Cub Scout Pack 68 in Westport usually had its meeting at Mrs. Morse’s residence two blocks west of our house. Aside from completing the requirements for our individual badges, paper drives were common events that brought in much needed cash. Working class families were poor in comparison to what they are today. Prior to 1960 kids usually didn’t have complete uniforms. I was lucky just to have an official shirt, scarf, and hat. The Scouts focused our energies and kept us off the streets.
Big events were held at a local church where, unlike at our den mother’s house, all the parents were invited and most attended. One highlight was a contest for hand crafting something which I suspect also helped complete their merit badge requirements. I made a model of a fort set on a prairie. Its platform was the back of an old painting I found in our basement when we moved from Main Street. Amazingly, I won the blue ribbon because the judges determined that the fathers built the projects. Dad lived in Muskegon Heights, Michigan.
My small victory paled in comparison with another contest that became a legend in the history of Pack 68. Dressing up as a cowboy or Indian was common stuff so the crowd was more than astonished when a Cub Scout wore his father’s WWII German uniform to the contest. The Westport area in Kansas City at that time had a diverse population. We knew people with German names like Becker and Eck, but we never made the connection with recent events. People minded their own business in those days.
This father was obviously short and perhaps was a member of the Hitler Youth. The SS had a height requirement of at least 5’ 10”. Most likely he was just an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier. His outfit was green and complete with black helmet, hobnail boots, utility belt and attachments including the standard cylindrical mess kit. I was particularly impressed by all the leather, a feature I never noticed in American gear. (Army-Navy surplus stores were favorite destinations for boys in those days.) I’ve always wondered if his father was a POW at Camp Crowder south of Joplin, Missouri. Many early German POWs were from Rommel’s Africa Corps captured in May, 1943.
Who knows where all those people are today? For the most part the adults are dead and the kids dispersed into time. When the tide went out in Westport with its stable families, mom and pop stores, and other social nutrients, the church that once hosted the Cub Scouts morphed into a homosexual church. The extraordinary appearance of a German uniform at a meeting of Club Scout Pack 68 is something I’ll always remember, but German helmets, hobnail boots, and lots of black leather live on with the new tenants.
