Scouting anyone?

[Snookie]

Proud member of Troop 1019 from 1991 to 1999, and earned the Gold Award in '99. (And no - when I think of my scouting days, I don't immediately think of selling cookies.)

My husband was an Explorer scout in high school -- which actually got him started in his current career.

 

[Nashoba]

Yep, probably got him the woodcarving merit badge or such.

No, he was an adult. He did it when he was an asst scoutmaster at Camp Chawanakee with his scouts.

 

[Rooster]

Also, *another note to Rooster* in my high school years (back in the mid-70s) I was in an Explorer Boy Scout troop. It was a conservation-based troop. Most of the girls joined to hang out with the guys, but I was really interested in nature conservation.

Good Lord, the world is coming to an end!lol

 

[nobodyspecial]

I was a boy scout in the 1970's and made it to first class. The troop in my home town started to fall apart after the scoutmaster moved away. Nobody jumped in to fill the void. Still I am grateful for the experiences as I would never have had a chance to camp as a youth had it not been for scouting.

After college I volunteered for the local boy scout council planning and running weekend camporees. I did this for several years until we had children. Since we have two girls I now am a co-leader of a girl scout brownie troop and a girl scout junior troop. The junior troop is going camping in two weeks and we're hoping to get the ball rolling on bronze award requirements during the weekend. Saturday I spent the day getting my cpr and first aid training recertified. I have to say the training sessions for girl scouts are very thorough.

I've enjoyed girl scouts a great deal. I knew nothing of girl scouts before becoming a troop leader and I am still on the upward side of the learning curve. The girls really enjoy weekend trips and love learning actual camping skills - fires, knives, compasses, knots, dutch oven cooking.........

Lizzie - love the photo of the vest.

 

[Ecuador Jim]

An alternate view...

I was very active in Scouting as a cub scout. We had a great organization, and lots of encouragement. My mom too, got very tired of sewing on those "arrow points" under my badge of rank. For some reason, the Den I was affiliated with was unraveling, and nobody was "crossing over" to Boy Scouts.

In the summer I had been going to a great YMCA camp in the San Juan islands. Someone approached me in Jr. High school and asked me to join their Boy Scout Troop. I had only been in a short time when we were to go to Summer Camp. I had only recently passed all my requirements for 3rd class, and went to camp ranked as a Tenderfoot.

Things started going south as we boarded the Explorer boat to Camp Parsons, on Hood Canal. I was teased mercilessly by other Troops, and the leaders seemed to be indifferent. Once at camp, there was a bonfire, and some yahoo threw a pressurized spray can into the fire, and it exploded. The older scouts decided to "hold court" on the guilty party. I don't recall what punishment had been decided upon, but the kid was screaming as others started to carry him off. That finally caught the attention of the leaders, and the mob was broken up. A totally different experience from what I was used to with the YMCA!

That was the extent of my four month experience in the Boy Scouts. My recollection was that it was more like a chapter out of "Lord of the Flies."

I did later become a leader, if for no other reason, to provide some guidance where I previously saw none. I don't mean to demean the experience; Scouting offers a fine experience. It does require the leaders to take an active part. I think there are checks and balances that ensure my experience is never repeated.

 

[carter]

I was very active in Scouting as a cub scout. We had a great organization, and lots of encouragement. My mom too, got very tired of sewing on those "arrow points" under my badge of rank. For some reason, the Den I was affiliated with was unraveling, and nobody was "crossing over" to Boy Scouts.

In the summer I had been going to a great YMCA camp in the San Juan islands. Someone approached me in Jr. High school and asked me to join their Boy Scout Troop. I had only been in a short time when we were to go to Summer Camp. I had only recently passed all my requirements for 3rd class, and went to camp ranked as a Tenderfoot.

Things started going south as we boarded the Explorer boat to Camp Parsons, on Hood Canal. I was teased mercilessly by other Troops, and the leaders seemed to be indifferent. Once at camp, there was a bonfire, and some yahoo threw a pressurized spray can into the fire, and it exploded. The older scouts decided to "hold court" on the guilty party. I don't recall what punishment had been decided upon, but the kid was screaming as others started to carry him off. That finally caught the attention of the leaders, and the mob was broken up. A totally different experience from what I was used to with the YMCA!

That was the extent of my four month experience in the Boy Scouts. My recollection was that it was more like a chapter out of "Lord of the Flies."

I did later become a leader, if for no other reason, to provide some guidance where I previously saw none. I don't mean to demean the experience; Scouting offers a fine experience. It does require the leaders to take an active part. I think there are checks and balances that ensure my experience is never repeated.

Hazing is definitely against BSA policy.

As noted above, Adult Leaders must take an active role in the troop and insure that such situations do not occur.

An adult who does not discourage (or even actually encourages) hazing has no place in the Scouting movement.

We dealt with this problem when I initially became involved with my troop. Once we got the adults on the right page, the scouts were fine.

 

[nobodyspecial]

The scouting experience is quite varied as the quality of troop leadership makes a huge difference. A well run troop is a marvel to watch. From my experience it takes an adult who is willing to put forth a large amount of time behind the scenes making it happen.

As my boy scout troop began to go downhill we would hang out in camp and smoke with the new scoutmaster. He'd give us his Camels (the filterless variety) and tell us stories about life during WWII. There will be hell to pay if I ever catch any of my girl scouts attempting this behaviour.

 

[Girl Friday]

I was a Girl Scout. I wasn't very good at it though.

 

[Girl Friday]

I made this for my boyfriend, for drinking the most martinis in Vegas a couple of years ago:

 

[PeeWee]

Troop 305 in Raleigh NC...I was a member of a little church troop just outside of Raleigh in the 60's. Most of the guys owned only the Boy Scout shirt, and a few not even that. It was a lot of fun, and it had a big impact on all of our lives

 

[staggerwing]

Troop 896 (if I remember right), in Annandale, VA. Unfortunately became disfunctional. Scoutmaster's kid thought he was a Marine DI. Didn't take me long to have my fill of it. I'd been hiking and camping on my own since I was about 8, sometimes up to a week at a time in the pine forest and swamps around Charleston, SC. That was back in the days when parents didn't get arrested for letting a kid out of their sight, and nobody called the swat team when they saw a 12 year old walk into the woods with a .22 and a pack. My inspiration was My Side Of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George. So anyway, I was looking forward to learning great things from the Scouts, but I guess it's just the luck of the draw as far as the troop you end up with.

A few years ago, a guy who worked for me was a Scoutmaster, and he almost had me talked into getting involved as an adult. I kind of wish I had but I just didn't have the time to do it justice.

 

[CharlestonBows]

NC, Troop 74, Eagle Scout, 1998.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Hi Folks,

I was in Beaufort, North Carolina's Troop 201 from 1967 until I was awarded Eagle Scout in 1972.

Atticus

 

[Harry Pierpont]

Brake hah!!

BTW, Harry says they won the derby race, but "cheated". He said there were Boy Scouts posted on the hill telling the Cub Scouts to brake at certain points down the hill "so they don't go too fast". But his buddy told him not to brake until the end and ignore the older boys' warnings. I always knew Harry was a daredevil!

The "brake was a 2x4 with a tin can on the end, which when pulled on drug on the road. ALA Fred Flintstone! [huh]

 

[Nick D]

Troop 356, Hiawathaland Council, Eagle Scout '01. I worked out at Scout Camp for several years, too, and was Scoutcraft Director my last year there. Then I got a job and college, so I couldn't take the summers off

 

[DeeDub]

I was in Cub Scouts. We didn't do any camping, but I had an active imagination, so the descriptions in the scout manuals seemed real to me. I was especially inspired by my father's Handbook For Boys from the 1940s, (which I still have among my most treasured books.)

Later, I joined the Sea Scouts. My tour of duty was unfortunately short—less than a year—since my family moved to a place with no local Sea Scout Ship. (How's this for irony: We moved to San Diego!) But even after that short time, many of the subjects in Navy boot camp, such as marlinspike seamanship, came much more easily to me than to my shipmates.

Interesting that this discussion should come up now. Just last week, I ran across an
archived article on the Sea Scouts that featured my former skipper, who joined the Sea Scouts in 1936, returned from the Navy to become an adult leader in 1953, and was still actively involved in Sea Scouts as of 1999!

 

[Big Man]

A trip back in time ...

About 1936 or 1937, my Dad went to the old "Schiele Scout Reservation" (Piedmont Council, NC) Boy Scout Camp located in Tryon, NC. In the mid 1960's, I went to the same Scout Camp. By the time my two boys were of Scouting age, the old camp had closed and the "new" Bud Schiele camp had opened east of Rutherfordton, NC (I never did like the "new" camp - it just didn't have that "feel" of a summer camp).

I've often wondered what happened to that old Scout Camp, so this weekend I decided to go "exploring" and try to find the place. Although it had been 40 years since I was last there, I somehow managed to find the old camp. I was surprised to see everything still there (but unused and, apparently abandoned). The old dining hall, the old infirmary, and even the old cabins (the same ones that my Dad and then I stayed in) were still there. But the eeriest thing was the old (now rusted) flag pole in the middle of the assembly field. It was still standing.

Visiting that place brought back many memories of times spent at summer camp. While I was glad to find the old place after all these years, it was sad in a way to be there. So much time has passed since those days as a young boy at camp.

The old dining hall. Although the windows and doors are all boarded up, it looks like the grounds are being maintained.

The old rusted flag pole still stands tall in the assembly field. I could still "see" the lines of Scouts formed up by Troop standing tall for colors every morning and evening.

 

[rebelgtp]

I had been a cub scout when I was a kid, had gotten to webelos before I quit. Most of my scout troop had never set foot in the woods (I've been camping since I was 4 or 5), and I just could not relate to them. I remember going to a scout summer camp one year and got in trouble for speaking German, I also got the nick name Hawkeye (they even mentioned this at the closing ceremony) because at the end of the camp I had about 4 times the number of beads from the projects and events of the camp than anyone should have had, I was spotting and picking up all the ones everyone else dropped. [huh]

 

[Lancealot]

I was in Scouting, Troop 23 Blue Ridge Council from 7th grade until I was 20. I reached Eagle Scout and was involved has a Assistant Scoutmaster until I got married. I was also Brotherhood in the Order of the Arrow.

 

[BuddyJ]

I've been involved in Scouting since Tiger Cubs. I'm an Eagle Scout, a Vigil member of OA, and now serve where and when I can as an adult. For the past few years, I've been leading interview boards for our summer camp staff, working with the camp director; a good friend of mine who was one of the young scouts I taught as a Troop Guide and was later a Patrol Leader when I was SPL.

Scouting shaped my youth and most of my adult friends are guys I met through my Troop and Order of the Arrow.