When you live in a family of all boys, sometimes you end up getting the hand-me-downs. This is especially true when it comes to Scout Uniforms. The only one that has not experienced this is Andrew. He is the oldest. I would like to say that Lance ended up with all hand-me-downs for Cub Scouts, but alas this was not true. I ended up buying him a new Cub Scout shirt because the one that Andrew and Kyle wore was still being worn by my nephew, Darin, when it came time for Lance to start Cub Scouts. It is all good and works out in the end.
This, however, is the original tan Boy Scout shirt I bought Andrew when he was Webelos aged. It has lasted many years, obviously. These shirts do last a long time if you take good care of them. They are made to withstand the Boy Scouts. It has served us well. It will serve us again in a couple of years. The problem with this shirt…
I have growing boys. Andrew had already needed a larger shirt by the time Kyle was a Webelos. I bought Andrew a larger shirt and put Kyle in this trusty old relic of a shirt. I just swapped the patches that needed to be swapped out onto Andrew’s new shirt and we moved on. I never gave it a second thought. Then I started noticing that Kyle’s shirt was a bit tight around his belly. He is built differently than Andrew. He is shorter and more stout than Andrew. Well I looked at the tag in the shirt. A child’s XL (extra large)! Well no wonder his shirt is snug around his belly, he has not worn a child’s XL in a long time.
Needless to say that with Scout Camp coming up, we were going to have to fix this problem. His pants were getting a bit snug around his waist too. I do have a small complaint about the design on those. At any rate, Andrew was complaining about his pants. Oh we were going to have a problem about buying two pairs of pants and a shirt in the Scout Shop. That is no small amount of change, by the way. The best part is that Kyle’s pants were one waist size up from Andrew’s pants. I had Andrew try on Kyle’s pants. They fit.
When I had originally bought Kyle’s new pants a while back, I had the boys switch the zip off legs on their pants when I had bought Kyle’s pants. Kyle needed hemmed pants, Andrew needed longer pants. I just had them swap. They complained to no end about how their pants legs never really matched the top of their pants. I really did not care. Well I can now say that Andrew now has a matching pair of pants again as the longer zip off legs are back on the pants they belonged on. Andrew is officially wearing his first pair of hand-me-down Scout Pants! For once he was the one that got the hand-me-downs.
Kyle and I wandered off to the Scout shop and we bought him a new Scout Uniform. Here he is modeling his new Scout Shirt that fits (large with plenty of room to grow) with all his patches sewn on. He is very proud of his new Den Chief patch as well. He is the only trained Den Chief in Troop 1927. He is trained because Pack 1927 saw a need and his mother, as one of the Den Leaders, had him trained. His new Scout Master, Mike Pagano, is thrilled about the idea. Maybe we will be able to get more of the boys to help out with Cub Scouts in the future.
Here is there new patrol patch. A badger of some sort. I think it looks more like a skunk personally. Kyle assured me it was a badger.
I want you to know that I even hemmed his pants up all by myself. I did not take them to my mother. Go me!
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