Only eight years separated me from my mom’s youngest brother, Leonard. I sure looked up to him. He, and Mom’s next-youngest brother, Randy, were my favorite uncles. They had a model train set in their room, I went fishing and camping with them and my grandparents, and they were both Eagle scouts, something I wanted to be when I got older.
Both Randy and Leonard worked at a scout camp just up one of the Salt Lake canyons. By the time I was old en
ough to go to scout camp, Leonard, at age eighteen, was finishing his last year there. Randy had left the previous year.
The first place I went when my group arrived at the scout camp was to Lizard’s trading post. Lizard was my uncle Leonard’s nick name and I was so proud of his trading post.
As I walked in, the trading post was jammed with other scouts trying to buy things -- gum, soda pop, boondoggle, leather, and other craft supplies for the various projects at the scout camp. Waiting in the mass of boys, I and slowly inched my way toward the front, all the while keeping my eye on my uncle Leonard. He wore a scout uniform, like all the young men who worked at the camp were required to do. Around his neck, he wore a boondoggle neck tie made with strands of yellow and black. It was intricate work, and all the boys, including me, who were buying boondoggle, eyed it with envy.
Leonard was so busy, he didn’t seem to see me until I got to the front of the counter. When he did see me though he said, “Hi Billy, I made something for you.”
He lifted the boondoggle neck-tie off his neck and over his head, then placed it over my head and gently let it down on my neck. The boys around me gasped at they saw the tie even closer. All I could say was, “Thank you.” I bought what I needed and then left, still in shock from what Leonard had given me.
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