Tommy was in cub scouts. I forget what they were called the first year before they become cubs but he was in that too. We both went to most of those meetings and the kid liked doing it so we put him in cub scouts but they needed den mothers so I volunteered. I took classes in a nearby school to become qualified.
I took the boys to the radio station to see how things went. Not many were interested so it ended up with only Tommy and this other boy going. He was good little boy and him and Tommy got along well. His mom and I were friendly too.
That's what the pre-cub scouts
was called. I'd forgotten that. I didn't have much to do with this group except
that a parent was supposed to come along so I was always there.
I had a huge note book of rules and regulations. I had training materials and
books. It was fine for awhile but it was getting to be a drag. When another mom
volunteered to be helper I jumped at it. Eventually, I turned the whole thing
over to her.
It was fun for both Tommy and me at first but there was this nasty kid who both
heckled him in school and in scouts. Some of us thought that maybe just maybe
Scouts would help Phil to become a better person. It didn't.
Somewhere along in here I
started the "Valentines for Vets" after reading about it in either Ann Landers
or Dear Abby. It's hard to sort those two out. At first, I was making all the
cards myself. I passed them on to a group that Old Tom was a member of and they
delivered them to the VA hospital in Erie.
Then I thought maybe my boys would like to do this. I got them to make some
cards but with only six boys and most didn't make one or two we decided to take
them to the old folks home and let them hand them out there. In the mean time, I
made about fifty or so more myself.
The kids signed their names to theirs if they wanted to sign them. I told them
if they didn't want to they could put a fake name. One of them did. I think that
was Phil.
I was driving them in a big car. We had two moms along and five of the six boys.
It wasn't long before Phil started trouble. It wasn't enough just picking on
Tommy. He pulled off Tommy's hat and threw it out the window. I was really
pissed.
I stopped the car and told the kid to behave or he was going home. I drove back
and picked up Tommy's hat but before I could get in the car the brat had punched
Tommy. I had had enough.
I wanted to turn around and go home but I knew the other kids wanted to do this
and maybe they could cheer up some old people as long as Phil didn't decide to
slug one of them.
One of the mom's maybe it was Phil's mom made him sit by her and Tommy came up
in the front with me. Somehow we got there and they handed out the cards despite
Phil's grumbling.
I think this was the turning point for me. I couldn't handle the bratty ones.
Tommy wasn't happy with it all either. I turned the whole group over to the
other lady and quit. Tommy said if I was going to quit, he was too and he did.
That didn't get him off Phil's radar. Now as far as I know Tommy and Phil had
never gotten into it before but now it seemed like all the time. Phil would
knock his books out of his hands in school.
Once I got a call from the school that Phil had punched Tommy in the lunch line.
I went in and Tommy had a big red swelling. I took him home.
I think that was when I switched him to another school, but the other school
Lakewood was even worse. He had a teacher whose daughter was in the same class.
They had rules of course and one of those rules was that no boy could wear a hat
in class. I could see that. What I couldn't see is that girls were allowed to
wear hats. It just seemed unfair.
Tommy was always in trouble with this teacher and I never knew exactly what she
didn't like about him. The last day he went there I went over to pick him up and
as we were leaving he flipped the school off. We were in trouble over that too.
I was either called or they sent me a notice that Tommy had seen that teacher
looking out the window and gave her the finger. At that point I would have given
her the finger myself.