Weird memories

United States Military Mess Knife

This is one of several of these I have.  I didn't try to collect these.  They are from WWII mess kits.  The reason I have them is because my parents were seriously involved in Pathfinders when my older sisters were kids.  For those of you not aware of what this is, its co-ed Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that is part of Seventh-day Adventism.  I had to go on all these "camp-outs" as they were referred to at a little bitty kid so, when it came time for me to join Pathfinders, I lasted about a week.  My parents were long out of it, and I never quite figured out what it was for.  Everybody had to dress in para-military uniforms and every Wednesday night we had a meeting that seemed mostly to center around learning marching drills.  Even at 13, I remember thinking, "Isn't this kind of how the Hitler Youth movement got started?"  I don't know if it was me, the times, the people in charge...it was just too weird for me.  I had good memories of it when my parents did it and I just tagged along.  I guess it was because my dad knew how to keep a bunch of unruly adolescents in line without scaring the crap out of them.  He was the kind of guy who just commanded respect.  But, by the time I got there...like I said, Hitler Youth Rallies.  But I did end up with a lot of interesting WWII surplus stuff...5 gallon aluminum stock pots, mess kits, pup tents.  Geeze, when I posted the picture of this mess knife I didn't realize how much Pathfinder baggage I had bottled up in me.  I'm probably going to have to think about this now.