On Friday evening, the Cubs popped down the road to visit Regent Court to plant some bulbs and plants for the residents there. If all goes to plan, next spring there will be a wonderful display of flowers in the garden there. Hopefully not too many will have been planted upside down!.
Planting!
While we were there, we took the opportunity to chat to Frank Simpson who had been in our Scouts. Frank originally joined 10th Longport as a Cub and then as a Scout, but cam ‘up the hill’ to us in around 1938, with his friend Bill Davies when Longport closed. They both stayed with the Troop until they were called up to join the forces in the Second World War. Frank told us that the war did get in the way of Scouting somewhat! Sadly Bill was killed while serving in the Navy (see here). Frank did help out with the Troop for a while after the war.
Some Cubs!
At 90 years of age, Frank is the oldest known member of the Group.
When the Cubs were told that Frank used to be a Cub and Scout himself, they gave him a huge cheer!
A few of the Cubs had a chat with Frank and one asked him if he’d achieved his Chief Scout’s Silver Award. Frank hadn’t heard of this award (it only came out about 11 years ago!), and sadly he couldn’t remember (it was over 80 years ago!) what the badges he did were (first and second star) but he was very interested in what the Cubs do today and was pleased that they did similar things to what he did.
After some drinks and doughnuts, the Cubs sang a campfire song to all the residents and we left them to regain their peace and quiet. We have promised to return in the spring to see the results of their planting.
