Scouting in our Youth

[gwd-scouter]

Having seen the cute Cub Scout photos on Facebook, I was wondering who else among the forum folks was a Scout in his/her youth.

 

I was a Girl Scout for a couple of years. Older brother was in Boy Scouts and I was jealous of his adventures. I grew up with three brothers, so I was a tom boy all the way. Man, was I disappointed. Girl Scouts, at least back in the 60s, was nothing like Boy Scouts. Yeah, seriously, how much camping do you think we did wearing dresses??? Good news is, a few decades later I finally got to be a Boy Scout!

 

 

[AnniePoo]

I was a Brownie for two weeks, then quit because it was really boring and I thought paying dues (quarter a week) was a ripoff. And I was a tomboy and didn't want to wear the little skirts.

[scoutldr]

I started as a Cub Scout in the early 60's. We wore our "complete" uniforms to school on Den Meeting day, and rode our bikes to the Den Mother's house (about half a mile) for the meeting right after school. OR, we could just change buses and ride the one to her house (without prior approval from the School Board!) Back home by dinner time, then homework.

 

It never occurred to us NOT to wear official uniform pants. Why would we want to do that??? Yes, they got grass stains and torn knees, but so what? Pack meeting once a month at the Catholic Church. Even as a Boy Scout in 6th grade, I have a class picture of 3 of us wearing our green uniforms. No one thought it was odd then. For Scout uniforms and supplies, we had to go to the local JC Penney. We had to show our "Official Membership Card" in order to buy anything. The "Council Office" was this unknown place in a downtown office bldg that we youth never went to.

[SR540Beaver]

Since I was an early to mid-60's Cub, I was pre-Tigers. This was back in the day when there was only one hat and one neckerchief from Bobcat/Wolf thru Lions. In 1967 when I was to become a Lion, the program was dropped and became known as Webelos. I dropped out of Webelos mid-year because the den leader creeped me out. I don't recall a single campout during my Cub years and I know we would have participated because my family camped on their own. I never gave scouts another thought until my son came home from school one day saying he wanted to go to a sign up meeting for Cubs that night. The rest is history and now I could kick myself for not going on to Boy Scouts. My old Cubmaster is still around and kicking. He played a significant part in my life as he was also one of my baseball coaches and a youth sponsor at the church I grew up in. One of his son's was my best friend thru high school. He was Scoutmaster of a troop and I would have been in his troop if I'd stayed in. He and I attend the same church and his wife buys popcorn from my son for Christmas presents each year. He wants to be invited when my son earns Eagle.

[scoutldr]

I earned the Lion badge and then Arrow of Light. The book was called "Lion/Webelos" but there was no Webelos badge. Webelos was the Den we were in, not a rank. Before Webelos, everyone stayed in the same Den...no Wolf Den or Bear Den. Most of the rank and arrow point work was done at home with parents signing off. Den meetings were for crafts or for preparing for events such as B/G, Scout-O-Rama, Mothers/Fathers day, Christmas, etc.

 

We never went camping either (not even Day Camp). I don't think it was part of the Cub program until much later.

[Eagle1982]

I was a Cub Scout starting in the second grade. I went through Webelos, Boy Scouts, earned Eagle, visited Philmont and even stayed with the same troop past my 18th birthday and taught at some of the leadership meetings. Once I was in college full time, it became too hard to keep up, but would visit form time to time. Got back in when my son was a Tiger in first grade.

 

Scouting has had a very positive affect on my life. I would not trade it for anything else.

 

 

[GKlose]

I remember as far back as my brothers being Cub Scouts. None of them really stuck with Boy Scouts, maybe because we moved to a new town about the same time. Shortly after moving, I was old enough to join Cubs, so I did. In fact, one of my old denmates (his mom was our den mother) just contacted me online the other day, after not having heard from him in almost 30 years.

 

Second year, my mom was our den mother. There was a kid in our den that, years later, murdered his parents. My mom sent me the newspaper clippings. I don't remember much about him past Jr High, when we were in the same shop class. He struggled with it, and the rest of school. Things didn't go right for him after that. Eventually, he turned to drugs and the murder of his parents happened after them delivering a dose of "tough love" and saying no to his demand for more money. It's a very sad story.

 

Anyway, I moved on to a Scout troop when I turned 11. Things really couldn't have gone much better, I think. It was a ton of fun, and we were very active. Council summer camp, summer camp on our own, annual fall backpacking trips, caving trips every March, high adventure trips to Philmont, Maine and Ely, the '73 national jamboree. I'm hoping that my sons have as much fun as I did.

 

Guy

[Eagle92]

With a first cousin as an Eagle and hearing some of his stories, I was pumped to be a CS when I got into 3rd grade. But I was ticked off when TC came out when I finally was old enough to be a CS. Anyway the first den didn't go very well, so I switched dens the second year and had a blast. The CM kinda creeped me out, and when I found out he was going to be the new SM of the troop I crossed over to, I transferred to the troop some 2nd cousins were in. Glad i did as that SM was later arrested for molesting his two daughters.

 

Stuck with that troop, got eagle, and stayed with them as an ASM until I turnded to the darkside and became a pro. I did so much with the troop or becasue of the troop: 50 miler in Canada, going to a jambo, working summer camp staff, and participating in the European camp Staff program, although I was an ASM when I did that.

 

Now I'm getting ready to be a TCDL with my oldest. heck I got the applications for both of us filled out except for the unit stuff. Hopefully he'll like the pack we are visiting Monday,a nd I can turn those apps in.

[shortridge]

I started as a Cub in the mid-'80s and went through the program from Wolf to Life, aging out at 18 by choice. I was an OA lodge vice-chief and Vigil member.

 

The highlight of Boy Scouts was working on summer camp staff for five years and attending NCS. I never did Philmont or any of the high adventure bases, but had as much fun locally as permitted by law.

 

My favorite times in Cubs were at day camp (archery, especially), the Space Derby and the two Webelos overnights we did in my back yard.

 

After my freshman year in college, I drifted away from camp staff and focused more on getting a career started. Teaching knots and firebuilding don't translate well on a resume for a newspaper reporter. I'm involved on the edges of the camp staff Venturing crew now, working on documenting the history of the camp in preparation for its 45th anniversary. But I'm really focused on getting ready for my daughter's Girl Scout program going in the fall when she becomes old enough. There's a Brownie troop at her school, but no Daisies yet, so I'm probably going to be starting that up.

[SSScout]

"Shoes? You had shoes?"

 

Can't remember why I joined Cubs, but I did. My mom and neighbor mom were Den moms. I think my dad had the unfinished basement done out in knotty pine just so we'd have a good place for Den meetings. He cut out the cork for the Thunder Bird key holders, the plywood for the glued on magazine picture mom's day presents, drove us for the Den and Pack trips (mom didn't get her license until she was, gee, mid fortys?). Taught me how to care for paintbrushes properly, nice lettering and poster making (spelling! Penmanship! Composition!). No font finding back then!

 

Of course we had the whole uniform, pants too long and hemmed up, let down as I grew. Yellow piped pockets, buttoned down on one side and up on the other (Why??). Brown "Buster Brown" O.I. BSA Shoes from the (Trivia: what was BB's dogs's name?) Hecht Co.

Big ol' boat of a Buick Roadmaster with 6 or 7 Cubs (no seatbelts) on our way (in full uni) to visit the Zoo, or County Fair. Scout-a-rama at the County Fair grounds, our Pack sold ready made popcorn (not Scout type yet). Only popcorn at the Scoutarama! We sold out early, as I recall. My dad went to the local movie theater, they told him where to go to get HUGE bags of the freshly already popped corn, and as I remember, they DONATED all of it! Filled up the whole Buick R/M, barely room for him and me.

 

Boy, that was along time ago...

[GKlose]

I have chronic misfiring neurons, but I think it went something like this:

 

"Here's Buster Brown, he lives in your shoe,

and here's his dog Spot, he lives in there too."

 

Wasn't Spot a white dog with a circle around one eye, not unlike the Little Rascal's dog?

 

Guy

[JoeBob]

Cub Scouts was a babysitting collective for our moms.

Our Boy Scout troop did yard maintenance for our church to earn money for camping gear, which we used a lot! Those single center pole teepee style tents sure went up fast. Just don't touch the sides in the rain...

I taught various subjects (Indian Lore, Pioneering, Paul Bunyan) at summer camp for four years. I learned how to rub the creases out of aluminum canoes after the whitewater rocks ate 'em, and parlayed my paddling experience into summer guiding jobs in college.

Partially due to scouting I was ahead of the class in the Army. Baden Powell would have been proud of my sneaky rear end in Ranger school.

My Eagle project was to blaze and improve a 10 mile trail in Pike County. Don't ask me where it is. Probably under a strip mall. The patch of planted pines where I did Ordeal is now underwater.

I really owe a huge thank-you to our assistant scout master, Carlton B. Colquitt, who quietly made sure that things got done; and took three of us to walk some of the Appalachian Trail in every state from Maine to Georgia. He would have been 104 this year, and still hiking.

[Eamonn]

I think the Beatles were number one in the UK when I joined Wolf Cubs, can't remember if it was Love me do? Or I want to hold your hand?

Anyway!!

Have been "In" Since then, sometimes more active than at other times.

Ea.

(Boy do I feel old!)

[hops_scout]

I joined Tiger Cubs way back in 1st grade I guess. Was in Cub Scouts, Webelos and then onto the Boy Scout troop. Stayed in the troop through my 18th birthday and ended with the Life Scout rank. I served as nearly every youth leadership possible available including SPL and JASM as well as serving on the 2005 National Scout Jamboree Youth Staff in Action Center D on the rappelling tower. As many here probably know, I wasn't much for advancement and merit badge stuff, but I love(d) Scouting and always enjoyed the camping and hiking stuff. Water not so much

 

Now I am an ASM with the troop, but I don't make it around too often due to college and such.

[Tokala]

I joined as a Cub Scout in 1972. Much like scoutldr, our Pack was sponsored by the Catholic church/school and the membership was basically the students. We too wore our Cub uniform to school and either road to the den meeting with our den mother or rode our bikes. I crossed over into the troop sponsored at the same church/school. I've bounced around between different troops and district level jobs. I have remained an active and involved leader on unit, district and council level to this day. My membership has been with the same council all of this time.

 

We also went to JC Penney to buy our uniforms.(This message has been edited by Tokala)