When I was a lad...

[Christopher Calhoun]

I was going to write this in the “toolbox” thread but, after proofreading I feel it didn’t fit. I was thinking about the wussification of scouting and how/why it’s different now. I don’t really care but I ponder on it every so often. But, I think this is a funny or interesting thought because I realized something halfway through that sounds similar to some of Gabe’s adult stories and made me laugh...(I’m just going to paste what I typed)


I don’t have any valuable training information to add but I will say this:

I was a Boy Scout but that was back in the day when the system was closer to building men, instead of building an everybody by letting everybody in. My troop, specifically, in my neck of the woods was an oddity when we went to events and things. All of us in my troop and three patrols were athletes and we were all smart with book smarts and most of us common sense. We hurt feelings of other troops who literally were mostly chess smart nerds who nearly had zero athletic abilities. We would tell them to work harder if they wanted to win. We would pick on them, we were kids, we’d get in trouble and almost every troop we had a run in with wanted us all in trouble because we weren’t Nancys. We whipped the hell out of all of em, not only because we were athletic but because we wanted to effing win. So we made sure our knots and lashings were tied right, tight, and secured. We also beat up the kids that picked on other kids and somehow, never got kicked out. <shrugs>

When were were done, we would go back to our campsite, while all the other troops were dissecting why the second place teams would be starting as we were finishing, drinking our Dr Peppers, playing cards, and talking trash about how we could do better and win more next time. We were kids, but in our council, we were the shit and we acted like it.

I think I also just realized we’d have choir practice. Hahaha.

I’ll be honest, I’m probably the worst of that bunch of kids. I’ve been lazy in the past, dragged my feet, don’t have a nice career yet but I’ve never blamed anyone but me and I’ve ALWAYS tried to get better, even if I failed. One kid is now in 82nd Airborne as a captain after two TOD, one is a doctor, one is a school admin, and one is a fitness instructor/computer programmer.

Sadly, we were a rarity in scouting at that point, even then. This was in the 90s. They breed people now to be politically correct, feelings sensitive, and over all pussies.




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[Chainsaw76]

I was in during the 60’s and other than merit badges it was mostly night ops againsr the other troops

[EDELWEISS]

I was a scout leader for my son's troop (early 2000s). I literally got yelled at by employees at the Scout Store, because I tried to buy Scout post cards to attach to helium balloons so we could launch them to see how far they went (we put the return address of our church hall on the post cards with a stamp and asked the finder to say where the found the balloon). The Grand PooBa at the Scout Store said the balloons were dangerous because they might land in a stream and kill fish.... I just laughed and said YOU need us more than we need YOU. I never bought another thing from THAT store. I went on to teach climbing (if youre gonna tie knots you ought to have a reason). We built a Trebuchet and launched soccer balls at the other groups who lined up like attacking enemies. The enemy had tennis balls to throw at the trebuchet troops. Both sides had to fall down if hit--then we discussed the carnage. One mom didn't like it until the kids got her to launch balls against us by throwing their tennis balls at her (even her own kid).


The same mom complained when we were doing knot tying drills and one team kept winning. I had that team raise their arm then pat themselves on the back and say "It pays to be a winner". When the mom complained that the other team came in second (there were only TWO teams). I had the whole troop say "Second place is just first losers". Then her son (on his own), rallied his team like a Team Leader and they started winning.

When we hiked we carried a guideon flag and the kids took turns (on their own to be the ones to carry it). Do I need to say our guideon had our unit number and an edelweiss on it...

[Papa]

I was in during the 60’s and other than merit badges it was mostly night ops againsr the other troops

This.

[Greg Nichols]

Many of the skills I learned on the farm and in Scouts as a kid served me well in the service. Knots, survival, rucking, land nav, weather preparation, first aid, all lended themselves to military life.

[Forklift]

I was in during the 60’s and other than merit badges it was mostly night ops againsr the other troops

and another. :thumbup:

[Jim Miller]

I joined just before the transition time in the 70's when the BSA was trying to bring in numbers, when I started earning your survival merit badge included getting dropped in the woods with what you had in your pockets, at age 11 for 24 hours, after the change you could get a cooking merit badge without leaving your mom's kitchen. On one hand, I would have liked to have earned my Eagle, on the other hand, glad I left before it got any softer than what it did at the time. Overall, learned some valuable lessons that still come in handy today.

Jim Miller
ISA 6:8

[Chainsaw76]

I learned all my initial survival skills. From the 1943 BSA handbook. I still have it, and the amount of info therein is invaluable. Too bad it is not still The TO&E.

jim