When I pictured attending a Boy Scout meeting, I imagined it taking place in some kid's house, everybody gathered in the living room, seated on overstuffed furniture with a tray of sugar cookies and lemonade on the coffee table. When I learned it would be taking place at a church, I shifted this image to some kind of big open room, filled with tens of kids all seated in rows of folding chairs. It turned out to be neither of these. There were less than 15 boys and they sat at three tables in a horseshoe shape in a medium sized room/hallway.
All of my previous knowledge came from stories my dad told of den meetings in the bar basement led by a man whose roles included den leader and village idiot. In other words, I really didn't know what to expect.
My brother is 13 (about the same age as many of the boys there) and there is a perpetual posse of similarly aged kids running through my house. So when I overheard the chatter of video games, breakfast foods, motor vehicles, and sports, my initial thought was something along the lines of "oh my god, it's like I haven't left my house." However, once the actualy meeting begins, there is one large difference between my brother and his freinds, and these boys - they have a good amount of self-discipline and take the Scouts seriously.
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