GKlose

SctDad - from which area? Xenia, or the northeast? I live presently outside of Boston, in the Yankee Clipper Council (10k youth, 4k adult volunteers, I've heard) area. On Maine: had one (fantastic) high adventure trip up to Matagamon base when I was a scout. We spent a week and a half on the Allagash and Webster Brook and environs. I returned several years later to canoe the East Branch (of the Penobscot) with a friend. The Maine Matagamon base is still open (although not as a national high adventure area). I highly recommend the experience!

Funny you should mention tornadoes...my 11y.o.'s science text mentioned the Xenia tornado, so I told his teacher that I would come into the class and show some pictures. I found a plethora of interesting material online, and added some slides that my dad had taken. I plan on putting the pictures up on the web Any Day Now. And greetings back to those of you in Dayton. My dad was a Dayton-area architect, and left behind a few monuments to bad 50s-60s architecture! I haven't lived back there since the early 80s.

WilVick's new post helped coerce me into writing an introductory note as well. Wil and I were on staff together at Camp Birch, Tecumseh Council, in the late 70s. Looking back, I had an amazing set of experiences in the 7 years I was part of Troop 165, Xenia, OH: not only summer camp at Camp Birch several times, but summer camp twice on our own, the 1973 National Jamboree (Moraine S.P. in PA; it would be quite a fluke if anyone remembers "The World's Biggest Camera"), Philmont, a Maine High Adventure trip, camp staff for three years, OA, Brownsea (in Tecumseh Council's inaugural group). We did so much fundraising until finally settling on Christmas trees, that by the time I was asked to fundraise with the HS band, I knew instinctively what would sell and what wouldn't. I didn't waste my time with "what wouldn't". Skip forward many years, and many miles to the northeast, and now I have two sons: one just transitioned into a scout troop, while the other is starting up his first year of Webelos. They joined, I think, because I was a scout, but I think they see it for its own merits by now. I was active in their packs (we hopped among CS packs until we found one that fit), and I'm starting to be active with the troop now, and also at the district level. This Scouter business is all new to me, so I'm trying to move along slowly. It's also been fun reconnecting with my old SM, once again relying on his advice. Guy(This message has been edited by GKlose)

Wil -- do you by any chance remember me? (Guy) I was on the first Camp Birch staff you joined. I just joined this forum too.

This reminds me of an event from my days as a scout. Our SM was a teacher, and didn't get finished with school until about 3pm on Fridays. One Friday afternoon, prior to a 6pm campout departure, weather looked a little bit too threatening for one mom, so she called the rest of the troop parents to cancel the campout. Her kid, Chuck, a year older than me, was fairly new to the troop, and camping in general. He was a funny, laid-back kid. But he and his mom didn't know that weather *never* stopped us. Never. And we still went that weekend. We did what kids do...Chuck got a good dose of "so, is your mom going to cancel this campout too?" and "let's check with Chuck's mom to see if we're still going" and "so Chuck, did your mom pack your bag?". He laughed it off (but who knows what kind of psychological damage we caused him!). His mom took the brunt of the teasing amongst ourselves, and I don't know if Chuck ever told her, or if our Scoutmaster had a word with her.

Thanks, Lisabob. There are no rabble-rousing intentions on my part. I'll do some reading about hats in the Uniforms forum to see what the hot-button issues are.

I joined circa spring 71 (garrison cap era) and shortly thereafter one of my friends (my den chief, and my first patrol leader) came back from a conference at the Philmont training center wearing a red beret and speaking of new program features such as belt loops. I remember being instructed on how to properly wear the beret, and in my mind, it only looked good when it was worn properly. At the '73 National Jamboree, I remember thousands of scouts who didn't know how to wear it properly. But I think the color contrast was good. Summer of '72, my troop sent a contingent to Philmont, and they chose a crew hat: the old Campaign hats. However, they didn't realize how poorly it would perform in the rain and how a backpack would curl up the backside of the hat. Most kids never wore theirs again. When I went to Philmont, summer '75, our crew chose baseball caps as crew hats. Those worked out better, but my ears sunburned! I was wearing a shroud for a few days. Which all brings me to a point: since I'm newly returned to the program (my 11-yr-old just joined a troop), are troops allowed to officially adopt a troop hat? My son's present troop doesn't have a hat policy. Thanks, Guy (1st post)