adressing adults (was turning 18)

In our troop, the adults address each other, in front of the
boys, as Mr. Anderson, Mr. Chatham, etc. The boys are used
to it from school (teachers) and we might as well carry on
the usage. Among ourselves, we call each other by first
name. The reason we started this was we have always had
great parent participation, with lots of assistant
Scoutmasters and parents going on our outings. We heard too
many "Dad" 's to ever answer the right boy. My son had to
yell at me once and call out "Rik!" to get my attention.
However, we do have a strange tradition growing in our
troop. We noticed a strange thing happening. My name is
Bergethon, the SA's were Anderson and Chatham and Dennis
Reed. Soon, along came Edwards. So now we are Mr. A, Mr.B,
Mr. C, Mr.D (for Dennis), Mr. E. And, occasionally, Arnie
Carlsen comes along; he has twins in the troop, and he is
Mr. AC-DC. It was a little embarrassing at a Court of
Honor, when even the parents of scouts come up and call you
"Mister" but I found out they were doing it only in front of
their sons. We have not yet had the "problem" of how to
address the scout that turns 18 in our troop, but I would
expect the tradition to continue with the Mr. ________
system. I know you can't demand their respect, but this
name and title usage is important, I feel, for keeping their
respect. We all earn it pretty fast, anyway.

Rik Bergethon
Pueblo, CO
"Mr. B, to you."

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