In the ongoing cultural wars, we have lost much. For a start, we have lost a lot of the distribution, impact and benefits that the Boy Scouting movement gave to America. What we had, how we lost it, and why we lost it is the subject of this rambling, unpoetic screed. Enjoy, detest, write hateful comments, whatever – YMMV, this is MY experience from forty years ago. I have no current contact with the Scouting movement, so feel free to add your two cents below as to what it is / does / should be.
I grew up in middle Tennessee in the sixties / seventies. Overwhelmingly white area, filled with fairly ordinary people, who did ordinary things. Our fathers were almost all living at home with us and our mothers, raising us as best they could, teaching, leading and disciplining us as possible. They were not perfect people any more than today’s are, but they gave us time, attention, and support above and beyond today’s call. We became better people because of it.
My dad was not a Scoutmaster – he didn’t have enough time. Five kids, a full-time job as a civilian contractor for the Air Force working at a wind tunnel facility ate up most of his time, along with a thirty-acre non-working (non-commercial) farm and various other things. For a couple of years we had a commercial greenhouse growing tomatoes for local supermarkets, but a nasty windstorm destroyed it and he let it go; wasn’t making a whole lot there anyway, too easy to grow tomatoes in Tennessee. But with all he worked and did and made and fixed and built and maintained and kept, he somehow found time for –
The Boy Scouts of America. As a parent, not an official.
I think it was partly an escape – he could go out camping, spend some time with some of his children, and get out in nature, while forgetting about aerodynamic testing, mowing the barn lot / back lot / side lots / pastures, plumbing, car repairs, home repairs, painting … you get the picture. He was a busy man, and must have enjoyed NOT being busy from time to time. But he loved his kids, and found ways to spend time with them – like camping.
So, back to the Scouts. I started in Cub Scouts, was a Boy Scout up to 18, quit before attaining Eagle (but was in the Order of the Arrow honor camping society). I went to summer camps (Boxwell near Nashville), Camporees (Spring – Summer- Fall –Winter), weekly meetings, bicycle hikes, foot hikes, swimming, campouts on weekends, fund raisers, service projects. I made friends, met friends, lost friends along the way. And we did things.
Camping: you learn to build a fire without charcoal or lighter fluid, erect a tent, dig a pit toilet, cooking over a wood fire, cleaning dishes afterwards, make structures / frameworks / furniture out of tree limbs. How to use a knife, saw, hatchet and axe, what happens when you lose concentration with a lethally-sharp instrument (in my case, only minor scars, but I learned quickly to focus!), first aid.
Hiking: wear two pairs of socks to prevent blisters (I still do, daily!), take a canteen, snack, first aid kit, poncho, boots not sneakers, blue jeans for briars, long-sleeved shirt for sun / briar protection, HAT, in winter gloves / coat / thermals underneath, which snakes are bad news and how to avoid them; why sugary candy won’t help your hunger.
Activities: make root beer from sassafras, learn plants and animal tracks, birds, reptiles, mammals. Build a signal tower twenty feet high from tree limbs and rope with ladders and platforms included, how to make rope, and out of what. All those merit badges: knot tying, forestry, swimming – hiking – camping, leatherwork, conservation, signaling, orienteering (map & compass). Tons and tons of activities. Training in first aid, fire fighting, nutrition? Music, bugling, basket weaving, woodworking, you name it there was a merit badge for it.
Periodically we would take on a service project. Picking up trash from the roadsides, recycling paper / cardboard / newspapers, whatever someone could think of that the community might benefit from that we could manage. A new park? Scouts would pour concrete (with parental supervision), build a playground, put in a water fountain and plant trees. We sold programs at high school football games and raised the flag / lowered it after, raked leaves and cleaned out ditches, you name it.
What did the Scouts get from the community? Financial support, sometimes, although parents provided most of it; occasionally a business owner might give us a payable project (usually donating materials, especially if a kid of theirs was in the troop), buy a piece of equipment / service like a rain tarp or canvas tent, support us in a community project.
We got recognition if we did something really outstanding, requests for help / staffing for charitable work, calls to do things like put on a show or demonstration for elementary school kids. We were “disaster victims”, traffic assistants, school crossing guards at times and civil defense drills / public service aides for all kinds of events. We were appreciated for all these things; the thank-you notes we got would cover walls in the meeting rooms at the church who sponsored us.
What did the community get from the Scouts? Free labor for any worthwhile cause; smart, fast kids who could get the word out and start the process to recover from floods, fires, freezes and storms. Kids who WORKED; we built, cleared, cleaned, collected, straightened up and painted, and learned how to do things while doing so. Kids who were resourceful, diligent, determined, and capable. You knew who the Scouts were, where they were, whose kids they were. They helped build community.
The Scouts were terrible, horrible human beings after all, though. Scouting did not embrace or encourage homosexuality when I was growing up; we didn’t know who was gay, probably because we weren’t all that sexually aware in the majority (when I turned fifteen I still didn’t have a girlfriend, ignorant virgin that I was), and while some guys did I would say most were still not very active. But Scouting didn’t embrace homosexuality when I was young, and that eventually became a crime (long after I aged out). Scouting was a private organization, but that didn’t matter to the SJWs of those days (ACLU, various others). Lawsuits were filed because Scouting discriminated against homosexuality in leadership and membership, and that was intolerant. Eventually, Scouting was required to accept homosexuals in leadership positions and membership, and membership declined dramatically.
BSA membership size
| Year | Tiger Cubs, Cubs, Webelos |
Boy Scouts, Varsity Scouts |
Venturers (post-1997), Explorers (pre-1998), not incl. LFL (post-1989) |
Total Traditional Scouting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 1,865,000 | 1,647,000 | 271,000 | 3,783,000 |
| 1970 | 2,438,000 | 1,916,000 | 329,000 | 4,683,000 |
| 1975 | 1,997,000 | 1,503,000 | 434,000 | 3,933,000 |
| 1980 | 1,696,000 | 1,064,000 | 447,000 | 3,207,000 |
| 1981 | 1,643,000 | 1,101,000 | 499,000 | 3,244,000 |
| 1982 | 1,693,000 | 1,126,000 | 606,000 | 3,425,000 |
| 1983 | 1,693,000 | 1,116,000 | 758,000 | 3,567,000 |
| 1984 | 1,638,000 | 1,078,000 | 941,000 | 3,657,000 |
| 1985 | 1,668,000 | 1,063,000 | 1,024,000 | 3,755,000 |
| 1986 | 1,974,000 | 1,042,000 | 1,021,000 | 4,037,000 |
| 1987 | 2,110,000 | 1,032,000 | 1,037,000 | 4,180,000 |
| 1988 | 2,148,000 | 1,025,000 | 1,055,000 | 4,228,000 |
| 1989 | 2,156,000 | 1,008,000 | 1,083,000 | 4,247,000 |
| 1990 | 2,181,000 | 1,011,000 | 741,000 | 3,933,000 |
| 1991 | 2,126,000 | 979,000 | 362,000 | 3,467,000 |
| 1992 | 2,111,000 | 976,000 | 367,000 | 3,454,000 |
| 1993 | 2,067,000 | 979,000 | 380,000 | 3,426,000 |
| 1994 | 2,031,000 | 978,000 | 394,000 | 3,403,000 |
| 1995 | 2,037,000 | 981,000 | 401,000 | 3,419,000 |
| 1996 | 2,095,000 | 1,000,000 | 422,000 | 3,419,000 |
| 1997 | 2,153,000 | 1,016,000 | 455,000 | 3,624,000 |
| 1998 | 2,171,000 | 1,023,000 | 188,000 | 3,382,000 |
| 1999 | 2,181,013 | 1,028,353 | 202,486 | 3,411,852 |
| 2000 | 2,114,405 | 1,003,681 | 233,828 | 3,351,914 |
| 2001 | 2,043,478 | 1,005,592 | 276,434 | 3,325,504 |
| 2002 | 2,000,478 | 1,010,791 | 293,323 | 3,304,592 |
| 2003 | 1,914,425 | 997,398 | 288,395 | 3,200,218 |
| 2004 | 1,875,752 | 988,995 | 280,584 | 3,145,331 |
| 2005 | 1,745,324 | 943,426 | 249,948 | 2,938,698 |
| 2006 | 1,701,861 | 922,836 | 244,256 | 2,868,963 |
| 2007 | 1,687,986 | 913,588 | 254,259 | 2,855,833 |
| 2008 | 1,665,635 | 905,879 | 261,122 | 2,832,636 |
| 2009 | 1,634,951 | 898,320 | 257,361 | 2,790,632 |
| 2010 | 1,601,994 | 898,852 | 238,846 | 2,739,692 |
| 2011 | 1,583,166 | 909,576 | 231,127 | 2,723,869 |
| 2012 | 1,528,421 | 910,163 | 219,453 | 2,658,794 |
| 2013 | 1,417,034 | 888,947 | 192,080 | 2,498,061 |
| 2014 | 1,295,527 | 854,692 | 157,655 | 2,307,874 |
| 2015 | 1,261,340 | 840,654 | 142,892 | 2,244,886 |
| Peak Year | 1970 | 1970 | 1989 | 1970 |
| Most Recent Peak | 1999 | 1999 | 2008 | 1997 |
| change (1999 to 2015) |
-42.2% | -18.3% | -29.4% | -34.2% |
Now, scouting still exists, and I’m sure it does a lot of good where it manages to avoid the Politically Correct Enforcement Groups. But as a percentage of youth it is diminished, and serves fewer than it could if it were less persecuted by the left for its’ homophobic policies. BUT, BUT, but .. they reformed! WHY are they still down in membership?
Well, obviously! Today’s modern parents are too busy to invest time in campouts, fund-raisers, paper drives, hiking and swimming, all those anachronistic outdoorsy things that Scouts are known to do. Today’s kids couldn’t give a flip about nature, community-building, learning outdoor woodcraft / survival skills, or any of those old-fashioned hands-on useful things, preferring their iPhones, PlayStations, and video games to actually seeing a deer, badger or cardinal in the woods. It’s cold and wet out there, little Johnny might catch a cold! And playing with all those sharp implements, with edges and teeth and pointy ends? Why, there are places out in the wilderness beyond Tenth Street where there is no cell phone service! The very idea, how could we call Johnny if we needed to reschedule his sensitivity training if we needed to?
Could it be … that people don’t want to send their young boys camping with known homosexuals as leaders? That maybe having two kids, one perhaps homosexual and one not, alone in a tent overnight might not be the best possible practice for continued healthy growth and development? That all those parents are actually homophobic bigots without compassion or care for the gay youth of the world? Perish the thought!
Hollywood rarely shows Scouting any more. There were 7 films showing Boy Scout activities in the 1930’s, three in the 1960s, two in 2012 and one each in 2013, 2014 and 2015 [Wikipedia]. The 2015 film was rated R for sex, nudity, violence and language, so most Scouts couldn’t even see it! Similar drops are seen on TV and elsewhere; the MSM still hates the Scouts, mainly since the LDS Church (Mormons) sponsor more troops than anyone else in America, and their moral codes still disdain homosexuality generally, so Scouts = Mormons = evil homophobic bigots to Hollywood, so let’s all ignore. We certainly wouldn’t want to appear to encourage such a hateful organization!
But what we really lost had nothing to do with homosexuality or homophobia: we lost a healthy, outdoor outlet for energy / friendship / growth for boys ages eight to sixteen. Lots of kids who might have spent at least some time outdoors, learning survival skills, discipline and appreciation for nature didn’t. Kids whose parents don’t have time to spend with them couldn’t benefit from parents who did. And that was a great benefit from my time in the Scouts also.
Phil Tarver’s son Russ was a great kid; cheerful, friendly, the kind of kid who looked for loners and talked to them. His dad organized a boat trip down the Tennessee River; we took three or four small motor boats and about fifteen or twenty kids from Norris Dam (up above Knoxville) down to Chickamauga (near Chattanooga). Between going through locks, waiting for clearance / room and actually powering down the river, it took a couple of days. Phil Tarver and three more dads were there, as we drove / floated / fished and enjoyed the river. I tried water skiing for the first time (and was only able to get up on the skis once in four attempts, for about six seconds total). I saw him interact with his son, talked about photography (Phil’s hobby), camped by the riverside when night came and saw new places and things, such as the dams and locks.
John Norman was a Scoutmaster, his kids Dave and Eddie were in the troop when I was. I saw him laugh, saw him teach, saw him tear his kid a new one when he misbehaved badly one time (we were all bone tired and irritable in the rain, chilled to the bone and somewhat hungry at least). I can look back at that and say I learned a lot about what acceptable behavior was and wasn’t in the Boy Scouts; when that unacceptable behavior was mine I took discipline, and never even told my dad about it, because I guess I thought I had earned whatever punishment I got. Most of all, I think, I got the opportunity to see what John Norman’s version of dad was, what Phil Tarver’s was, and how it compared with my dad’s. I really learned a lot about what being a man was and should be from seeing men interact with their children, hard weather and adversity, plans that met reality, and sudden developments that were tough, trying and unpredictable.
Allen Bailey was a Kiwi and a Scoutmaster; he was famous for Bailey miles, which were far longer than 5,280 feet like a normal mile. We might ask him, “Mr. Bailey, how much longer?” (even Scouts can whine at times) and he would joyfully reply, “Only a few more miles, boys!” with that Brit cheerfulness that sounds real; two hours later we would stumble into camp, bone-tired, and ready to fall asleep in seconds, only to be reminded that food needed cooking before eating, which needed campfires, which needed firewood; and we would gather firewood, discussing how many feet were in a Bailey mile if “only a few more” took two hours to hike. That night’s meal tasted really good, however; and looking at the stars before falling asleep was peacefully restorative to body and soul.
Scouting also taught other areas, such as history. The Civil War was largely fought in the south, and a lot of it in Tennessee and surroundings. We would go camping and hiking on trails at battlefields and parks. Shiloh, Chickamauga, Stones River, Lookout Mountain; the blood of dying soldiers gave Bloody Pond at Shiloh its name, and Putnam’s Stump (where they put Putnam’s body during the battle to keep it from being lost / desecrated by the other side) marked the farthest advance of XX Corps during the battle.
The Hornet’s Nest was called that because the bullets flying by sounded like angry hornets to the pinned-down soldiers lying prone at the sunken road; Bragg retreated through here to set up an ambush there when Ulysses S. Grant was advancing; Confederate general Albert Sydney Johnston was shot in the leg by a sniper at the close of the first day, and bled to death in his thigh-high boot here. That night, a cornered and outmanned Grant was re-supplied and reinforced at Pittsburgh Landing, and carried the field the next day. You could learn a lot about tactics, the military and the horrors of war in Scouting.
But what Scouting really taught me was discipline, self-reliance and determination. If you are ten miles into a twenty-mile hike and your feet hurt, you keep walking. If you drank all your water in the first ten miles, you could ask for some but most likely you would get at least a little thirsty. If you forgot to bring ANY food, you would probably get hungry, at least for a while. Your friends would help you if you got really dehydrated, hurt, so hungry you could not function or sick, but on the whole, you were expected to cope.
Scouting taught you how to cope, endure, push on and tolerate some pain. It also taught you how to plan (how many meals in a weekend campout? Did you pack your poncho and canteen?), how to organize (it’s gonna take at least four of us to carry all that water back from the well; who’s coming?), how to build things (that tower will take saplings at least two inches thick to hold our weight at the top) and how to improvise (another two hours till the car arrives? Build a fire with six twigs and some pine shavings, heat Vienna wieners in the can over the flame and share it out among the three of us).
THAT is what we have lost / are losing. How many kids today can build a fire without a lighter, or put it out if it starts to get out of hand without an extinguisher? How many can purify water without a Berkey filter, find shelter in a stormy forest, signal distress without electricity or cell phones? How many can plan, organize, improvise when plans go astray (and they will!). How can we restore teaching self-reliance in a pampered, indulgent culture?
Feel free to tell me there were always homosexuals in the Boy Scouts (I never knew any, but that may just have been my general obliviousness to anything that didn’t really concern me). Feel free to tell me today’s Scouts are better people, more tolerant, more forgiving than the redneck bigoted hateful savages I grew up with (though I would dare you to find a more thoughtful, generous kid than Russ Tarver was anywhere), and how it’s more important to know how to dial 911 on a cell phone than build a temporary shelter if you’re caught in a forest in the rain.
Feel free to mention how society has moved on from the Boy Scouts, that there are more important things to worry about than how male children learn civilized behavior (like climate change, refugee resettlement and providing EBT benefits for disadvantaged urban youth). Feel free to provide every disparaging story, cliché and rumor you ever heard about Scouting.
You have a few of my experiences, above. This is what I saw, what I did, and what I learned (in part; the whole would take a small volume to disclose). Building a healthy society begins by building responsible boys (and girls); what video game, book series, TV series or social media does even a TENTH of what the Boy Scouts used to? And if the SJWs finally succeed in destroying the Boy Scouts, what would you nominate to replace them, and attract the male youth of America away from cell phones, tablets, laptops, video games and drugs, sex and crime? Which SJW program seeks to build the bodies, minds and souls of American youth (either sex) for a better community and society?
Tell me what YOU experienced in youth development (4-H, Girl Scouts, whatever); you’ve read mine. And with all my heart I wish your kids could have similar Scouting experiences, for I’m sure it would have made them better people as it did me. James the Wanderer
Hmm, in a sign of the life to come, I was asked to leave the UK equivalent in 1965 at 8 years old for refusing to conform and asking too many awkward questions.
Your experiences mirror mine nearly exactly. Differences are that my parents were both heavily involved and we were in MT so we camped in ID, MT, WY and Canada. I had a blast!
My wife is currently certified and background checked to be the go to Astronomy Merit Badge person in our area. She conducts numerous classes for all kinds of scouts regarding astronomy and they are well attended. The crazy part is how few actually earn the merit badge. She will assign simple tasks like making then draw the phases of the moon on specific dates. Once completed, it is usually a parent of the scout who turns in their work. Ninety nine percent fail because they lie about their observations they were supposed to make. The thing is, we don’t think it’s the kids who are lying. It’s the parents. For instance some will draw the moon for a certain date that my wife knows and can prove was completely cloudy yet they submit a drawing. Quite often the parents have told their scout just to find a picture online and draw that. This is according to the kids themselves. Sometimes the parents themselves insist that the sky was clear and they supervised their kid as he made his drawing. She’s been yelled at and even threatened by irate parents.
She only gets one or maybe two kids per year who complete the work and stick around to learn even more. She makes herself available via telephone and email but only one percent ever take advantage of it.
The values promoted by scouting are no longer desirable by the majority of the population. See what I mean below.
Boy Scout Oath, Law, Motto and Slogan and the Outdoor Code.
Boy Scout Oath or Promise
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
Note that the Boy Scout Oath has traditionally been considered to have three promises. Those three promises are delineated by the semicolons in the Oath, which divide it into three clauses. The three promises of the Scout Oath are, therefore:
Duty to God and country,
Duty to other people, and
Duty to self
DUTY TO GOD AND COUNTRY: Your family and religious leaders teach you to know and serve God. By following these teachings, you do your duty to God.
Men and women of the past worked to make America great, and many gave their lives for their country. By being a good family member and a good citizen, by working for your country’s good and obeying its laws, you do your duty to your country. Obeying the Scout Law means living by its 12 points.
DUTY TO OTHER PEOPLE: Many people need help. A cheery smile and a helping hand make life easier for others. By doing a Good Turn daily and helping when you’re needed, you prove yourself a Scout and do your part to make this a better world.
DUTY TO SELF: Keeping yourself physically strong means taking care of your body. Eat the right foods and build your strength. Staying mentally awake means learn all you can, be curious, and ask questions. Being morally straight means to live your life with honesty, to be clean in your speech and actions, and to be a person of strong character.
Boy Scout Law
A Scout is:
Trustworthy,
Loyal,
Helpful,
Friendly,
Courteous,
Kind,
Obedient,
Cheerful,
Thrifty,
Brave,
Clean,
and Reverent.
Boy Scout Motto
Be Prepared!
Boy Scout Slogan
Do a Good Turn Daily!
The Outdoor Code
As an American, I will do my best to –
Be clean in my outdoor manners
Be careful with fire
Be considerate in the outdoors, and
Be conservation minded.
Nice comment, IS. Made me think about this a little more. My sister’s boy, the current wiz kid in our family, was an eagle scout. He joined the marines the day he turned 18, did two stints, went to the University of Alabama Huntsville, got his degree in nuclear engineering, joined the Navy, spent some years on the USS Hawaii fast attack sub out of Pearl Harbour, and is currently a Naval instructor in New London, Connecticut. He’s only 35. And he’s got 3 kids. He grew up without his dad around, and I never really thought of the eagle scout/overacheiver connection. I was a cub scout, loved it, but have to thank you James, for pointing out the obvious. Young men need training. From somewhere. I’ll bet with Tillerson and Trump, this becomes part of the disscusion.
BTW Once an Eagle Scout always an Eagle Scout. Your nephew still IS an Eagle.
“But what Scouting really taught me was discipline, self-reliance and determination.”
“Scouting taught you how to cope, endure, push on and tolerate some pain. It also taught you how to plan…”
Yep, James, Scouting taught me these things, too. Just what TPTB *DON’T* want to see in a young man.
TPTB prefer neutered, politically correct, metro-sexual pajama boys, who, when the lights go out will say, “Oh shit. The bulb burned out. NOW what are we going to do?”
They are well on the way towards this goal. As George Carlin put it, “They want people who are smart enough to run the machines but not smart enough to sit down around the kitchen table and figure this shit out.”
First, let me say Berkley filters suck. The filter snaps off the base when pouring water into it or jiggling it and Berkley gives no shirts. Zero customer service. Buy two food grade buckets and ceramic filters if you actually want a usable filtration system. Second, my friends son left scouts after he was sexually assaulted by the gay scout leader at a hotel when he was fifteen . He sank into depression and drug addiction from that incident. Financial settlement no jail for the perv.
Yeah, berkey filters suck ass. Filters snap in half. Piece of shit, waste of money. I use mine with other brand of filters. So much sulfur in the water here I have to use something.
Berkey had one run of filter elements that had faulty adhesive that allowed the filter element to separate from the base. Berkey gladly and quickly replaced them no questions asked and picked up the postage both ways.
That was a walk down memory lane.
Funny how all of those things that I considered the bedrock of what it meant to be a boy and then a man have been so completely corrupted and vilified in order to bring us what, exactly? How has this world been improved by these enforced changes? Is life better in any measurable way?
I have raised my boys along these lines but I wouldn’t allow them within a mile of the Boy Scouts today specifically because of their decision to cave to the progressive ideals. I know the signal that sent to those who have their own agenda when it comes to boys and if that’s who they want to serve then they’ll have to do it without our participation. It’s sad, but it’s the only logical choice that a responsible parent can make in these times.
Nice piece, thoroughly enjoyed.
Thanx
Nice post, James. I just posted this on another thread last night. Rex Tillerson was president of the Boy Scouts. It’s 20 minutes, but a good look into his head.
Great post.
I got thrown out of the Boy Scouts for eating a Brownie.
Never was a boy scout – but the story shows how the left fucks up everything they touch. Next thing there will be trans in the boy scouts.
I was a Cub Scout, Webelos, and Boy Scout (Troop 423) from Middle TN as well. Order of the Arrow. Youngest Life Scout in TN at the time (1970-1977) but got distracted by girls and JROTC, so never made Eagle Scout. We must have walked many of the same trails. My Scoutmaster was one of my teachers, and a finer man never walked the planet. I grew up on a farm raising beef cattle, and between that and the BSA, I became a pretty fair woodsman, with a good skillset of how to get by, anywhere, anytime, any season. Good times but the Progressives have ruined it for our kids.
James – this was flippin’ fantastic. Beyond excellent. It really brought back memories for me. My dad was a scout leader for many years when my brothers were young (they are much older than me). My dad forgot how to tie more rope knots than I ever learned.
One of my most favorite scouting memories was a weekend game of war in some deep woods where we camped two nights and utilized our scouting skills by making fires, cooking our own food, etc. Although my Dad was not a scout leader at the time, he came that weekend and stayed in the camp with the current leaders.
Around sixth grade, I was kicked out for fighting and profanity. But it was OK, because my wrestling career started soon after.
I will say that I have been fortunate to know a few Eagle scouts through the years and they are of the finest people I’ve ever known.
as a kid in the 50’s lots of friends in scouting, yet i went the jock route, in hindsight not so smart especially as sports became business by late teens. what comes to mind most is the greatest generations contribution to the youth of the day. only years later did i learn of all the exploits of those wonderful men and women. truly a golden age, not just for whites either, our town had black own businesses and we were expected to show same courtesy to all. the young today have no idea nor can it be explained.
I loved scouting as a boy. Even attended a national jamboree. Great memories, great friends and I wouldn’t let my kids within a country mile of them in this day and age. Makes me sad.
Scouts aside, I don’t know if the current Scout manual is the same but the Boy Scout manual used to be, and hopefully still is, the best preparedness manual anyone could ever hope for.
Master all the skills in it and you are prepared for about any emergency or rugged condition life can throw at you.
Keep in mind that this was intended for young boys of Jr. and later Sr. High School ages.
Never was in the boy scouts but I got my share of camping , hunting and fishing.I was also into high school football , girls and muscle cars.
Earned my Eagle in 1979. I had my kids in Scouts for a few years and I was a leader for some of that time, but they just weren’t into it. They had plenty of other activities.
What I noticed then (2002-2007) was that many wanted to “join” but no one wanted to even make the commitment of showing up to meetings. At the end, there were my 2 boys and one other that would show. Of course, they all came to banquets, etc. Everyone just came to be entertained, not contribute.
It’s the same problem I see w/ so many of the traditional “community” organizations. This latest generation (actually starting w/ Gen x’ers) now approaching 20 years ago) can’t be bothered to even show up. They just don’t understand that you’ve got to show pr the organization will die. Every ‘traditional’ community organization,including churches, are in dire trouble because of this. It is a huge victory for the Corporations who have brainwashed and conditioned now 2 generations that every need is met only by a corporation. Nothing else counts.
Very good post. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, on a farm, and had similar experiences. How bittersweet these observations are.
I was only in the boy scouts briefly as a kid. I just wasn’t motivated enough at the time. I thought it was very useful.
As far as homosexuality goes, it is clearly a paraphilia. People that consider it acceptable behavior are irrational, which is the majority of the population.
Another thing I like about Russia. They still call a preversion a preversion.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I was in scouting in the early 1990’s. Even then it wasn’t widely popular but a good friend was active in it and I was recruited. Ended up that most of my friends through my jr. high years were from scouts. Although I didn’t rise through the ranks it was a great experience, and helped a number of friends on their Eagle Scout projects. Probably kept me out of delinquency when other neighborhood kids were learning how to shoplift instead of tying knots. Our Scoutmaster was a solid guy whose own son was disinterested and dropped out. Still he stayed the course as our leader through my tenure, even though it meant he wasn’t home spending time with his own son. Highlight of my time was 2 solid weeks in the boundary waters wilderness of northern MN. Packed everything in on canoes for 14 days of isolation. Grand time. Similar to backpacking through Europe while in college, it was an opportunity of a lifetime that could not be recreated any other time in my life. Glad I did it.
Lost interest when I got into high school and was more interested in spending my weekends with girls than camping with dudes. Never paid much attention to the SJW attack on the scouts since then. Thinking back when we were out camping for a weekend we would actually go to church on Sunday. Denomination would vary but all attended and respected the service. Amazing that was only 25 years ago. How we’ve changed.
Thank you all for commenting; it’s been ages since I was a Scout, but the memories and skills have served me for a lifetime.
Many, many thanks for your post. I was a cub scout, boy scout and boy scout leader in Queens, NY during the 60’s and 70’s. I came from a poor, one parent home and I can say that Scouting saved me. My own father was a violent alcoholic who left us when I was a child. Scouting kept me off the NYC streets. I made life-long friends and the fathers in the program were role models for my later life. We had leaders and fathers who understood my situation.
Wonderful memories…
Anyone who feels strongly about the value of Scouting should themselves become a Scoutmaster. Not as easy as railing against “leftists” and “homosexuals” but much more useful, as well as appreciated by the youth themselves.
Can you do both?
The younger of my two sons will earn his Eagle soon. His older brother, his grandfather and I are also Eagles. My sons have both been to Jamborees, and have both worked summers at scout camp for a pittance. Both are turning into exceptional young men.
I will be surprised if my grandchildren will have any Boy Scout experiences. Frankly I don’t expect the BSA to be around.
Ironic that Lord Baden Powell created Scouting because he saw that Britain was full of useless young men and that capable men of character would be needed to preserve the British way of life. And now that we are in exactly the same boat, we are abandoning the time-proven values and methods of scouting.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Last I heard, the Crippled Crab still stands watch at the entrance to Boxwell.
James have to say that was a great post.
Was in Scouts myself. Experience much like yours. Not much I can add other than to say society has lost something in the rush to modernity.
Cheers it made my day reading it and thinking back on some great memories of my own.
I would be interested in hearing from a few ladies who had good experiences, such as the Girl Scouts, 4-H, FFA or similar. Being a Boy Scout I had only a few interactions, but my mother was a GS leader for her [troop?], and my sister was one for years. They did less camping / hiking than we did, but they enjoyed what they did.
Two stories from my daughter’s Girl Scout days: they scheduled a campout in a cave, near Chattanooga. Turned out three moms were booked elsewhere so three dads went, including me. My daughter said,”They told us to eat dinner at the cafe before we meet up at 8:00″, so in we went. It was a steakhouse; my daughter looked at the menu and said, “I want a 14-oz ribeye please”. Mind you, she weighed maybe 110# soaking wet at the time. I said, “OK, I’ll just order a salad and finish what you don’t want”. She was OK with that.
When it arrived, it covered the plate; she grabbed her knife and fork and dug in. Ten ounces later, with the potato and green beans, she was full! I only got about four ounces of steak for my dinner that night!
Then we went to the cave. It was actually a mildly difficult trek for a 45-year old and fairly fit man, and my daughter burnt up a lot of that steak she’d had going in. One place was of course called “Fat Man’s Squeeze”, a narrow gap between two rock faces that had a steep slope upwards and a muddy bottom. The girls took it at a run, pretty much, traction be damned. The middle-aged female scout leader couldn’t stretch across / up the slope and the clearance between the rock faces was minimal for her! Worse, her sneakers were essentially deck shoes, with nearly flat soles that had very little ribbing / tread height. If she couldn’t cross the whole campout would have to scrub; dire measures were necessary.
One dad got above her past the squeeze; two of us were behind her. Pulling from above and pushing from below (guess where we had to push!) got her through it; red-faced and panting, probably embarrassed half to death, she cleared the obstacle and we went on to the designated camping spot in the cavern. She didn’t find it necessary to say a single word to me for the rest of the outing. The girls spread out their sleeping bags, turned out the lights and after an hour or so quiet breathing (with occasional snores) was all that could be heard.
Afterwards, that troop didn’t do much more camping and hiking, preferring shopping mall trips and amusement park activities to getting hot, wet and dirty. I suspect it was the leader’s preference driving their choices for activities; my daughter loved camping and hiking and horses and target practice, so she got disgusted and quit a few months after the troop quit adventuring outdoors!
But I’d like to hear from you ladies about your experiences in youth development …
I got my Eagle in 2006, 10 years ago (seems way more recent). I enjoyed scouting, though sometimes thats more in retrospect than it was at the time. Learning to camp in the winter, basic knots, it was a good experience.
My troop was different than a lot of other troops: half of our leaders were female. My mom was actually the scoutmaster for about 6 years. It exposed a bunch of problems with the BSA though: the higher you get in the organization, the more pointless politics there were. The lowest level employee, the district officer, just about destroyed scouting in my county.
We had two troops in the county: the general troop and a troop for a boarding school, with the two staying in their own niche. There were two assistant scoutmasters who made a power play against my mom, and divided our troop into two, creating two general troops AND taking half our gear. The move entirely based on sexism: my mom was scoutmaster because when she started, nobody else would commit the time like she would. She not only committed the time, she also managed to balance the troop’s budget, bringing it out of debt (previous scoutmasters had “borrowed” equipment they used the troop’s money to buy).
The troop was never large. We had 15 members at the time we were split. It would have never been allowed to happen with the district officer (who had to give permission) had it been a man in charge.
The way the two troops developed after the split was noticeably different, because we interacted a good bit at multi-troop events and could see the changes happening. Our troop was focused on skills such as knot tying, using a compass, first aid, and having a good time; the other troop was a ego-trip for the adults to live out their G.I. Joe fantasy, and they practiced marching and regimentation. Our troop did some really cool caving and hiking trips; they did a bunch of flag ceremonies and photo-ops (one of their leaders was an aspiring state senator who was perpetually running for election).
Ironically, the “Mommy” troop (as they called us) required way less adult involvement. We operated like a tribe: everybody naturally wound up pitching in, because that’s what everyone else did. Dishes were done when it was your turn, everybody fetched water if we needed water, nobody really fought. The “Real” troop (as they called themselves) was a constant clusterfuck of rank pulling, bossiness, and fighting.
I worked at summer camp for scouts in high school, and it has become a money machine. Even while I was in for a couple of years, they expanded the capacity of the nearby camp (Rainey Mountain) to nearly double what it had been when I started. There was no concern for the experience, only how much money the camp could make for the district. Example: The food they had at camp cost 50 cents per person per day, but charged $100 dollars per person attending the camp for a week’s worth of food. It was absolutely insane. But finance was more important that standards.
I learned a bunch of things about life, but here’s what I learned about scouts:
1. The value of the scouts, as a program, is entirely dependent on the local leaders. My troop got a lot out of our time in; the other guys didn’t.
2. The BSA as an organization has a self-serving bureaucracy that focuses way to much on internal politics, rather than pragmatism.
3. Too many parents viewed it as babysitting and would not invest any effort, and their kids would not get anything out of it before they dropped out.
4. Other parents would use it for self-promotion, and make everybody else miserable.
5. The BSA is behind the times in many unfortunate way, and it went deeper than just sexism and homophobia. There was, at least from what I saw, bias heavily in favor of good ol’ boys and would actually be hostile to outsiders, especially in certain troops. Kids who the leaders did not like would be pushed out of troops, even if there was no reason for the leader to dislike the kid other than to show the other kids that he had power. Yes, grown men would go out of their way to try to impress 13-year-olds.
6. Finances corrupt everything. You can either have a business or a community organization, but not both.
If the BSA wants to continue or maybe even grow, it has to get its internal bureaucracy back in line, put the kids (rather than grandstanding adults) first, realize that the halcyon days of leave-it-to-beaver never existed, and get rid of the money grabbing going on a major events. Otherwise, the organization has forgotten it’s purpose and should be abandon.
Great stuff James. My youngest son made eagle around 1995. Tremendous for him. One thing I was never able to reconcile……… The lefties absolutely trashed the Catholic Church over the pedophilia priest issue, rightly so I might add. Then, the same people laid siege to the Boy Scouts for their resistance to allowing perverts access to young boys. The left is full of contradictions and paradox. I gave a lot of money and support to the Scouting organization. So sorry to see them cave. I suggested to several critics that they start a similar organization for non-heterosexuals, but no interest. They just wanted to force their worldview on me and those of traditional value systems.
I was fortunate to be a Scout during the fifties, with a well run troop and regional council. Our troop committee worked behind the scenes to acquire gear and organized some great trips, like a weeklong
canoe trip down the upper Connecticut River and a winter campout and hike on Mount Monadnock. Our scout camp had a beautiful lake where we boated and fished in the summer and ice skated in winter.
As in any other group venture, leadership and organization were key. I recall a fall weekend camporee, arriving early Friday afternoon and being razzed by a couple of friends from the elite troop in town. We were bus kids who walked to our meetings in the Grange Hall. Our support group of WWII vets arrived with the new Baker tents and dining canopy which we set up in a neat row and were soon ready for dinner. The elites straggled in and set up their pathetic little camp across the field. It rained that night and most of the next day. The rich kids, sodden and discouraged, retired to one of the cabins and were unable to start a fire in the wood burning stove. Parents were called and they evacuated. I remember stories of GIs freezing to death during WWII because they could not start a fire. We had string burning contests where we were given five minutes to round up fuel and start a fire with two allotted matches and burn through three strings set at 6″ intervals above the ground. We were taught basic first aid, lifesaving, edible wild plants, tree identification and all kinds of camping and outdoor lore. We learned how to work together and get along. I earned my silver eagle along with two of my pals , pinned on my shirt by my mom at the annual Scout banquet.
Our wonderful camp where I first spent a couple of weeks every summer and then worked on the staff
was sold to a developer and turned into an exclusive gated community. C’est la vie
Thanks, James, for a fine essay.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/13/record-number-children-claiming-wrong-gender-charity-says/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
Children are ringing an emergency helpline in record numbers to say they are the wrong gender, a charity has said.
That’s so sad.
One thing I recently learned was that the meds for transitioning mess up kids pretty bad during puberty. Not just infertility and other sexual development problems, but also things like joint damage, immune system failure, and bone growth stunting. Turns out hormones are natural and we maybe should fuck with them too much. Kids won’t even have a chance.
I too was in Boy Scouts in the 60s and had a blast! Great memories especially the big jamboree!
I scanned the comments and this may have already been mentioned but there is a similiar organization for boys that is not PC…
It’s called Trail Life USA, a Christian Outdoor adventure program started in 2013 because of the immoral shift in the Boy Scouts… part of Trail Life USA Statement of Values reads: “… God calls us to lives of holiness, being pure of heart, mind, word and deed. We are to reserve sexual activity for the sanctity of marriage, a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman…”
http://www.traillifeusa.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TrailLifeUSA
Check it out for your sons, grandsons, and great-grand sons…
Many of you know these men by different names. Mr. Priest,Mr. Laird and Mr. Palmer. They gave of their time and resources to show boys how to become better men. They are all gone now it is a shame. They were good men.
I was in the Scouts as well, but I knew it was over when Boy Scouts didn’t revoke Dennis Hastert’s Distinguished Citizen Award. Awarded after his 16 years of “service” to that organization, go figure.
I was a Cub Scout in the late 50s and early 60s and also a Boy Scout. I loved the camping, the crafts, and the projects. My Mom usually took me to the meeting as my Dad worked 10 to 12 hours a day. But my Dad did make time to go camping with our troop a couple of times. Those are some of my best memories ever.
I still try always to “Be Prepared” as the scouts’ motto says.
After my Dad died, though, I lost interest and quit the scouts.
By the way, when I was in the scouts, I was blissfully unaware of sex. I know that the times were different back then, but children were not exposed to sex or sexuality, and our country and society was much, much better off for it. Soon, we will be taking our country back from the evil ones, and I hope we take the Scouts back too.