Boy Scout Shota

In the summer of 1962 my brother and I set out  with a large contingent of fellow Boy Scouts for a Sixty-Mile hike in emulation of JFK's call for a physical resurgence of youthful health. We departed from Adams Pond Camp south of Ossipee, NH and tramped through burnt forests and passed fields filled with tall cornstalks. The only memorable campsite was atop Evans Mountain next to a supposedly haunted house surrounded by blueberry fields.

None of us was older than twelve and the next day the temperature rose into the 90s and the scout masters promised their weakening troops a swim at New England's most beautiful pond. We picked up our pace and ended up a muddy hole rimmed by thirsty cows. The scout leader shooed away the cattle and the oldest adult explained that tradition required a naked run around the pond.

The boys from South of the Charles River rejected this demand.

"Then you get no food tonight."

"Fuck you then," said a Eagle Scout from Southie.

The rebels outnumbered the obedient, but the leaders and their adherents stripped off their clothes to trot around the waterhole.

We went into the pond wearing our shorts.

That night we ate nothing.

The Scout Leaders and their followers sat around a bonfire and ate fried chicken washed down by 'bug juice' or Kool-Aid. None of the rebels joined them. We slept together with the older boys standing guard. 

The next morning we rose before the dawn and trekked to the nearest road.

A farmer in a big truck stopped for us and asked, "Are you boys on that 'hike'?"

"We were," said a boy from Dorchester.

"I thought as much. Jump in the back and I'll drive to Adams Pond." He looked over his shoulder, as if the Boy Scout Leaders might stop him from aiding thirty-plus boys. 

As we approached the camp, the oldest boy from Southie warned, "Don't say nothing. Those motherfuckers will get you or us. I wish we could stop them from hurting our fellow scouts, but no one will believe us. Be prepared."

1962 was almost sixty years ago.

Not yesterday, but I still see the young boys running naked around a dirty pond.

Fuck the Boy Scouts.

ps the last entry in the Boy Scout Handbook was about 'noctural emissions'.

The Silence Of The Neponset River

The Neponset River runs from the Foxborough marshes and the stream drops over two-hundred feet over the first twelve miles through the towns of Walpole, Sharon, Norwood, Canton, Westwood and Dedham before reaching Mattapan, which the First People called 'a good place to sit'.

Blue Hill Avenue crosses the river over a stone bridge before its descent to Boston harbor.

In the 1960s teenagers flocked to the Mattapan Oriental Theater.

Not for the movies.

The upper balcony was considered a Babylon by the nuns and priests of my hometown parish.

We didn't care what they thought.

Boys and girls believed in love, but not everyone.

After the matinee of DARLING three boys kidnapped two girls and took them under the bridge.

They had them stripped naked.

None of them were arrested by the Boston Police.

It was just boys being boys.

Years later I was speaking to a woman friend of mine at a holiday gathering.

We were at dinner.

She and I had dated in high school.

She confessed that she had been one of the girls taken under the bridge.

"A priest had told us to be quiet. He didn't want us to ruined the boys' lives. No one thought about my life."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I put down my wine.

She said a name. He had been my best friend, until he asked me to dress up in his sister's lingerie.

"I was afraid you might kill him and it was better you didn't do that."

"I'm sorry." My hand trembled to hurt him.

"I know." She touched me and said, "I never have forgotten that afternoon."

"I wish I had known."

"It was better that you didn't."

"You're right."

There was nothing else to say. We looked into each other's eyes. She lifted her wine glass. We silently toasted each other and I said, "I love you."

"And the same for me."

Because every river runs to the sea in New England.

And anyone who believes 'boys will be boys' should be planted in the wetlands of the Neponset.

Sorry, but that is the way some of us feel on the South Shore.

RIP bad boys.

You're a disgrace to the Green.

Judge Lest You Not Be Judged

In April of 2017 Alabama's Supreme Justice resigned from the bench after suspension by the state's other justice for improprieties while in office. Roy Moore accepted their ruling and declared himself a candidate for the US Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions who had become # 45's Attorney General. The GOP hierarchy supported Luther Strange for the Senate, however Roy Moore beat him in a runoff election.

A staunch Bible Thumper, anti-Gay advocate, Confederate supporter, and has gone so far into the lunatic religious fringe to say that 9/11 was a result of America's break with Christianity.

Alabama is deep Bible Belt.

God, thoughts, and prayers are the cure for any woe. Roy Moore is their choice. A Man of God.

Two weeks ago the New York Times published an article accusing the potential senator of having had sex with five underaged girls while he was the chief prosecutor in Etowah County, Ala.

The girls ranged in age from 14 to 17.

Moore at the time was in his thirties.

The ex-justice denied all the accusations and has rejected any and all interviews about the matter.

Mainstream Republicans have called for his withdrawal from the Senate race, but many Alabamans are of a different mind.

One pastor said that women are the predators and another informed the press that Mary was 14 when she had Jesus without adding that the Blessed Mother was supposedly a virgin.

Alabama GOP office holders have come out in support of Roy Moore and the Governor has vowed to vote for the man, but Trump has remained silent on the issue.

# 45 has been accused more than once about sexual misconduct.

The people of Alabama deserve better, but the age of consent in that Dixie state is 16.

In the 19th Century it was 10 or 12, except for Delaware which had set its bar at 7.

And everyone wonders why men are the way they are.

Because they control the lives of women.

From birth to death.

The Democrats aren't much better.

Still they aren't as bad as the GOP.

Vote for Doug Jones, a former United States Attorney.

It's time for a change.