I remember my first Boy Scout meeting. One of the older Scouts gave us a slide presentation on his recent trip to Philmont. I went home so excited. I really wanted to go there. So I told Mom and Dad that when I was 14 I was going to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico
Dad asked who was going to pay for the trip. I told him that I thought he would. Well, Dad set me straight right then. He reminded me that I had an allowance and I could save to go to Philmont. I went up to my room and started figuring out how long it would take to save that much. Every week, Dad gave me 10p for each grade level I’d reached in school. In sixth grade I got 60p a week. In seventh grade I would get 70p, and so on. That night I figured out that if I tithed my 10 percent to the church and spent nothing else I could afford to go to Philmont after my senior year in high school. I was crushed. I didn’t think that I could go five years without spending anything. What was I going to do? The next day Dad took me aside and suggested that I open a bank savings account and keep my money there so I wouldn’t spend it. He added that Aunt Rae had heard about Philmont and she thought it would be a good idea if I started saving my money for a chance to go there. Well, Dad and I went to the bank and opened a savings account with the £25 Aunt Rae had given me and the £1.10 I had already saved. I got a job delivering newspapers and saved half of everything I earned. Then I found something out that I didn’t know. The bank paid me to keep my money there. They called it interest, but to me, it was free money! That encouraged me to save even more. Our neighbour, Mrs. Finney, asked if I could cut her grass during the summer, and I said, Sure! I put all of that money in the account. It wasn’t easy. I still remember having to deliver those newspapers in the pouring rain and the freezing snow. And then, cutting Mrs. Finney’s grass when I wanted to be playing baseball. But by the time I turned 14 and was an Explorer Scout I had enough money for my trip to Philmont. I had earned the money—no one else. I could pay my own way. That trip was all mine and it felt good going there. To this day, I’m still saving for things I want. Going to Philmont taught me how and it turned out to be a lifelong lesson.
