There was once a couple named Nancy and Mike Tate, and it was their life’s dream to have a compass company. They saved money and started the Tate’s Compass Company.
Luck was with them, for their first contract was to manufacture 750,000 compasses for the Boy Scouts.
The couple worked feverishly day and night to meet their deadline, and finished just before the Boy Scout Jamboree was to begin.
On the day of the Boy Scout Wilderness hike, each scout was given a Tate’s Compass to help them find their way. Unfortunately, it was discovered too late that every single compass was made with the coloured point of the needle facing the wrong way, so when one was facing North, the needle actually pointed South.
All of the boy scouts got lost and it was the biggest fiasco known in Boy Scout history. The Tate Compass Company soon went out of business and from this one experience came the familiar adage, “He who has a Tate’s is lost.”
