Re: a little courtesy, please

I have seen this type of behavior too much! It is not new, however. I
have seen it for over 25 years, but it seems to be getting worse as time
goes on. Years ago, a few words would quiet the group, but now, the
words just get ignored or some excuse to justify ignoring the comments.
Our troop makes every attempt to observe "quiet hours" wherever we are,
and we expect others to do the same. I was shocked while attending a
summer camp I brought up the subject about quiet hours in a leaders
meeting (after a troop nearby had been yelling and screaming until about
2 a.m.). This was not the first time I had mentioned it as we had
similar problems previous years. One leader made the comment "oh, you
always have a problem with the troop in that campsite". I guess I was
out of line by complaining that my sleep was disturbed and the quiet
hours had been ignored! I can remember 25 years ago getting up in the
middle of the night to stop members of another troop who were throwing
lighted firecrackers at each other while the leaders slept. This was at
Isle Royale National Park. We did get an apology the next day, however,
and there was no more the rest of the time we were there. I feel it is
very unfortunate, but we prefer to camp away from other Scout Troops so
we can have some quiet time overnight.

I sometimes think our training needs an overhaul, but I don't know how
you teach common sense. We could at least stress respect for others.

Milt Forsberg
SM, Troop 7
Champaign, IL

On Wed, 15 May 1996, Jim Holman wrote:

> [on soapbox]
>
> On the last 3 campouts our troop has had in areas where other scouts were
> camping, we experienced what I consider terribly rude behavior on the part
> of scouts and scouters. All of these involve late arrivals or early
> departures from camp. In one case, another troop arrived at 2a.m., circled
> the cars and vans, left the motors running and lights on in all of them.
> There was a terrible chorus of adults SHOUTING instructions to the scouts,
> all sorts of screaming, yelling, door slamming, plus the normal noises of
> setting up camp, etc. After their camp was set up, the kids proceeded to
> play some sort of game which involved running through campsites, tagging one
> another, etc. This same troop left at 5:00 a.m. with a similarly raucous
> exit. I asked one group of kids to be a bit quieter and they replied "We
> just got here." I told them that I appreciated that, but just because you
> just arrived doesn't mean you have license to disturb everyone else. The
> adults remarked that the kids had been cooped up in the cars for hours and
> needed to burn off a little energy before going to bed. They had no excuse
> for their own behavior. We owe it to one another to be good neighbors.
>
> [off soapbox]

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