Boy Scouts

[Trapper Rob]

My son's 11 and he's working on the Heritage Merit badge. For some of the things he has to fill out is what other scouts liked about being in and doing in scouts. If there's any Eagle Scouts he also needs to know what was all the different things that they liked about and doing as they were in scouts.

[sleek]

Talk to Lebhuntfish. He is an eagle scout.

[Eric Krewson]

Not an eagle scout but I can tell you what I liked about the scouts, this is circa 1950s.

We camped year round in the Smokey mountains, even got caught out in a couple of blizzards and weathered these conditions just fine. These conditions taught us about working together and looking out for the weaker members.

We took grueling hikes in the mountains, this instilled a no quit mentality in me that lasted me all my life.

Boy scout camp in the summers was wonderful, swimming, canoeing, shooting bows and rifles and tons of classes on bushcraft.

I didn't have much of a father figure growing up,  I idolized my scoutmaster, a combat vet from WW2 and like a mother hen in his guidance for all us rowdy boys and keeping us on the straight and narrow.

The only dark spot was when I was studying for the God and Country award under the tutelage of a crusty old minister from New England. During the course of the instruction he told us if we kissed a girl our face would rot off, he actually said this. Well, at 12 years old I had already kissed a girl and my face was still intact so I knew he was lying. I walked away from his class and never went back.

[Trapper Rob]

Thanks sleek and Eric that will help him out. If anyone else has anything on there scouting adventure will help also he needs at least 2 eagle scouts and 5 other scouts.
Eric that will get him off to a good start.

[Eric Krewson]

This was a different time, we were tough little urchins from the hills of East Tennessee, even when we were trapped by a blizzard out in the wilderness for a week, none of our parents gave it a second thought or called in the rescue squad, they knew we could handle it. There were NO helicopter parents back then that orchestrated their kids every move.

After about week someone drove a tractor through the snow pulling a huge sled to "rescue" us, they found us warm, well fed and dry, we had enough firewood to last a month, it was a grand adventure. We had one kid with the flue who they took back home, they left the rest of to continue our adventure.

The Boy Scout Oath was our mantra, no girls in the scouts, no political correctness, no revisionist history, no political indoctrination. All that was expected of us was to be boys headed in the direction of being honest responsible men who loved our country, something that we all achieved.

[Trapper Rob]

Eric most of the boys in our troop are pretty tuff but they aren't as tuff as the older ones were back years ago. They do go on a winter camping trip every year it's only for a weekend because of the boys having school. If you have anymore scouting adventures to share the boy would like to hear them.

[Hawkdancer]

Trapper,
I will send apost on my Mac book, it behaves better than the iPad
Hawkdancer

[Trapper Rob]

Thanks guys this really helps him out.

[YosemiteBen]

Troop 135 from Santa Rosa, CA has been doing stewardship for me in Yosemite for 28 years! I enjoy them coming and they enjoy hanging out in the Indian Village doing some work and getting some cultural time too! One of the Eagle Scout projects was replacing a skylight and re-roofing my storage shed!

[Trapper Rob]

Wish we lived closer to you Ben would like to see the native village at the park. The boys going to summer camp we're leaving Sunday for a week I hope he has fun.

[YosemiteBen]

Indeed Rob! Check out the Scout NPS Stewardship patch on the NPS.GOV website. That patch can be obtained at any National Park either by individual scouts or as a troop.

[Trapper Rob]

Ben I'll look into it.

[jeffp51]

My best two memories were a 50-mile hike in a week, and a 50 mile hike in 20 hours.  Hardest thing I ever did.  Made me tougher, and got me through a whole lot.  Got my Eagle scout award just before I turned 18 in the eighties.  Scouting isn't what it used to be, and kids are not being challenged like they used to be.

[lebhuntfish]

Rob, I sent you a message. I would love to talk to you and your son.

One of my most favorite adventures every year in the scouts was the Klondike derbies. We would build a "dog" sled that we had to take to the camp out. We had different survival skills at several stations that we had to use our orienteering knowledge to find. The entire thing was a big competition, from who had to string a clothesline in the morning to dry sleeping bags because they wasn't prepared (a scout is always prepared) to who wins the sled race at the end of the weekend.
We always wished it would snow and one time it did. Woke up with 10 inches around the tent. Now that was a fun Klondike derby!

Patrick

[Hawkdancer]

I got my Eagle Scout awarded in 1960, finished as an assistant Explorer post advisor, also had achieved 4 Explorer ratings, which would have qualified me for the Silver(?) Ex[plorer award, but that was terminated while I was away to college.  Got onto the Explorers only.  One of the camping trips we took got a bit wet in central Missouri and we were in a low area.  I had gone to look at the river earlier and then made my breakfast, and went back to wash my dishes and noticed the river had risen more than a foot in a half hour.  I told the post advisor what I saw and showed him what was happening, and he decided to break camp and evacuate.  we had to cross a low spot in the road, and later found out from the landowner that it  flooded about 15 minutes after we cleared and it was 2 weeks before he could get into that area! Overall, it was an interesting time, and I eventually was scoutmaster to the troop my boys were in, and range director at the council camp.
Hawkdancer