## The Pioneering Experience

Post by jennifer » Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:09 pm

Hi all,
It has been a very long time since I posted anything on this board. I am doing well, but with two kids and a husband I don't have nearly as much time to write any more. However, since the board is having a short story contest, I thought I could at least come up with enough time to throw a 1000 words together. Well, the story itself is 967 according to mircosoft word.
This story happened on one afternoon during a week when I went to a boy scout summer camp with my father and two brothers when I was 11 years old. My mother was out of town with Amy and I didn't want to spend 4 days with my aunt. So, I begged my way into going to scout camp with my father and brothers. He was an assistant scout master in the troop. Anyways, here is the story.
(Story Starts here)
Pioneering is the art of building things out of poles and ropes. There were 4 scouts in the troop that had taken the badge that summer. Well, part of passing the badge was they had to engineer a project. Well, the four scouts came up with this carrying platform. It was basically two twelve foot poles with a 18 poles each about 3 feet in length lashed across the middle of the two spars similar to a raft to form a platform that the four of them could each take a corner of and carry something around with. It had taken them about 2 hours to make and they had loaded it up with gear and taken it down to the counselor only to have it rejected. The counselor wanted something with a higher degree of functionality to it.
It was a warm summer day, I was dressed in an overall denim jumper, a short sleeve t-shirt and t-strap style leather sandals. I had been watching them work hard on the project all afternoon only to see it not get approved and them to finish their merit badge. I decided to go over and offer some advice.
"Why don't you guys put a cage on top of it? That way you could transport a prisoner around?" I suggested looking at them.
They threw the idea around back and forth between themselves for a few minutes and actually thought it was a pretty good one. The four boys set to work building the cage out of poles and ropes. They made a box on top of the frame that was 3 feet wide, 3 feet high and 4 foot long. Pretty small, but they wanted to keep the weight down on it. They ran some smaller diameter sticks across the openings and lashed them in place. They ran a smaller stick every 8 to 10 inches or so. Then they lashed short poles across the longer poles to make bars that looked like a letter T with square openings. The squares were about 8 to 10 inches across at each point. Large enough a prisoner could stick a hand out, but not slip through them. The final piece was a lashed door that hinged up and down on some rope hinges.
It took them another hour and a half to finish the cage and about a mile of rope. But, it was pretty sturdy and after some testing the boys quickly learned that it would take the weight of one of them sitting on the roof of it.
"Pretty good, this will get us the requirement for sure." Brandon commented. "But we still need a prisoner for inside the cage, and it cannot be one of us because we need to carry it." The four boys looked at me.
Thirty second later, the two older ones of the group came at me and grabbed ahold of me. They were 15 and 17 years old and I didn't offer much resistance. They decided to tie me up so I couldn't escape or try to slip out through one of the openings in the cage. The eldest boy held me down while the other three tied me up with some clothesline they had left over from building the cage. They crossed my wrists behind my back and square lashed them together. My upper arms were wrapped and cinched off with ropes as well. After tying my hands they let me sit up. However, they tied my legs at the ankles as well as above and below the knees.
After I was tied up, they put me inside the cage and lashed the bottom of the door shut with another piece of rope. The four scouts each took a corner of the contraption and lifted me and it up off the ground and began the long march across camp. It was over a mile to where the merit badge counselor had his station set up and between me and the project the boys were probably carrying 250 pounds. It was a bit of an uneven ride as the two boys in the front held the cage a little higher than the ones in the back and they marched over some uneven terrain. I struggled against the bonds a little bit at the start, but I couldn't free myself. The boys had spent the previous 4 days learning how to tie logs together to take a great amount of resistance. The struggles of an 11 year old girl didn't make much headway.
I consigned myself to my fate and just relaxed and enjoyed the ride as best I could. We got some pretty interesting looks from others passing by as we made the trip. It took about half an hour to reach the station. The merit badge counselor was rather impressed with the project and gave the boys their requirement for it. He also thanked me for being a good sport. We spent about 20 minutes in the area where the badges were taught and I was tied up the whole time. We got some very interesting comments. One of the scouts from another troop wanted to poke a stick through the bars at me, but the eldest in our group protected me. After the requirement was signed off on, they boys left me tied up in the little box cage and carried me the mile back to our campsite.
They offered to let me out and untie me, but I made them carry me all the way back. Once we got back to camp, they set the cage down and left me tied up in it for about another 45 minutes before Brandon finally came over and let me out. It was a fun way to spend a Summer afternoon.
Jennifer
(story ends here)
Well, that concludes my contest entry. Normally, I would make this about 3 times as long and go into better detail and background. However, rules are rules and I had to keep it under 1000 words. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you want to leave me some feed back feel free to send me a private message since comments are blocked until the contest is over.

### Re: The Pioneering Experience

Post by xtc » Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:28 pm

Thanks for entering this. Isn't it difficult to get to the point and keep to it?
It was simply great to read another post from you.
Boxer shorts are cool,
but little speedos rule!
More by the same author: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22729