What's your earliest Scouting memory?

[dsteele]

Youth or adult,

 

Whether you joined the BSA as a kid or as an adult, what do you remember?

 

I remember watching a commercial in the ealry '70's. A cartoon Snoopy and Woodstock followed a bunch of older kids across a lot and into the woods. I don't remember if they were Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts.

 

But I do remember shouting, "Mom, I want to do that!"

 

I remember Mom signing me up at school. I walked out the door with her and said, "I'm a Cub Scout now?" She said yes and we went directly to the store to buy my uniform. I slept in it that night. It was soooo cool.

 

I remember dreaming of earning Eagle. I did it . . . eventually.

 

What are your early memories. If not your own, what are your memories of joining as an adult?

 

Unc.

[Laurie]

I don't remember how I got into Scouting, but I do remember wearing by Brownie uniform and being very proud of it. Those earliest memories are of flag ceremonies and songs and of something special I got to do with my mom. She was one of our leaders, and that was pretty cool to me

 

As the years progressed, I was excited at all the new things to try, especially the first aid and camping, which was all pretty challenging. I went for it all, and my favorites were the first aid and camping badges/activities. One exception: learning to decorate a cake was fun. Sadly our troop folded due to lack of interest when I was in junior high school.

[Bob White]

I remember sitting on the basement steps and watching my older brother's den meeting through the railing every Tuesday at 4PM.

[OldGreyEagle]

My earliest scouting memory predates when I was a scout actually. My mother was a den mother. In her den were my brother, and all of his "cool" friends. Well to me they were cool, being 18 months older, we were just close enough to age to drive each other crazy but I digress.

 

In the pack, the Dens had a tradition at the Christmas party of singing Christmas songs. Another tradition was at the end, Santa would come in with a big sack, stuffed with wrapped boxes, each with a Cubs name on it. It took me three years after I became a Cub Scout to realize it would always be a Pinewood Derby car, but it was fun, again I digress

 

So, my mother's Den was assigned to sing the Song, Frosty the Snowman. Well, I loved that song, and I knew all the words and none of the other kids did. I taught it to them . My mother then said she would make a snowman costume (she was quite the seamstress) and I would wear it and bounce around as the song was sung. When the night came, I could barely breathe I was so excited, then our turn came, they sang, I ran down "the streets of town" and even stopped when the traffic cop part came up. The audience loved it, the den loved it and my brother sulked for weeks, (he didnt like me playing with his friends)

 

It was great, and now, perhaps even more since my mother has died, whenever I hear Frosty the Snowman, I will get tears in my eyes and remember that night, oh so very long ago.

[Eamonn]

I remember my brother who is 4 years older then me getting ready for Scouts and thinking how neat that was.

I remember my mother taking me to the local department store to buy my first uniform. It had some really strange system of vacuum tubes.

The Wolf Cub uniform was a green wool sweater. Boy did it itch.

Eamonn.

[frank10]

I was in 7th grade, walking with a friend down town when a small pick up truck pulled over and the driver talked with my friend. I was so amazed that an adult would take the time to listen to a 7th grader that I had to find out more! the adult was the Scoutmaster of T111, joined the next meeting.

[Fat Old Guy]

Eamonn, why did your uniform have vacuum tubes? Was it a superheterodyne unit?

[boleta]

Sears sold the Boy Scout and Cub uniforms before Hecht Co. took it over. They used Pneumatic (vacuum) tubes as a messenger system. I remember it too.

The pack meetings were chaos. I remember a spaghetti dinner in 1961. But the den meetings were fun! Mom was the den mother.

[Balding Eagle]

I remember when the notice came home from school to join cub scouts. I asked my best friend if he was going to join. He said no. I caved to peer pressure and did not join. I always regretted it. The next year when the notice came, again my best friend said no. This time I joined anyhow.

Back then we used to wear our uniforms to school and meet after school at our Den Mothers house. I remember making Christmas ornaments at our den meetings. They still hang from my parents tree.A few years later I remember my first camping trip, the Webelos Dad overnight. We camped in lean-tos. I remember the exact one I slept in. I recently told the story of my first campout with my son during the Cub-Parent weekend showing him the very same lean-to.(This message has been edited by Balding Eagle)

[EagleInKY]

I remember going to pack meetings when I was about 5 (my older brother was a Cub). I also remember his Webelos den, they made me their "mascot". They probably picked on me unmercifully, but I thought it was cool. I couldn't wait to be a Cub.

[NJCubScouter]

I have a few memories of Scouting from before I was old enough to join Cub Scouting, because my father was a Scoutmaster even before he had any sons old enough for Scouting. (In fact he was a Scoutmaster before he was married, and an ASM before that, going back to when he aged out of being a Scout; and though he "retired" as SM about 15 years ago, is still an ASM and received his 65-year pin last year.)

 

I remember my father taking me (probably at age 6 or 7) to a Camporee just for a day visit; I am not sure why he wasn't there for the weekend, probably he had to work but had time to drive out for a few hours. As for my earliest memory of MYSELF as a Scout; well, for whatever reason, I do have a clear memory of sitting in the school gym bleachers for my first meeting as a Cub Scout. I don't remember what I did exactly, but I do remember being there. I also have a memory similar to Bob's, sitting on the basement steps watching my father run a Webelos den meeting downstairs, though I was already a Cub Scout, just not old enough to be a Webelos.

[NJCubScouter]

Oh, and for whatever interest it may have to Scouting historians, the year that I remember my father being Webelos den leader (and me being a year too young yet) would have been the first year of what was then the "new" Webelos program, when the Lion rank had been abolished, and Webelos activity badges were introduced for the first time. I guess that was 1967.

[packsaddle]

Joined cubs about 10 years earlier, NJ. There were still Lions but I never made it past that. I still have my old cub scout uniform. I remember doing standing backflips with the other boys in the front yard of the den mother. She nearly fainted. One our pack meetings had some Boy Scouts and the meeting hall had all their awards and stored equipment. That did it for me.

[Fuzzy Bear]

It was in June 1956, my older brother attended Summer Camp and I got to visit for one day because my Dad was the Scoutmaster. My brother allowed me to follow him and some other Scouts up to the top of the local "mountain". It was a fifteen minute climb and he showed me a cleft in the rocks where a Scout had broken his arm. The place was named for the Scout and the accident.

 

I joined Scouts that Fall because I thought it was preordained. I didn't know any difference but if I would of had a choice, it certainly would have been Scouting. We moved from that Council to another in June 1959. I continued and received my Lion award and later my Webelos.

 

In July 1983, I moved back to the area of my first experiences in Scouting. I requested a job as Camp Commissioner in that first Camp that I still remembered and with some reverence moved in to the staff area. That evening I made the pilgrimage to the top of the "mountain" and sat down beside the cleft in the rocks. Sure enough it was for real. I thought silently to myself, "I guess a Scout could break his arm if he fell into that spot or a guy could fall in love with Scouting by just being here."

 

That Summer I also taught the Indian Lore merit badge. Since the camp area really had Indians in the past, it was a natural. Each afternoon, we met in a different area that I called a beautiful spot. I figured that if I were an Indian, I would have used the same spots for protection or to communicate with the Great Spirit or just to meditate. I felt like it was a way to communicate or know some of the same thoughts or to have a few of the same feelings others had in the past. For the last evening when each person made their last presentation in the most beautiful spot in the camp, it was up on the mountain next to the cleft and overlooking the valley below.

 

FB

 

[red feather]

As a cub, going to Den Meetings, those were lots of fun. Wearing my Cub uniform to school and seeing all my friends wearing theirs.

 

As a scout, one overnight where I for whatever reason spent time with one of the 'younger' scouts with their First Aid. I was maybe a year or two older and just a 3rd year scout myself. One of those things that just seemed the thing to do. Afterwards several of the leaders came up to me and told me how impressed they were that I had taken that time to help the other scout. One of the leaders was my Dad.

 

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