When my oldest son, Rick, was of Cub Scout age, I became a Den Mother. It was a fun time for me. Those boys were a joy to work with. I delighted in coming up with new skills for them to try. Making kites was one of them.

Putting together store bought kite kits would have been too easy. I gave each boy a double page of newspaper, two sticks my husband had cut out on the table saw and some homemade glue. Rags would make a tail in the next week's session.

We did this messy project in our family room. At the far end of the room was a brick wall. On that brick wall was a mounted deer head my brother Russell had shot. It dominated that end of the room. It would be years before I would get my own eight point buck with my candy apple red Buick Skyhawk as the weapon. That is another story.

Consider this picture. Each boy was on his hands and knees around the room. After cutting the two sticks to length, a notch was made in the end of each stick and a string tightly strung around it. After laying that on the newspaper, a felt pen outlined the shape of the soon-to-be kite. It was to be trimmed and the paper glued over the string. Sounds easy enough. It was.

Our boys had good imaginations. One boy, who shall remain nameless, because he would grow up to be a medical doctor, asked me a question. We all know there is no such thing as a stupid question if you don't know the answer. In any other situation, this would have been a stupid question. But considering who was their Den Mother, what can I say?

The Cup Scout in question looked up at me and asked, “How did you get that deer onto that wall.” Anyone else would have explained that it was a mounted deer head and maybe have explained the mounting process. Not me!

I looked at him with a serious expression on my face and with mischief in my heart, saying, “Easy. We just cut a hole in the wall and built a platform outside for him to stand on.”

His eyes opened wide in wonder! Jumping up, he headed for the side door. In an instant, he was back. Without his previous wide-eyed wonder, he resumed working on his kite. The deer head was never mentioned again.

His fellow Cub Scouts hadn't heard my explanation of the deer head's location, so they had no idea of the drama that had just taken place. I would keep it that way. I understand that he became a very successful doctor. “Way to go Doc!” I wonder if he remembers the incident.