OldGreyEagle

Well, I have an uncle that lives in Skowhegan. Normally We take a combinanaiton of the I-95s and get off at Rte 201 and head inland, is that close by you? Always gotta stop at Freeport and pay homage to the Bean

I am a counselor for Citizenship in the nation as well. Along with a discussion about the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, I try to give the boys the sense of what type of men our founding fathers were. They know the names typically, but I stress the risk they took. Most boys want to be different and distinguish themselves from the pack, (see threads on tattoos, body piercings etc). I explain to them that the founding fathers were as differrent from the norm as todays "punks" are. As Americans, we are raised to respect the flag and honor the constitution, as loyal British subjects, the young Jefferson and Washington were raised to respect the Union Jack and the crown. Washington got his first experience at command serving the British in the French and Indian War. I ask the boys what would happen if I refused to fly the American flag, and made up a flag of my own and said I didnt have to obey the countries laws on my land because I declared it free and not subject to any one elses rules. That usually gets their attention. Yet these men, turning their back on a system they knew was flawed, constructed a system that is elegant in its simplicity with a system of checks and balances that works today over 200 years later as the day it was implemented. I go over the Declaration of Independence and the points of complaint the colonists made and the constitution and bill of rights to show how these latter two documents address the specifics of the Declaration of Independence complaints. I want them to see how "radical" the founding fathers were in their day, and how out of the mainstream thinking Sam Adams et al were. Most of the scouts I have for this badge see "civics" as dry and boring and like school. I try to bring it to their terms, and desribe the founders in their terms. I find it quite exciting. here is a link to an essay on what happened to the signers of the declaration of independence, I find it quite an eye opener http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning/quotes.html#anchor520256 (This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Feathers, I am in Bethlehem PA. And, Our Venture Crew has a trip schdeuled for Maine in late July, to the Dead and Kennebec rivers in Caratunk, do you know where that is?

Mom. the belt is easy, unlatch the catch behind the belt buckle and shorten the belt that way, I know, some of out first years almost have the belt around them twice. If what I am saying doesnt make sense, find an old scouter, he/she can show you

I dont want to hijack this thread any more than perhaps I already have. I know of GSA experience through the girls in my Venture Crew. I will have you know that the girls know who Lord Bade-Powell is and while in England on a band trip several of our venture girls visited the baden-powell manor. I also will have you know that they taught me that Juliet Gordon Lowe founded GSA and lived in Savannah Georgia. On a business trip to Savabbah they made suer I knew to drive around her house once. And acording to the scout history buff in the group, Baden-Powell asked Ms Lowe to marry him. She refused, saying he needed a proper English wife and she was to much an independent american. On another note, this thread was what this forum used to be, people sharing opinions and ideas without being lambasted for dangling a participle or perhaps holding a view in conflict with another. See, we can all get along, if we try

I see Youth Protection and Safety Afloat and Safe Swim defense as very similar. We do them every year, and every year the older scouts moan that they have seen it all before. I point out that Major League baseball players all know how to play baseball, but spring training is held anyway (usually quiets them down). The purpose of these programs is the inform the scouts about the safe way of doing things and of BSA'a program policy on these matters. I like the video's. A time to tell is quite explicit and shows pretty realisitc situations. The video gives exacttly what the boy is to do. I would HATE to be in a troop that had a scout in an unforunate situation (perhaps related to scouts, perhaps not) and didnt know what to do and the troop was on record as not showing the Youth Protection Program videos for a few years because every one "knew it all"

The Pastor of the Church sponsoring our troop is also the troop treasurer and COR and has a son who is a life scout. The scouts Eagle project will be an improvement to the Church's Camp. You could say our relationship couldnt be much better. The Pastor attends committee meetings held at the church and almost all Eagle Courts of Honor are held in the Sanctuary. I cant imagine having a CO that just thinks its a place to house meetings, it is just so much more than that. The Pastor takes approving new adult leaders very seriously The Pastor would like to attend more outings, but he has a hard time getting off work on Sunday(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Sounds more like left wing liberalistic libertarian zealotry that will cause the demise of western civilization... BTW, I like the way the Girl Scouts use the older scouts to help the younger ones. I know in Boy Scouts we have patrol leaders and Den Chiefs, but almost all the Girl Scouts I know help in some way with the younger girls. I think its part of their requierments for ranks. The working with the younger kids and having two individually run service projects are things I would like to see BSA adopt from GSA Wait... I said the Boy Scouts should/could be improved... Maybe I had better just start the OldGreyEagle Corp or something as we know BSA is perfect as it is and needs no tweaking(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

What??? A program run for youth designed for the sole purpose of what's best for the youth served??? Lets keep that a secret, I wouldnt want THAT concept to leak out

While watching the premiere episode of The Osbournes on MTV I was startled to see Ozzy Osbournes daughter wearing a class A boy scout shirt with council strip as she was walking through the living room. When I shouted, "she's wearing a boy scout uniform" my son informed me that lots of "really punk" girls wear boy scout shirts. My question is, have any of you seen this? Should I(we) be offended? Is this a big deal? (BTW, Its a real hoot of a show)(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Again, I repeat I have very little experience with Girl Scouts. But I have heard comment that many Girl Scout leaders actually inhibit father participation past specified Father/Daughter activties, that when it comes to day to day operations, GSA doesntwant male involvement. I may be wrong, I am just looking for clarifaction. I only know what a very few girl scouts have told me and they may be confused

To paraphase a great leader and hero, I have a dream that Eagle scouts will be judged not by the length of their hair, but by the content of their character. (This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

All of my Girl Scout knowledge comes from the members of my Venture Crew. To earn the Silver the girls have to do a service project and to earn Gold, they have to do a larger service project. While the Gold and Eagle project may be similar, the service project that the girls must do for Silver has no Boy Scout equivalent. The closest thing BSA has is the requirement for service hours, but running a project is a lot different than showing up and working. Then again, either Silver or Gold project or both may end up benefitting the Girl Scouts while an Eagle Project may not benefit the Boy Scouts Another difference I see is who "owns" the troops. In Boy Scouts the Chartering Organization own the equipment while BSA own the program. In Girl Scouts, the local council owns everything. And the councils seem to "mess" with the troops, combining some and dropping others. To me thats the real difference, and Girl Scouters feel free to disagree and I am going to speak in generalities, but it seems like Girl Scout troops fold much faster and easier than Boy Scout troops. Maybe numbers has an effect. Most Girl Scout Troops have a few leaders and when they burn out the troop folds. Boy Scout Troops tend to have more leaders and a COmmitee to support the scoutmaster and assitant scoutmaster, I dont know if Girl Scouts has the same structure. Boy Scout troops continue for years, decades while Girl Scout Troops seem ( in my limited experience) to appear and disappear rather quickly. Thats just my impression. Our Venture Crew got started because the girls in the church that sponsors the boy scout troop saw us comming back on sunday morning from all sorts of "neat trips" and they wanted to do it as well. Their leader is not outdoor focused and voila, a coed Venture crew is born. but lastly, "boys and girls are different" Now there's a phrase even my favorite rhetorictician may have a hard time dissecting. And while I may not be a francophile, VIVE LE DIFFERANCE

Sadly I do not, part of being Old and Grey is that I have accumulated much, and dont always know where I got it.

As a counselor for Space Exploration I resent that comment, as it is Rocket Science (LOL)(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

Maybe something modeled on the Eco-Challange?

After perusing the ACLU website, I do have an observation. In all the cases that the ACLU have been invovled in, apparently the final decision was not made by the ACLU, but by the judge hearing the proceeding. Perhaps some of the bile and vitriol and energy expounded towards the ACLU should go to the court system. The ACLU, like any lawyer, can only argue a case, its up to the court to decide. I am not sure you can argue the ACLU is chaging the laws, only the court system can do that.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

My favorite breakfast is "moonstruck toast" so named in our family because we first saw it in the movie Moonstruck. You butter a piece of bread, cut a hole out of the the center and place the bread in a frying pan butter side down. Then break an egg and drop it in the center of the toast. Once the egg white cooks, turn it over a few times and its down. It can be eaten without a fork if need be and if its cooked long enough. It will stay warm for quite a while. You can either fry the bread you cut out or eat it "raw" Dinner can be spaghetti and meatballs using frozen meatballs if you want to go simple, an alternative is doing a foil pack dinner of a chicken leg or breast with some vegetables and just before you seal the foil, add a tablespoon of campbells cream of mushroom soup from the can. Makes it quite memorable. For a theme try "your favorite sports hero", Dad can show up in his butkus jersey and son in his Thomas jersey (oops sorry , this isnt the chicago thread). Or your favorite historical figure. Maybe a twist would be to have the scouts dress like leaders and have the adults dress like kids, pants down to the thighs, boxers showing, chains hanging, hats on askew something like that. Or a brownsea island theme and see how many can dress in 1900's clothes. Give a prize to the best Father/son costume combination and have activities from that era.

I was in the DuPage Area council and in the Sauk district, HInsdale must be right on the border. I think its called Three rivers council now. I only went to Summer Camp on year with the troop, and succeeded in driving a hatchet in my knee that required a few stitches in town to fix. The name of the camp was Northwoods. I say I only went to Summer camp once as a scout, another summer the troop went to the Grand Canyon and then we went to Glacier National Park. Our Scoutmaster didnt like summercamp, said it was too restrictive.

Ok, so maybe we should mark this thread suburbs of chicago revisited... I went to the College of DuPage for Radiologic Technology and did my clinical training at Community Memorial General Hospital in La Grange. Dated a girl from La Grange Park and she lived close enough to the drag strip that we could hear the engines revving up. With motor cycles they would start with the 90 cc's (I think) and move up in sizes, the sound difference was something. And Brookfield has to have the best Zoo ever, well, it used to at least... Ah memories

Just to be clear, I didnt go to the Seminary where Peabody's tomb is. I went to the diocese of Joliet's seminary as I discribed. I grew uop in Wood Dale actually on the banks of the Salt Creek. Ah, how many times I dipped my toes in its water... Unfortunately most of the times my toes got wet with Salt Creek water was because the durn creek was flooding and my room was in the basement and thats a sure way to wake up fast, to see your clothes float by your bed. Dad, were you a scout back then? The Scoutmaster of out troop was from Lomabard and he and I figure we were at some of the same scouting events as youths, ever go to Churchhill's woods in Glen Ellen or the Thunderbird Scouting Reservation near woodridge?

Nope, I meant Melrose as in Melrose Ave in Chicago. Hinsdale Central? I think they were the guys who always mopped up in Illinois High School Swimming Competition, they were always the champs. Been to Hinsdale Hospital a few times, the 7th Adventist Hospital that was notoriously anit smoking back in the mid 70's, had a set of cancerous lungs from a smoker in the lobby for years. Ours was the Tri-County Atheltic Conference. But now that I think about it, did you ever try to find Peabody's tomb? Love Oakbrook Shopping Center

I in no way wish to defend some of the "social engineering" that has been discussed here and on other threads that occur in some public schools, however I have to respond to slontwovvy comment about public school performance relative to public school performance especially on the ACT. And I have no malice at all toward slontwovvy, I just have a few points I would like to have considered. A private school for the most part denotes high parental concern/involvement in the pupil's education. Whether in Public or Private school, the most effective educational strategy a teacher can employ is a concerned and active parent. Private schools tend to be a bit pricey (or they are in my area at least) and only the upper middle class to the most wealthy of the community can afford it. Since children tend to follow their parents in education level and economic level (I said tend, not follow, there are certainly exceptions)it makes sense these students would aspire to the higher levels their own parents have attained. And finally, my own little pet peeve, and I openly declare it a prejudice I have against private high schools. Many like to fashion themselves as prep schools for college, in particular religious schools. They love to publish their test scores and college acceptance rates and compare them to public schools. I find that completeley outrageous. The private schools usually do not accept marginal academic students, they do not have a population of parents who seemingly dont care if the kids live or die. I have public school teacher friends (another source of my bias) that admit many times they hope to get through a class without vulgar and profane language being used and when they say something about it, the parents use worse language on the teacher. The public schools provide education to learning disabled students, something most private schools dont do. Public Schools now have many students who have English as a second language. If the parents use the tongue of the old country at home, and the kid only speaks english at school, how do you think he will do on his ACT? Could the public school system be improved? Of course! Could public school teachers be more accountable for their results? Absoulutely! Can public schools manipulate their student population to attain the best results? Never! To compare standardized test scores between a private school and public school is like, using the old cliche, apples and oranges, actually its more like apples and a mud puddle, they are just different. To accurately compare the two, compare students in the same economic brackets with the same level of parental invovlement to each other and see how they match up. And I say this having a heavy background in Catholic Education, Public and private school? they are not the same animal

Well, as you remember I said I went to a seminary for three years, it was called St Charles Borromeo Seminary and was located at the corner of Route 53 and Airport road in greater Joliet. Its right next to Lewis College and just down the road from Stateville prison. Its no longer a functional seminary, and is now called the St Charles Borromeo Family Center. As I said, turned out I really wasnt catholic priest material and so after my junior year I dropped out and then went to public high school, in Bensenville, Ill. The name of the school is Fenton High School and I think its still there. Bensenville is on the western edge of O'hare Field and one of my fondest memories is my dad buying Portillo's hot dogs with everything on them from a wagon at the side of Irving Park Road and laying on the hood of his car and watching planes land and until it was dark. I wonder if that can be done now?

Actually, since most crackerbarrels and campfires I attend also include youths under the age of 21 (Ventures and Order of the Arrow) and usually scouts under the age of 18, I would not appreciate anyone discussing any facet of sexuality, even if its a monogamous hetersexual one with a wife of over 50 years. The offending party would be asked to change the subject, then asked to be still, and them asked to leave. If that didnt work, I would either move the proceedings away from the offening party or have the group shun him completely. At no time would I violate the scout law. If the party became outrageous and a physical threat, then the local police would be called to perform their duty.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)