Favorite Scouting Memories

[slontwovvy]

I was thinking about this the other day, and thought other people might like to share too.

 

--Philmont, from watching the sun set on Mt. Phillips on the Fourth of July to hiking in over the Tooth of Time.

 

--Watching a storm crossing Snowbank Lake on a Boundary Waters backpack expedition.

 

--Having my mother pin my Eagle Scout badge on my uniform.

 

--As a camp counselor, seeing one particular youth "getting" EVS for the first time.

 

Let's see some others please...

 

Slont

[dsteele]

I love the idea of this topic. Excellent thread.

 

However, I'll have to get back to you. It will take looking at nearly 30 years of archives in my 38 year old brain and some condensing, but I promise you a few glimpses of memory. Please don't let this thread die while I dust my mind.

 

DS

[ozemu]

investing daughter, son and wife

 

one boy who changed over night and I hope that I was part of the reason

 

being greeted in another country by friends of another colour

 

receiving my Queens Scout Award in my dads National Park (he was the overseer)

 

my Troop doing its first serious overnight hike, in a drought and total fire ban but with a fantastic view at camp

 

 

[insanescouter]

With over 20 years of adventures that one is hard to answer... but i will try to keep the list short... memories in no special order...

 

-- Philmont

 

-- Making Eagle

 

-- Making Arrow of Light

 

-- Receiving that 1st hug as a thank you from a Scout

 

-- To many campouts to list

 

-- OA and especially making Brotherhood while on Campstaff

 

-- The friends I have made

 

I guess thats enough... just so many to choice from....

 

InsaneScouter

http://insanescouter.com Webmaster

[purcelce]

YOUTH:

 

- Making Eagle and Eagle COH

- Philmont

- OA Ordeal

- OA Vigil Night

- Being Elected OA Vice-Chief

- My first summer camp

- My first OA Conclave and OA NLS

 

 

ADULT:

 

- Summer Camp Scoutmaster for provisional troop.

- NOAC 2002

- Asked by youth to be an Associate OA Advisor.

- Getting suckered into the ADC job

- Being selected as District Commisioner of the Year

- Philmont 2003.

- Getting the invitation to by Scouts to attend their Eagle COH's.

- All the new friends I have, thanks to Scouting.

 

[Eagle Foot]

There are really a multiple of times:

The time when I was fourteen years old me and other scouts from my troop and others at least twenty or so scouts were taken out into know where. We were given compass cordinates on a Friday evening around 10pm and had to be back at the Worth Ranch mess hall Sunday at noon. (twenty miles+) One live chicken and teams of 4 (1 chicken per every 2 scouts)...thats all untill Sunday lunch. We did have to cross the Brazos river and we did loooooooooooose some stuff, but everybody made it ok, and it was in Jan. Moooooooooore later as I have time to write.

[dsteele]

Many any too numerous to name them all, my Scouting memories include:

 

Lighting the candle over the Wolf badge when I earned it. I had never played with matches because my Mother strongly warned me against it and lighting that candle was a first. I held the match upside down and burned my fingers.

 

I remember crossing over into Boy Scouts -- what a thrill!

 

I remember one of my first campouts as a Boy Scout -- a polar bear at the district Klondike derby. We were sitting around on bales of hay and the one my Scoutmaster was sitting on caught on fire. I never saw him move so fast. 10 minutes after he put the fire out, it started again behind him. He didn't believe us until he felt the heat. Then he moved even faster!

 

I remember my first week at Rota-Kiwan for long term camp. Being called out and going through my Ordeal. I remember that it rained like nobody's business during my vigil.

 

I remember being my father's Vigil Guide and being very proud of him. It never occurred to me that he was proud of me as well.

 

I remember my Eagle Court of Honor and kissing my mother's cheek when I placed the pin on her blouse.

 

I remember the day I got my commission as a professional Scouter.

 

I remember my first troop meeting as Scoutmaster and I remember my last meeting as Scoutmaster and a whole lot in between. There were three boys there for the first meeting and 21 there for the last.

 

I try, every once in a while, to imagine my life without Scouting -- and I can't do it.

 

May the Great Scoutmaster of all great Scouts be with us until we meet again.

 

DS

[Eamonn]

If the Man Of Steele is having a hard time with 30 years, I'm having a harder time with 40 years.

I kind of, sort of.

Have a hard time with the word Favorite. I tend to get caught up in what is going on today and not spend that much time looking back.

Having said that Scouts and Scouting has done so much for me. As a kid I was way to busy with Scouting, to get into too much trouble.

As an adult I met my wife at a Scout camp 3500 miles away from "Home."

I have lost count of how many little fellows that I have watched become Lads and then grow into young and now maybe not so young men. Memories of smiles and good times, memories of things that didn't go as planned.

Memories of Lad who ran away from home and arrived on my door step at 2:00 AM.

Nearly all my best friends are in Scouting, together we have shared times both good and sad.

Along the way there have been ranks earned and awards received. There have been places of great splendor and beauty. Still the fondest memories are of people.

People who I have looked up to and people who have looked up to me. In some cases I like to think that maybe I have reached out to them, in others I know I could have done more and taken more time and maybe talked less and listened more.

Today I sat at the back of the Lodge circle and watched as my son was in the limelight. He stood there a proud young Lad, his friends and peers watching as he was installed as an officer in the Lodge.

Some of the other proud parents were busy with photos, but I was happy to sit back and enjoy what was his proud moment. But no matter how proud he was. There was one Dad sitting back so much prouder, adding one more favorite memory.

Eamonn

[mk9750]

Way too many to list. I'll tell two.

 

The saddest happy day of my life was watching 9 Webelos with whom I spent four years as a freind and mentor finishing their Cub Scout career and crossing to Boy Scouts. And then, between 6 and 7 years later, watching three of them earn Eagle Scout (including my son).

 

On the first campout I went with the Troop, we were in the Allegheny National Forest in late October. The leaves were at peak. There was a rock outcrop that we used to rapel from which it seemed like one could see forever. Very cool morming, very hot coffee, all alone at 7:15 in the morning, cemented my belief that God has to exist. Within a half hour, I had about a dozen young men with me, and a spontaneous religious service broke out. I don't believe I am fanatic about my belief in God, but this was one of the defining moments in my life.

 

Mark

[dan]

The 2 Summer Camps as a Boy Scout, 1st year at the old council camp, 2nd year at the opening of the new council camp, did not earn one merit badge, but had a good time!

 

As a 14 year old Explorer Scout flying from Northern Illinois to camp outs in Kentucky and Missouri for the weekend. As with today kids, half of them had brought junk food to "snack" on and at least 5 of them got sick from the turbulence.

The pilot shut down one of the engines, and we all freaked, but it sure got quiet in that plane!

Sitting through ground school as an Explorer Scout. Flying with an instructor. (never did solo)

"Summer Camp" at the airport that sponsored us, painting the light beacon, mowing the grass, painting the hangars. Going to the lake behind the airport and swimming at 11oclock at night.

 

Talking with my son after den meetings, that I thought did not go well, and him telling me that it was a great meeting.

Presenting my son (and 5 other cubs) every rank in Cub Scouts except Tiger.

 

Watching my son being tapped out this spring. And how nervous he was about the "ordeal". He kept asking me what was an ordeal so I got the dictionary out and showed him. This only made him more nervous.

Watching my son "grow up" in the Boy Scouts, It amazing how much difference 3 years make in a Scout! I believe that when they are looking for a model scout, they should use him as an example, but I might be a little bias.

 

[hops_scout]

I'll try.....

 

---First summer camp when it poured for two and a half days, but our fire kept going strong.

 

 

---fall canoe trip with just a fleece sleeping bag and soacked jeans:)

 

 

---color guard at age 10 for high school basketball game:)

 

 

---Summer Camp this year doing our own cooking, climbing merit badge:), and rifle shooting for the first time

 

 

---getting called out at the OA call out this year

 

 

--- be looked up to by Cub Scouts at Day Camp:)

 

 

I guess that is all for now. More to come at later day

[eisely]

National Jamboree in Valley Forge in 1957. Went to the biggest outdoor mass I think I ever saw. More bishops and priests on that stage than I ever saw before or since. The night before departure, my patrol and I sneaked across the Pennsylvania Turnpike (stupid stunt) to the Howard Johnson's that was plainly visible from our camp site and calling to us all week.

 

Canoeing on the Lake of the Ozarks. Went out for a solo paddle in the morning mist among the reeds. Almost jumped out of my skin when a heron took off with a loud squawk (sp?) a few feet away from me.

 

Finishing the Lincoln Trail from New Salem to Springfield in July.

 

Philmont with my sons.

 

Watching my middle son hit the water to finish his last requirement for canoeing merit badge when the older scout with him tipped the canoe.

 

Sunrise over the Berkeley hills earlier this spring on my vigil.

[River2K]

Backpacking along the Black River in Arizona at 13 years old to earn the 50 miler patch with everything I needed to survive on my back.

Ken

[AnneinMpls]

Backpacking in the Black Forest,

riding the overnight train from Brussels to Munich with my bestest friend Cathy 2 years in a row for the older girl conferences, staying at the now gone Olave House in London with our troop, working all year fundraising to pay for our own horseback riding lessons all summer (thanks Mom!), being invited to sit in on a training session for Belgian troop leaders - it was in Flemish - I couldn't understand a word - but it was Scouting and it made perfect sense , our first co-op campout with the Boy Scout troop - we each planned activities for the weekend - the boy scouts invited us to...to...climb under this rope thing in the mud on our bellies after it'd been raining for 3 days straight?! Had a blast (Also learned to keep flashlights off in the tents ahem.) As a CIT letting a Brownie give me a *really really* bad manicure at camp, washing the camp bus, gorging on Nutella and marshmallows when we got back from 6 days out on the trail (this took precedence over showering), the singdown at Chiemsee - Cathy and I were unstoppable - they finally ended the contest after 2 and a half hours and we were still coming up with songs for the theme (a singdown is a contest in which each group or patrol has to sing a recognizable phrase from a song to fit the theme - if they can't think of a song they're eliminated - the people who planned this thought it might fill up maybe an hour...if only Cathy and I hadn't been on different teams we would have put them out of their misery a *lot* sooner...)

The coolest part is...there are more great memories yet to be made )

[AK-Eagle]

Summer of 1988 working on Lake Arrowhead Scout reservation (Los Angeles Area Council) Camp Pepperdine.

 

We were hosting some inner-city after-school scouts in camp that week. After a full Sunday afternoon of swim checks, campsite check in's, dinner, and the opening campfire we finally got the troops to their campsites. After taps as a matter of habit I "walked the hill" to make sure the campsites were settled down before heading to my own tent. As I was making my way across the parade ground I noticed two scouts sitting on a stump. I approached to ask if they needed help finding their campsite One replied "No we're okay. I just wanted to see the sky. Can you tell me which are stars and which are planets?" There was no moon that night the star field was especially good.

I asked if they knew any stars or planets at all, his reply was he sometimes got to see the moon through the smogged, streetlighted L.A. sky. That was the first time in that 13 year old scout's lifetime he had ever seen the night sky unobstructed.

After a gulp, I started out by showing Ursa Major (Big Dipper), then Polaris (North Star), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper), Draco, we got treated to a few satelites and some high flying aircraft. I continued through what I knew until midnight when I told them it was way past time for them to be in their campsite. Escorting them back to their camp, they asked if a few of their friends could come the next night.

The following night I had that entire troop out on the parade ground.

 

And people ask me why I keep playing B.P.'s game