Well the exam came and I had gotten confused as to which box was which. A few weeks later as my son’s birth approached, I started a hurried effort to finish cleaning up, and get his room painted. I threw a bunch of boxes into the trash bin and rolled it out for collection. The next morning AFTER the trash truck had made its collection, I realized I may have thrown out the wrong box. My heart sank, I franticly searched the house room by room even in the attic in the heat of the day. I could not find the contents of the box. A box that held some of the dearest mementos I ever owned. They were gone.
For years now I would have to tell some of my scouting friends the sad tale of my lost scouting memorabilia. My ordeal arrow that I wore during the weekend I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow. My Webelos ribbon with all 15 of the then possible achievements on it that I had earned in just one year. Even a number of neckerchiefs including a 1976 jamboree neckerchief. It even had a neckerchief slide that my dad had carved and I had painted not long after he had died. All of it lost. I was heart sick over this for a long time.
Then today, I opened this foot locker and as I opened it, the metallic box with pictures of New York City on it, that my grandmother had given me to use for storing my scouting stuff, stared back at me. I’m not sure exactly what I said but my family kept asking what was up? Shaking I carefully pulled the box out and took it into the living room, I opened it and there were all the things I thought I had lost. But even things I had forgotten about. The most important thing I had lost but now found was the letter I received from Irving Texas. A letter that was more powerful than getting an acceptance letter from any college, it was the letter I received proclaiming that I was an Eagle Scout.
Copyright 2010 William T. Richards
