It was some time c. 2004 or so. Several of us from Venturing Crew 699 were in the kitchen at Tanner Valley UMC working on something or other. (Like all my Scout and church groups, we tended to cook a lot.) I remember four of us there: myself, Zach, Nikki, and Hannah. Zach and I were talking about reindeer (why, I don't remember). Nikki was listening in, part of the conversation. Hannah stood there with growing disbelief on her face. Suddenly, Hannah -- a very bright youth about 15 years old -- blurted out, emphatically:
"You mean reindeer are REAL?!"
We all stood in stunned silence for a moment. Then I said, "Yeah, you know . . .Rangifer tarandus . . . caribou?"
At this point, a flabbergasted Hannah confessed that she had always thought reindeer were just made up, like unicorns -- part of the Santa Claus story.
Spreading enlightenment. With a trowel. It's what we do.
