Boys Life Fans Wanted

[maryj75225]

Greetings, I'm a writer in Dallas on assignment for Scouting magazine. I'm writing about the 100th anniversary of Boys Life, and would love to interview Scoutmasters, Scouts and any others who might have stories to share. If you'd be willing to talk with me, reply to this post or email me directly at maryjacobs44@yahoo.com. I'd be interested in thoughts relating to any or all of these questions: How have you used Boys Life in meetings and other programs? How have you seen Boys Life inspire boys to read? What memories of the magazine do you have from your childhood? Have you shared or read the magazine at home? Also - data shows that readers of Boys Life stay in Scouting longer and advance further. Ever see any direct evidence of that? Deadline is Oct. 11. Thank you!

[BartHumphries]

My grandmother was an accountant for the Boy Scout Ventura County Council. My birthday present from her was usually another year's subscription to Boy's Life. Well, I don't know if reading Boy's Life engenders longer Scouting participation, but I became an Eagle Scout and I work with a scout troop now. Most of my fellow scouters who didn't have grandmothers like mine "graduated" from scouting and are now no longer involved with it. The whole magazine was good, but back when I was 10 my favorite part was always the comics -- the Norby ones were why I first started reading Isaac Asimov's books.

[oldisnewagain1]

Whittlin Jim was my favorite

[Eagle92]

I remember reading the White Mountains trilogy by John Christopher. That cartoon serial got me hooked on all of his books. Also remember the article on how to build a robot, and actually had the TSI 1800 computer( think it was 1800, but it was definatley a TSI) and wanted to build it.

 

Haven't used it for advancement per se, but I do encourage it to develop a love of reading. I use to read it to my oldest son, especially Scouts in Action, but now he wants to read it himself.

 

As for advancement, if this helps I got the AOL as a Cub, and am an Eagle.

[skeptic]

I subscribe to Boys' Life personally as a leader, because I want to see what is there for the boys, and I enjoy some of the material myself admittedly. When I am done with them, I take them to one of the local school libraries in which I sub, and they always have use for them. Matter of fact, most librarians say that they are the most popular magazine they have in the 4th to 6th grade level, even often for girls. I wonder if National might consider developing a program that would make the magazine directly available to these underfunded public school libraries. In the meantime, it would be great to get other scouters and scouts to give their copies to the libraries when they have finished with them.

[skeptic]

I subscribe to Boys' Life personally as a leader, because I want to see what is there for the boys, and I enjoy some of the material myself admittedly. When I am done with them, I take them to one of the local school libraries in which I sub, and they always have use for them. Matter of fact, most librarians say that they are the most popular magazine they have in the 4th to 6th grade level, even often for girls. I wonder if National might consider developing a program that would make the magazine directly available to these underfunded public school libraries. In the meantime, it would be great to get other scouters and scouts to give their copies to the libraries when they have finished with them.

[UCEagle72]

Nah ... Green Bar Bill's column was my favorite ... but Whitlin' Jim was up there in order of importance.

 

[Eagle92]

HOW IN THE HECK DID I FORGET GREEN BAR BILL'S ARTICLES ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (now hitting head against a wall.) Those were informational and inspiring. Maybe BL could bring them back?

[shortridge]

I always wanted to get the hovercraft kit from the back-of-the-book Boys Life advertisements. There was also a brief time when I really, really wanted to go to Culver Military Academy because the ads looked awesome. And I'd be utterly remiss for not mentioning the liners for sea monkeys and X-ray specs! Imagination-inspiring entertainment for gullible kids.

[maryj75225]

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. Skeptic, I will pass along your comments about the school libraries to the circulation manager at Boys Life. (Highlights for Children magazine used a similar strategy, I believe, by sending the publication to pediatrician's offices and it worked, at least at one time.) I laughed out loud at the memory about Culver Military Academy. I have a similar memory, and I'm a girl (and was never a tomboy or an athlete or an aspiring soldier!) I'm not even sure where I saw the ads, but they MUST have been REALLY cool!

[UCEagle72]

MaryJ and '92 --

 

If BL ever wanted to publish a collection of all the GBB articles, they could probably find something that most any of us would buy.

 

I know they have just released the "best of" collection for the whole magazine, but, I think a collection would serve a much larger audience, make great material for SM minutes, and hopefully inspire some of our current youth leaders to "step up" a bit more.

[UCEagle72]

In case you are wondering, "Hiking with Green Bar Bill" first appeared in the October, 1932 edition of Boy's Life.

[Adam S]

I received an envelope containing several copies of Scouting magazine. Odd, as I usually get one copy, but our district rechartes every March so maybe I got a copy for my pack, troop and district registrations...

 

I read it tonight and found out why I was sent multiple copies. I had answered this post and Mary Jacobs used my storey as the opening to her article about Boys Life's Anniversary year.

 

http://digital.scouting.org/scoutingmagazine/current/resources/index.htm it is on page 23.

 

I am humbled, Thank you Mary!

 

 

 

p.s. now you know my last name, if you can corrctly pronounce it I will send you one of my council strips