#58 KING ARTHUR AND SIR LANCELOT

Peter as Sir Lancelot rides in on Aloysius

In 1965, I was called by the Boy Scout leader asking me to be a den mother for the Cub Scouts. I said, “I couldn’t possibly be one. I don’t know anything about it.” He replied,” I saw that ten-foot, up-side-down snowman that you and your kids made last week. Anybody that could make that happen could be a den mother.” I agreed to be a den mother. Of course, Trip (9) and Peter (7) became cub scouts.

The 10-foot snowman in our front yard

Each month, a national project theme came through the scout leadership. One theme especially memorable to me was to prepare a skit about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. For a solid month, the boys happily worked on their costumes. They constructed their helmets and armor from plastic bleach bottles sprayed-painted silver. They built their swords and artfully decorated shields from heavy cardboard covered with aluminum foil. These kids worked really hard. They were very excited because not only was their armor looking realistic to them but, more importantly, Aloysius, our pony, would play the part of a medieval war-horse. Even Aloysius would have a royal costume and armor on his head. They really liked what a surprise this performance would be. I asked them to keep it a secret and they did. The boys were so motivated that they had no problem memorizing the words of the skit I had written.

The monthly meeting was held in the evening at the Bedford Presbyterian parish house. When it was our turn to perform our skit, with an audience of about one hundred people, there were gasps of amazement as Aloysius, our pony, entered with Peter riding as Sir Lancelot and Trip walking along at his side as King Arthur. The rest of the den followed in their shining armor as knights. One cooperative boy was beautifully dressed as Lady Guinevere in a light-orange, flowing gown and a high, conical headpiece of the era. They marched up the isle alone to the stage where they acted out their play not needing my help at all. It was so good! The boys were great! Aloysius was great! Our wonderful pony came through again, having behaved perfectly throughout the show. At the end he stood patiently during the cheering and clapping, as though he realized that part of the applause was for him.

I never thought to ask permission to take Aloysius inside the parish hall. I doubt that it would have been granted but the skit was huge success. For many years afterwards people would mention it to me. There aren’t many parish houses that have had a pony inside.

Years later I had a pleasing reminder of this event. A young man I did not recognize came to our home. He then explained that he had been a cub scout in my den, remembered this skit, and he thought I was the best den mother there ever was.