Re: Follow Me Boys

Over the years many a Scouter has queried the list in hopes of finding a
way to get a copy of this most famous of Scouting films. Follow Me Boys
probably would sell like hotcakes in our circles, but is not currently
being marketed by the owner to its rights - Disney. Some copies turn up
at video-stores that have been around for a long time - many years back
copies were briefly distributed to some of them. If you find a carton of
them in some backroom, you could probably make a great number of friends
very quickly. :-)) I have a copy and someday it'll make its way back to
me. So far it has journeyed from Virginia to New Jersey, New York,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware passing from one Scouter to
another, soon to come home and hopefully in one piece. Which is to say
copies are hard to come by and once found tend to get circulated to eager
hands.

I still remember the first time I ever saw it. It was on a Saturday
in the cold chill of February during Scout week in Lafayette, Indiana.
In our then small Council (Harrison Trails Council) all of the Troops
were invited to take part in a parade through the center of town. We all
formed up on the lawns of the county courthouse with every lad in uniform
and Troop flags fluttering in the stiff breeze. There was a lot of hand
blowing and foot flexing to fight the cold. But we were excited and
didn't mind too much. We were really excited because we'd been lucky
enough to be one of the first units in the parade, which was really
important later on. Finally it came time to start and one by one the
units formed up and marched down the parade route on Columbia headed East
on a course that ended in the lobby of the great and wonderful old Mars
Theater, a place that had once had real lime lights and vaudeville acts.
Being first assured us of balcony seats and up we rushed. The guys
guffawed and made noises about having to see a silly Scout movie. In
past years it had always been an exciting John Wayne Western.

Once the movies started the restlessness ceased and attention was rapt.
There were times when you could have heard a pin drop (wish it were so in
a Troop meeting right) but it was so. I remember looking over to my
buddies a few times and seeing one or two brushing a tear from their
cheeks when Whitey decided to quit Scouts after his drunken father
embarassed him in front of the Troop by bringing in melted ice cream.
And again when Whitey's father had died and Lem took him in as his own son.

And of course there was mad cheering for the boys during the war game and
surprisingly even for the parade honoring Lem towards the end. I think
that when we left, each of us was a bit prouder of the green we wore than
before we went in. For months afterward we took to humming the song
"Follow Me Boys" while hiking.

In those days, I suspect most of us thought of Lem as a hero right up
there with the Duke and Teddy Roosevelt and that that feeling also
tranferred a little to our own Scoutmasters, who we saw in a different
light after the movie.

Thanks for letting me share a memory.

Speaking only for myself in the Scouting Spirit, Michael F. Bowman
E-mail: mfbowman@capaccess.org Visit: ftp1.scouter.com/usscouts
U. S. Scouting Service Project FTP Site Administrator (PC Area)
Helping to deliver the promise of Scouting from Alexandria, Virginia

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