Donald Keith

Back in the 1960's I was a Boy Scout.

The best thing about Scouting for me was the monthly subscription to "Boy's Life" magazine. (At that time it was about the only mail I got!).

I would skip right past the articles about camping and woodworking and Soap Box Derby (Wazzat?) and go right to the features.

My favorite was the "Time Machine" stories. Two Scouts happen to find a Time Machine under a rockfall, figure out how to run it, and have historically accurate gently humorous adventures in the past and the future.

Meeting Marco Polo and Teddy Roosevelt and getting flying belts and mind reading pills from the future. Adding a Scout from the future (and one from the past!) to the patrol.

And real action and real boy-sized suspense.

Back in the day when you could nickname a character "Brains" and you as the the reader knew everything you needed to know about that character.

You can get the Time Machine stories from Google Books online repository of "Boys Life" through the years.

Or if you're lucky you'll find these long out of print board books -- both "Mutiny in the Time Machine" and the later, not as good "Time Machine to the Rescue", and you know, they still work.

Don't know what kids would make of Tuck and Brains these days. But they made me proud to put on my Boy Scout uniform back in the day.… (meer)