoke is in their eyes and they send the new kid(s) out to retrieve the "smoke changer" from a tree a mile away.  They don't ever find it.  By the time they get back their breakfast is waiting but very cold.

A bacon stretcher is similar.  During breakfast the older guys say that they don't think there will be enough bacon and send the kid(s) to retrieve a "bacon stretcher" from a tree a mile away.  They don't ever find it.  By the time they get back their breakfast is waiting but very cold.

Snipes are a real bird, and the younger kid(s) are awakened in the middle of the night to catch snipes.  They are given branches with leaves and taught how to sweep them in circles along the ground to scare snipes from the grass.  They are sent far away and told to wait one half hour to the snipes don't know they are there.  Then they are told to run in a long zig zag pattern from a particular point far away and proceed in various directions to scare the snipes into the campsite so they can be caught and cooked on the fire every one else will build while they are gone.  They go out and begin their hunt, and the rest of the kids go back to bed.  They never find snipes, but can be heard running and swishing their branches and running around.

You sound like a perfect candidate for such jokes.  Let me know when you are ready to go camping...

Initiations can get even more fun.  I still remember mine.

Well that explains why I never learned of the Whirlypop since I never went on an overnight! Sure, I'm going to go looking for a mile for a bacon stretcher. To look for more bacon, sure, but not for a stretcher