Old Newbie

[clemlaw]

Hello!

 

I've been lurking here for a while, and decided I couldn't resist the temptation to jump in any longer.

 

It looks like I'm not the first one to say this, but I'm an Eagle Scout who has recently "advanced" to Tiger Den Leader.

 

I started Cub Scouts in about 1969, and made Eagle in 1978. I drifted away from Scouting after college, but got back in with my son. My son actually started last year, in Kindergarten, as a "Lion Cub", which is a pilot program in the Northern Star Council. We had to change Packs due to scheduling conflicts, and this year he's put on the "real" Cub Scout uniform as a Tiger.

 

Speaking of uniforms, mine seems to have shrunk just hanging in the closet. I'll get a new one one of these days, but something makes me want to wear this one a few more times.

 

I've learned that there was a name for the time when I went through Scouts, namely the "Improved Scouting Program". It is nice to see that most of the improvements have now been undone. I think I went through Second Class under the old requirements, and then after that under the "Improved" requirements.

 

The thing is, the "improvements" didn't really bother us too much. As far as I know, our troop did things pretty much the same way they always had, and then we quickly finished up whatever new requirements there were for advancement. The main problem was that we all bought a book that wasn't really much good.

 

Theoretically, someone could have made Eagle without going Camping and without knowing how to swim, but I'm not aware of anyone who did. Camping was the thing we did, so nobody bothered substituting Basket Weaving for Camping, or whatever the alternate was.

 

My old troop is defunct, my old district is defunct, and the old council merged into a neighboring council (where I happen to live now). So some things are different, but a lot of things seem awfully familiar!

[UCEagle72]

Welcome to the virtual campfire.

 

Pull up a log and grab a stick, skeeters ain't too bad.

 

I finished my Eagle under the "old program" ... and I consider myself very fortunate.

 

My old Council, gone -- my district, well, they are in the process of merging those so we'll see what happens. But my Troop is still around and my last SM is still doin' the job 40 years later.

 

But I am down here in Floor-a-dee now, so I can only watch those things from afar, and every once in a while, head "up north" for a Court of Honor.

 

My concerns are local!