Chapter 22

 

Chapter 22

Scouts.

Finbar took to the scouts, like a duck to water. When the 'Boy Scouts' organisation was formed it was, as the word says, for boys. It was laid down by the founder Lord Baden-Powell and started as a 'Scouting for boys for none-uniformed groups. In 1911 the uniform was listed in the Rules and Regulations and is the same to this day. Finbar was, originally attracted to the uniform as one of the films at the Saturday afternoon matinees at The Imperial Picture House was 'Jungle Jim' and Jungle Jim, played by the actor who played Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller, wore clothes similar to the boy scouts. He didn't wear short trousers and that was the only bit Finbar didn't like. But he compromised as the shirt with the badges he had to wear was great. There was also a neckerchief and a woggle to hold it together. The shirt was khaki and he had some tabs he had to tuck into the top of his socks.

There was a special shop he could go to for the uniform and the first week he went to the eeting without his dad, Finbar wore it.

Carmel ironed the shirt and even ironed the tabs that tucked under his socks. She also sewed the badge to his shirt for his first test which was 'scout.' For this he had to recite the scout pledge of allegiance, tie a knot, demonstrate the scout hand shake, sign and salute, describe the scout badge and he had to swear an oath.

He felt so proud as he walked in, with he badge his mother had sewed to his shirt and he imagined himself getting ready to go into the jungle to see Jungle Jim. He asked Dan if he went to the Imperial to see Jungle Jim, on Saturday mornings and he didn't but he did know Jungle jim from his father, who was a collector of comics. and in an American publication Dan had seen a comic strip of Jungle Jim.

Finbar was very impressed and asked if he wore short trousers and Dan said that he couldn't remember.

The third Tuesday he called for Dan at his house which was in Moseley, close to the scouts, and when his mother answered the door, he noticed she had an accent like his own mother and, like her, was very genteel.

“In you come” she said “would you like a glass of Ribena?”

“Oh yes” said Finbar “yes please.”

She asked him to sit and wait for Danny, who was upstairs getting ready, and served the Ribena to him in the kitchen. As he was sitting there he noticed that Danny's mother was wearing high heeled shoes as she was peeling potatoes: strange, he thought.

He was hoping that Dan's father was at home as he wanted to see the Jungle Jim comic.

Dan came in, already with his new badge, Tenderfoot, sewed to his shirt. They went into the sitting room and he noticed the very old furniture and he couldn't see a television. “Don't you have a television?”

They had a piano, a leather Chesterfield sofa and a kind of Barbers' chair at a roll top desk by one of the walls. It was a glorious day and Finbar could see through the French Windows a garden with the sound of birds singing outside.

“Is your dad out?”

“Yes” said Dan “He's in Brussels, this week I think.”

“I wanted to see his comic with Jungle Jim.”

“Oh you won't see that, he has it with his collection somewhere in his study.”

Finbar looked around “His study?”

With that, the telephone rang in the hall. It made Finbar sit up and he could hear Dan's mother answering it. She was seated in the hall speaking and smoking a cigarette when the boys passed her “Goodbye darling” she said to them as they went through the door.

Chapter 23

The Third Year.