My dad loved to talk and tell stories. He could talk for 30 minutes about a small incident that happened at Scouting or at work. And he could listen, to. But he loved to talk.
He would tell us stories about things that had happened in the past. Things that it happened at work but not too many because his work was sensitive and he couldn't talk a whole lot about it. He would talk about events at stores and how things in the parking lot would aggravate men things in the grocery store would not make any sense and comments of people it made him. He was very personable and could talk to anybody and seem to know somebody everywhere he went in town.
He got involved with Scouting when my brother was in Boy Scouts. At some point he became the committee chairperson for the Boy Scout troop that my brother was a part of. And he enjoyed and had friends there that became lifetime friends and lifelong friends. But his love was in helping the scouts go through the program correctly and guiding them through achieving the goals. He loved doing the interviews with the scouts as they came to present their information for each rank. He taught merit badges I believe though I never got to see that.
But he also loved to talk about different things and kinda poked fun at it and tell stories. He talked about the character that he I believe invented that he called chief smoke in the face.
Chief Smoke In The Face was a fictitious Indian chief that had been through lots of different things and had lots of advice to share with people. He would joke around about chief smoke in the face with my kids as they were growing up and with my brothers kids as they were growing up. And as I heard him talk about it it's on Ken and I began to use Chief Smoke In The Face at my Cub Scout pack meetings.
I wouldn't do it every pack meeting, but in some pack meetings I would tell a story about Chief Smoke In The Face and how he had a son that left the tribe to go out on his own. He missed his son a lot and really wanted to find him but everywhere he looked he could not find them. As he went along searching for his son he began to put up signs. His hope was that people would see the signs and would help him by telling him if he saw his son. Chief Smoke In The Face went all over the place putting up the signs. Because he really wanted to find his son.
He loved his son! His son had been born and grew up near the mountains. And when it was time for his son to get his adult name in the tribe he had been playing near the mountain and had been jumping around on the rocks at the base of the mountain. And he slipped and fell and got scraped and bruised but came out of the fall just fine. But Chief Smoke In The Face and the tribe all agreed that his son's name should be called Falling Rock because he looked like a rock when he fell off of that rock that day.
So next time you're driving in the mountains and you see a sign that says "watch for falling rock" be sure and remember Chief Smoke In The Face and maybe send up a puff of smoke letting the tribe know that you found his son if you see him.
Recently my wife and I were driving somewhere in the mountains and the I was thinking back on how my dad created that character, Chief Smoke In The Face. And how I took that character and used them to help the boys in my Cub Scout pack when I was helping them through their program.
I may have to come up with some new stories about my favorite Indian chief. Hopefully they won't get me into any trouble with people that are easily offended.