Russell Blood Receives His Eagle Scout Award

This photo is the only one available that shows Steven's dad, Russell, receiving his Eagle Scout award in Laramie somewhere around 1970, give or take.  Owen Asplund, who had all daughters, is shown with Russell.  We once sent Russell on a 50 mile hike over the Snowy Range with a homemade wooden back pack someone had given him not even thinking what a horrible ordeal this would be for him.  But he made it and never complained.  I have felt bad about that event ever since.  We tried to convince our other two sons to become Eagle scouts, but told them it was up to them and we weren't going to harass them.  So they didn't become Eagle scouts.

My own scouting experience was limited to scout camp one summer at Wapiti on the North Fork above Cody, one of the great experiences of my boyhood.  I spent hours collecting samples of plants for a camp contest, which I won and received a little book about plant life.  The parents of many of the other boys came up to Wapiti on the last day to take their boys home and to attend the awards ceremony, but mine were unable to do so.  My scout uniform was limited to a neckerchief and a cap.  I wanted a scout uniform, especially a shirt with the troop number, more than anything I could think of, but we couldn't afford it.  I was unable to attend scout meetings because I had no way to get into Powell to attend them.  I did get my second class badge, and had all the first class requirements except swimming and enough merit badges for a life scout badge.  All the swimming pools were shut down during the polio epidemic of the late 1940s and we couldn't even swim in the irrigation ditches.  As a result, I never learned how to swim, a lack that I have mourned all my life.  One of my great loves during this time was my boy scout manual with all the requirements for the different merit badges.  I spent hours trying to figure out how I could become an eagle scout. I gave the manual to my brother Steve who kindly returned it to me, a sixty-something year old classic, a couple of years ago.  I still have the fondest of memories of the Boy Scouts, even though my experiences were miniscule compared to the continual round of outings and experiences today's Boy Scouts have.  I do remember at Church one Sunday asking a Scout who was asked to report on camp after they returned what his most memorable experience was.  His reply:  "Stopping at McDonald's on the way home."