ELEPHANT TROOP

I was a member of the boy scouts during my primary school days in Singapore. There were four troops and I was the deputy leader of the Elephant Troop.

On sports day there was a competition between the troops to put up a flag pole and raise the troop flag. All the troops had an earlier practice session and knew how to do it. Each troop was given several wooden poles of about five feet length. A few poles were tied together with a rope to make the flag pole. A pulley was attached to the top pole and a rope around the pulley would raise the flag. Three poles were tied to the bottom pole to create a stable base. A few long ropes tied to the top pole were pulled and tied to spikes in the ground to make it even more stable.

Many people had gathered to watch the various events on sports day. When our competition began we started in earnest. When we finished erecting our flag pole and were about to raise our troop flag we looked around and noticed that the others were still working on their flag pole. We were so excited. We were going to be first. We started to raise our flag. Suddenly we heard laughter all around. People were laughing. We did not know the reason. We then looked up and saw that the Elephant on our flag was upside down. We quickly lowered the flag. Some of my friends wanted to untie the flag but I realised it was not necessary. I told them not to untie it and raised it up the other way around. By the time we raised our flag another troop had beat us to it. We had to settle for second place.