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.
