So far, just great. A really good bunch of kids that really do want to learn something. Only been a couple of bumps in the road, but they're okay now. I have about half a dozen dad's in thier late 30's that are just as eager as the kids, and sometimes I have to slow them down a bit, reminding them that some of the little kids can't quite go as fast as them. Then one dad was what I thought he was going to be, kind of upity. Said he would outfit his kid as he saw fit, and I had to tell him that his kid was the same as everyone else or he could find another venue to flaunt his wealth. It worked out.
All the boys have learned to sharpen their knives with pretty good sucsess. We started out with safe knife handling practice, and afterward dulled them up with scotchbrite so they could learn to sharpen. I think I have one Bobby Ryerson on my hands, but even he learned to get it sharp enough to slice newpaper by the end of the evening. I had to give him some extra personel instruction, but he finally got it. He's a good kid, just a little slower than the rest, so I keep an eye on him.
The next weekend we went over building a debris hut, and fire reflector. Again, most kids got it right off. Its the old little boy instinct for building a fort. When I had them do their own, they had so much enthusiasim they ended up with about 3 feet of insulation in the walls with many double armloads of leaves, pine boughs, sticks. I would not have felt bad spending a night in it.
Little boys are also natural fire bugs. Campfire building went well, with some of the dad's again having to be rained in and quietly told to let the kids do this. I finally figured out that these young fathers have had a urban upbringing, with no outdoor experiance from an old uncle of grandfather, and they are putting me in that position. I've been drafted to be a substitute grandfather to them. Its a little sad to me that there is this whole generation of young guys who never had the chance to go out and do this stuff, so now at 35 years of age they are acually more eager than their kids to be tought some of the old stuff. I don't mind, but I have to gently remind them that this is for the kids first. Like when we were doing fire building and I was down on my hands and knees showing one boy how to pulverize some tinder between two rocks, and I look up and I couldn't see any boys, just the dad's crowded in close with the kids in back of them trying to see past them. I didn't make anything over it, just called one boy from in back to come up and get a spark on it. They spread out then to let the little ones through. Karen said I just may have to hold adult classes.
Last weekend we had their first marksmenship class. Most of it was done with sharpies and paper. I had them draw the rear sight notch, then showed them how to draw the front sight in the notch, then the "soccar ball on the fence post" concept. By the end they each had an accurite drawing of proper sight picture, and this next weekend they are going to be working with my old Sheriden rifle and an old Crossman 760, and my Webley Tempast air pistol. Two nights ago I had a "dad's class" down the basement rec room with the webley. Some of them had never shot anything before, so it was the Holy Trinity from the begining, Mr. Van style. By the end of the evening they were keeping thier shots in the N.R.A. 10 meter air pistol target.
I'm having more fun than I though I was going to have. It's like somehow I inherited another two dozen grandchildren aged 8 to 37.
I'm gonna be busy.
