mclaught

One thing that I have found is that things go much smoother if I stay up a little while after all of the Scouts go to bed. I normally don't go to bed at home till around midnight anyway so it isn't a real big issue for me. That and it is kind of peaceful to quietly watch the campfire die down to embers by yourself. The first couple of times I did it I was very surprised how much movement takes place after the Scouts were supposed to be asleep. At various times there were a couple boys who were going to switch tents, others did the flashlight under the sleeping bag, others were having late night snacks. (I won't even get into the time at a conclave where the boys snuck out to a nearby golf course and rearranged the flags so the flag for hole #1 was in hole #4 and so on, the golf course people were NOT amused, that was kind of what started this). Anyway, the Scouts have now learned that I stay up for awhile after they are supposed to be asleep, and that I have the ability to stay awake longer walking around outside then they do when lying quietly in their bags. They finally nod off while hoping for me to go to sleep. One thing that everyone should experience is this: very quietly walking up to a tent where the scouts are supposed to be asleep and listening to them for awhile (they never learn how far sound carries at night). Then after a Scout says something that he would probably prefer that you didn't hear (usually regarding girls), put your face right up to the side of the tent and say something like "aren't you guys supposed to be asleep?" It is really funny to listen to the very loud silence after that. Then you just stand there for awhile and then one of the boys says "how long do you think he was standing there?" And once again with your face right up next to the side of the tent (the voice from on high or something like that) you say "long enough to hear everything you said, now go to sleep". That usually ends that for the night. Ahh, we don't get paid a lot, but the laughs are sometimes more than enough payment. Ted

I am an email administrator for the Toro Company. In case you don't know us we make lawnmowers, snowthrowers, irrigation equipment, and other lawncare equipment. If you need something like that we make darned good stuff! (sorry, had to get a plug in :-) Ted McLaughlin

I just wanted to add something to the posts regarding the Silver Tomahawk #80 lodge. When I was inducted back in (I think) '83 I was incredibly impressed. I had been going to Camp Eastman for 4 years and every year I watched the older Scouts get 'tapped' out and I wanted it SO bad. Unfortunately not long after my ordeal my family moved away and I (very long story here) dropped out of Scouting. After I got back involved again a couple years later I immediately got involved in the OA. As I moved from job to job, and place to place for some reason I was never satisfied with the OA. The ceremonies just were not up to the level I remembered from #80. I had no idea at the time what MOS was, or that it was so much a part of #80. I just wanted our ceremonies to be like theirs. Everytime one of the youth askes me about my ordeal (you know, how they did it the REALLY old days, lol) they never believe me when I tell them how my 'ordeal' was. They all think that it sounds WAY COOL and they want ours to be just like that. I then have the unfortunate job of explaining politics to them and how there is no way in the world an OA lodge would be allowed to do that stuff now, (except #80 who as I understand still does it just like I remember). Several of my officers want to do a road trip down to Camp Eastman one of these summer days and watch how things are done there. I kind of discourage it simply because I know that it will just cause grief for all of us later. There will be way too much of "well if they can do it why can't we"? Oh well, at least I have my memories, even if the boys don't believe them. Ted McLaughlin Chapter Advisor - Minnehaha Falls Chapter Tonkawampus Lodge #16 Minneapolis, MN

>"Why on Earth do you feel compelled to remove him from your unit?" >Because rules are rules. And thankfully some rules fall by the wayside when people realize that they were silly to begin with. Things such as slavery, not allowing women to vote, and many other forms of discrimination were all rules (not to mention driving 55 mph) until people came to their senses. I have spoken with many Scouts who doubted their religious beliefs, or at least the beliefs that their parents insisted that they had. One Scout, a couple months after he got his eagle, asked me if they could ever take it away from him. I said no, and asked if there was anything I should know about. He said that he was an athiest and he was afraid if anyone found out they would take his eagle away. Theoretically I should have kicked him out of the troop (or had the DE or COR or whomever do it) but thankfully I didn't. I continued working with him for at least another year when it came out that he was really rebeling against his parent's religious views and his 'athiesm' was the furthest thing he could find from them. His views now are more in the agnostic range than anything else, but I have a feeling that they will gradually change to something a little more mainstream eventually. I don't think that anyone up to the age of 18 really knows what they believe in regards to religion. They are told by their parents what to believe and it takes a very strong young man to disagree with his parent's religious beliefs. Kicking a young man out of Scouting because of a simple comment such as that is a great disservice to both Scouting and that Scout. I agree with acco40, and that the Scout should stay and the advisor should go. My troop is chartered out of a presbyterian church, but less than 10% of the boys go there. If we even dreamed of trying to push the pres. religious award to all of them there would be an open revolt amongst the parents, as well there should be. Ted McLaughlin

I guess I technically fall in the 35 and under (for 3 more weeks anyway) so that might color some of my opinions. By the way this is my first post here in a long, long time. I couldn't even begin to think of what my ID and password would have been back then. It's funny, the only troop that I have ever been in (and I have been in 7 so far) that required MR_Whatever was the troop where I was stationed in Germany. It was disconcerting to me that as an 18 year old to be called MR by 15 and 16 yr olds. I didn't have a problem with the 11 yr olds calling me that but it did bother me with the older scouts. I think that dislike has affected me every since. The troop I am in now definitely does not require last names, by any stretch. The SM is around 68 and has been the SM for around 40 some odd years. He has many of his former scouts come back with their own kids to the troop and he is still just Dave, not Mr_Whatever. He is probably the most committed scouter I have ever met in my life and if he can live with it, I figure thats good enough for our troop. We have had issues over the years with new adults who have come in to the troop wanting to be called Mr_SoandSo, and can't understand why myself and the other adults don't want to. Usually they have just crossed over from cub scouts with their sons (and I can see why they want it there). It's tough on the boys to have to call 1 of the 5 adults Mr, but not the other 4. Some of the adults have switched over to first names, others have gone on to other things because they couldn't handle the informality of the troop. We had one Scout in the troop who called everyone in any kind of authority Sir, even patrol leaders. At first the veteran in me liked it, but it didn't take long to see that there were other issues at work, and it was definitely ostracizing (sp?) him from the other Scouts. But his dad was a different kind of ex-military than me and his son was going to call everyone sir and that was it. As someone else pointed out you can't force anyone to raise their kids a different way, even if it is causing them emotional damage. To me a title isn't respect. I can heap a great deal of derision on a person while still calling them MR, or Sir (been there, done that). In the military you are required to call officers Sir, respecting the rank if not the person. That was probably one of the reasons I didn't last long in the military was having to give that title of respect to somoene I thought didn't deserve it. To me Scouting is the same way. If the boys respect you they will show that respect in many ways. If they don't respect you, forcing them to call you mister just because of your position is not going to prove anything. The only time anyone calls me Mr is when I am in trouble. :-) My .02 Ted McLaughlin