The Same Old Tune

I think I was about ten or eleven years old when I first bought my first record.

A EP by the Beatles. It cost me six shillings and sixpence.

I rushed home to play it on my Dad's record player.

The record player was very much his. While he didn't use it a lot, I remember him sitting back with a glass of rum enjoying his Irish Records. I was warned to be careful with the needle and chastised for playing it to loud.

Over the next few years I became a regular at the local record store. My financial situation at the time decided if I bought the 45's or the album.

I really loved the albums. Gettng them home ripping off the plastic cover, seeing the art work, some had the lyrics written inside and the joy of owning that big black plastic disk.

The albums cost a pound and rarely if ever left my house. The 45's were more mobile. They traveled with me from party to party, some got mixed in with 45's that my friends owned and took months to find their way home, I added a few that didn't belong to me and all to often a pal would visit and would find one that belonged to him and he'd return it to its rightful home.

I spent a small fortune on stereo equipment, decks from Germany, different sized speakers and amps.

For some reason I missed out on the 8 Track.

I don't remember any car in the UK having an 8 Track player.

I never owned an 8 Track cassette in my life.

When my Mother-In-Law moved there was a box full of 8 track cassettes, mainly Christmas music

My first car didn't have anything but a radio in it, my second car did come with a cassette player.

For a while I thought I was the cat's whiskers. Driving down the King's Road Chelsea with the windows down with my music blasting out for the entire world to hear. I didn't care if they wanted to hear it or not!

After a while the player developed a habit of eating my cassettes. Which didn't make me very happy.

Something was missing when I bought a new cassette.

No great art-work, the print inside was far too small; somehow you just couldn't have the same relationship with a cassette as you could with an album.

So I quit buying cassettes, opting to buy the album, record it and just play the cassette in the car.

About this time I was spending less and less time in my room. The stereo equipment while state of the art was not being used that much and I was mainly listening to music in the car.

My quest for the latest and newest music was also passing. I found that I could still live past Thursday without having to have this weeks Melody Maker or Rolling Stone Magazine.

When we moved from the UK to the USA, none of the stereo equipment would work on this side of the pond, so I gave it away. I did save all the albums. Boxes and boxes of them, which cost a fair amount to have shipped over.

HWMBO bought me a stereo tower system for our first Christmas in the USA. It was nice, but nothing like I'd once owned and the boxes of albums remained unpacked. (I'd given most of the 45's away)

The music CD came along. This was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread (I never liked sliced bread that much!) It came at a time when I was doing OK. Soon I was spending money on Bose systems, my Walkman was never far away.

I couldn't wait to buy a car with a CD player.

Many of the albums I had were out on CD so I bought them. (Some I'd bought on cassette!!) I was good to go.

Once again I was happy to spend my time in Record Stores, going through the thousands of Cd's available.

Visiting a new city with big music stores was my idea of time well spend.

Then came the i-pod.

At first I was thrilled. I spent many happy hours transferring the best tracks from my Cd's to my i-pod.

I spent about $600.00 having a new car stereo installed in my car which would accommodate my i-pod.

For a while I was happy visiting i-tunes and down loading what I wanted. But I miss the trip to the Record Store, I miss talking with the guy in the record store who even though he has yet to start shaving always seems to know a lot more about everything than I do.

I'm now hearing that my Cd's will in a few years fade away and I'm in for a very bad case of cyber-rot!

I still do listen to music at home, but mainly when everyone else is not home. The TV has crept into almost every room.

The i-pod is in the car, but unless I'm planning on a long drive I'm happy to just listen to the radio.

I can't remember when I last visited i-tunes.

I do think that i-pods and i-tunes are here to stay -At least for a while.

When I think about my "Musical Past" I can't help but think how Scouts and Scouting has changed and must change.

Sure if we want the best and most pure music we need to attend a live show. Some will say that a studio recording is better and in some cases they are right.

I yearn for the days of the album, with all the great art work and that big black plastic disk.

But times have changed, where we listen to music has changed.

OJ spent a lot of money on all sorts of equipment for his car. In fact the entire back seat is lost to sub-woofers and the like. In his bedroom there isn't the truck load of stuff I had when I was about his age. He seems happy to use his i-pod or his computer.

I'm happy that some people seem to want to return to what they are calling "Traditional Scouting" or "Old Time Scouting". I'm not sure if this is what the youth want?

I still have my boxes of albums, I still have a record deck, I hope that if and when all my Cd's and downloads turn to dust that I will still have something.

I'm not very comfortable when I'm a passenger in OJ's car and a rap artist is pounding away at my ears. But Bob Marley sounds great!!

The days of the EP are long gone. We can harp on about it, we can talk about how great those long gone days were and look back with great fondness upon them.

But they are gone.

They will never return.

To keep on pretending that what we once had will return is just foolish.

The parents of the kids we have are the product of the twentieth century, not the ninetieth century and the kids belong to the twenty-first century.

The tune we are playing really hasn't changed that much.

We are still the value based organization that we have always been.

How we go about delivering the tune has changed and if we don't take notice and are willing to change, my big fear is that we will just fade away and go the way of the box of 8 track Christmas music I put out for the garbage.

Eamonn

The songs are the same, it is just the delivery mechanism that sometimes needs adjustment. I have also gone down the vinyl, cassette, CD and now iPhone path. I find that much of my music is the same. My son likes some of my stuff, and I like some of his.

We still teach leadership, self-confidence, self-sufficiency using the outdoors as a backdrop. We might not chop down as many trees, and we might have to cover a few more safety issues, but we are still fulfilling our mission.

Eamonn, good news! You can now buy a turntable with a USB cable that will covert all that vinyl into electrons on your hard drive! Last I checked, they cost about a hundred bucks.

E.

And even with today's new music, they are still playing using the same notes. Treble clef or base clef. There are new instruments, we use new backpacks and tents. New groups come along. We have new packs and troops come along. At the heart of it, music is still music - well, except for that industrial noise :-)

BTW, I saw Bob Higgins at Scout CPR Saturday. He says hello. I believe he also said they were going back to the coast for the sea kayaking this summer.

Brent

My wife got me an iPod for my 50th birthday! What a great invention! I love this thing! It goes everywhere with me!

I love music, too, Eamonn! I felt the same way you did when I was a youngin! The 1st LP I bought was Surrealistic Pillow by the Jefferson Airplane! Since I got my iPod, I have been rebuilding my 205+ LP collection digitally. I'm only about 1/2 way there! And I gotta tell ya, the tunes sound a whole lot better than the old vinyl discs!

Yeah, been there, done most of that. Too bad you don't live nearby. I bought an Empire turntable in great condition and take it directly into my computer via a really nice interface that allows more kinds of editing than I will ever need (cost wasn't an object back then). And I also have one of those quickie converter turntables (an Ion) for the odd need for a quick fix. I've been converting some really nice old 78s and plan to start work on the vinyl again later. Good hobby, but it helps to have friends with large collections.

Yeah, I know this isn't the point of the thread but others have already given good answers.

Eamonn writes:

"I'm happy that some people seem to want to return to what they are calling "Traditional Scouting" or "Old Time Scouting". I'm not sure if this is what the youth want? ... But they are gone. They will never return. To keep on pretending that what we once had will return is just foolish. The parents of the kids we have are the product of the twentieth century, not the ninetieth century and the kids belong to the twenty-first century."

Bunk!

When I recruit in the public schools I offer Traditional "Old-School" Scouting, as it is described in the BSA's Congressional Charter. 66% of an auditorium of sixth graders sign a list (in front of their peers!), asking me to call their parents so they can be a Boy Scout.

That does NOT count the boys in the auditorium who are already in Scouts!

See:

http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm

Arrange for me to stand side by side with you in front of an auditorium of sneering sixth-graders and you will see for yourself that boys not any different now than they were 100 years ago.

The BSA's REAL mission statement is the Congressional Charter:

Sec. 30902. Purposes

The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916.

Anything else just ain't cricket!

Kudu

"boys not any different now than they were 100 years ago."

In many ways I would agree with this.

I would hope that you would agree that a lot has changed over the past 100 years.

While I'm not 100 years old! In my lifetime I remember when kids in the UK could legally leave school at 14 years old, many of these boys were Scouts.

I remember the five and a half day work week.

Scouts took off for camp on Saturday afternoons.

A lot of changes have been made in the way we educate our young people.

Families are not as big as they used to be.

Working mothers now seem to be the norm.

Single parent families are not as rare as they once were.

How all of us spend our leisure time and the amount of free time we have to spend has changed.

We are a lot more healthy than we were 100 years ago.

People are a lot more mobile than they were 100 years ago, they move a lot more and in a lot of areas the sense of community is not as strong.

The list could go on page after page.

To say that none of this has in any way impacted the youth we serve? I think would be wrong.

I think if my Father was still alive, he would still be happy sitting in the living room glass of rum in hand listening to his Irish records.

We as Scouter's still have a big say in what sort of unit we want to be involved with.

As I look around the Council I serve I see a lot of different Troops who do different things a lot of different ways. I'll admit that what some are doing is not my idea of what we should be doing, but the Scouts in these Troops seem happy enough.

100 years ago the group of boys of sixth-grade age would not have been in Cub Scouting.

Cub Scouts world wide make up the biggest part of Scouting's membership.

From what I have read Baden Powell was never very keen on having younger boys involved in his plan for Scouting, in fact he seen them as being a bit of a nuisance.

While I would say that we might lose a lot of potential members because of Cub Scouting, I also believe that without Cub Scouting we would not have lasted the 100 years that we have.

There are still some people who belong to BP Scouts and organizations that are outside of the "Mainstream". I don't know of anyone who wishes them any ill will.

But I do question that if this was really what the youth and their families really wanted? Why aren't they more successful?

I really don't have any problem with the Congressional Charter, I would however point out:

Sec. 30904. Powers:

6.do any other act necessary to carry out this chapter and promote the purpose of the corporation.

My interpretation of this is that we don't have to remain in the 1916's.

The values mentioned in the charter:the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues. Have not changed and remain intact.

Eamonn.

Our Corporate Mission Statement:

"The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law."

Our REAL Mission Statement:

"The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916."

Eamonn writes:

"I really don't have any problem with the Congressional Charter, I would however point out: Sec. 30904. Powers: 6.do any other act necessary to carry out this chapter and promote the purpose of the corporation. My interpretation of this is that we don't have to remain in the 1916's. The values mentioned in the charter...Have not changed and remain intact."

That is almost perfect Wood Badge Logic, Eamonn! Take traditional Scoutcraft out of Scouting and we still have the same "values," correct?

Wood Badge is based on corporate manager fluff. Now is a very bad time for corporations because everyone is so aware that 21st century mission statements and trendy one minute manager schemes are based on promoting empty assets. That is why you can buy shares in a corporation so cheaply now!

The Wood Badge Logic (or corporate logic) of using Sec. 30904, which deals with the PROMOTION of the OFFICIAL PURPOSE (Scoutcraft), to CHANGE THE PURPOSE of the corporation is an example of the "ethical choices" corporations use to acquire toxic assets.

That is what happens when you strip Scoutcraft away from Scout values. Values that are not tested against the forces of mother nature are not traditional Scouting values. They may look the same on paper, but they are just opinions. Wood Badge Logic is a perfect example of "anything goes." Just because business nerds think that soccer or computers are easier to PROMOTE to "modern boys" than Scouting, does not make it an "ethical choice."

Suppose you were successful in getting Congress to strip Scoutcraft from the REAL mission statement, and substitute the Corporate Mission Statement in its place? Then it would be still be OK to apply your interpretation of Sec. 30904 to substitute something that business nerds think is easier to PROMOTE than "Ethical Choices"?

Unethical choices, for instance?

Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca seeks to "reinvent" the BSA and move us away from our real-world industrial-age product, Scoutcraft, and replace it with abstract "values" and corporate management theory (AKA character and leadership):

"Camping is not necessarily a big thing with them, as a matter of fact in some cases it is not big at all. So we need to kind of think about, is it more important that we reach that child with the kind of things we have for children and we have for families in character development and leadership skill growth and all of those things? Or is it more important that we get them in a tent next week? And so I think the answer to that is fairly obvious to us.

"The other is that marvelous passion for family in the Hispanic world and when we say 'we want to take your twelve-year-old son but you can't come' we're making a mistake there. We have to engage an entire family. We need to reach out and do those sorts of things that recognize their cultural issues and accommodate them. For example one of our pilot programs over the last recent years has been Scouting and soccer, using the attraction of the soccer game to gather Hispanic families around...."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#29491940

Not sure how we got on to a Wood Badge rant?

As I see it we need a "Product" that appeals to the youth we want to join.

A 100 years ago Baden Powell returned to England to a hero's welcome.

The media of the time proclaimed him a hero. His face was on postage stamps, you could buy tea sets with his picture on on.

The streets of London filled with people welcoming him home.

In big cities like London, kids played on the streets and in local parks, they formed small gangs.

Schools were neighborhood schools, the kids walked to school.

Schools were also divided into boys schools and girls schools.

BP was at the right place at the right time.

Boy's wanted to be like him, they wanted to copy him.

As we know back in the early days, it was the boy's who pestered the adults to get involved.

Asking friendly school masters and preachers to become their leaders.

When BP took that first group of Lads to camp at Brownsea Island, it was an experiment. Back then kids didn't camp or go to camp.

Just going to camp was a big adventure.

I don't think we have the type of hero's that we had back then.

News travels so much faster, that todays hero will soon be forgotten.

Hero's like BP have been replaced by professional sports figures who come and go. Or rock and roll starts who today are one hit wonders and are soon off to rehab.

Going to camp to just live in a tent is no longer the big adventure it once was.

Our local elementary school takes third and forth graders away to camp. Many of our Boy Scouts who have been Cub Scouts have had several years of resident camp in by the time they join Boy Scouts.

I'm willing to match my own outdoor skills against just about anyone.

I know that given a chance I can most of the time "Sell" the youth we have today in a lot of the things that maybe some Troops don't do as much as I used to when I was a Scout.

But before I can get any where near doing that, the youth have to become members.

If soccer is the "Carrot" that brings them in? I'm ready to buy into it.

We can argue about what the meaning of "Scoutcraft" is?

Is Scoutcraft the art of living like a Scout?

Or is it just having "Outdoor Skills"?

I like to think that I'm the man I am today, not because I can make myself comfortable in the great outdoors, but because of the life lessons I learned as a Scout.

Eamonn.

Our Business Manager Mission Statement:

"The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law."

Our REAL Mission Statement:

"The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916."

Eamonn writes:

"Not sure how we got on to a Wood Badge rant?"

Your "Traditional Scouting" rant.

Wood Badge is the interface between corporate manager theory and volunteer training. Nobody defines Scouting as soccer unless they have been to corporate manager Wood Badge.

Eamonn writes:

"As I see it we need a "Product" that appeals to the youth we want to join."

We already have a "Product" that appeals to youth. 66% of sixth graders (not counting Webelos cross-overs) want to be a Boy Scout if you describe Scouting as the Scoutcraft methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916." That is our mission. Our Congressional Charter does not say "figure out what will make you popular and call that Scouting." The Charter is a preservation document, it defines Scouting as the methods that were in use on the day the monopoly on Scouting (for boys) was granted, in exchange for picking the BSA as the coporate winner.

Eamonn writes:

"If soccer is the "Carrot" that brings them in? I'm ready to buy into it."

Those are corporate manager values. People who want to be popular so badly that they twist the meaning of the Congressional Charter to turn Scouting into soccer do NOT make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes: That is NOT the meaning of Scout Law.

Eamonn writes:

"We can argue about what the meaning of "Scoutcraft" is?"

Pure Wood Badge Logic. That is the reason that outdoor skills were removed from Wood Badge. The meaning of "Scoutcraft" is laid out pretty clearly at:

http://inquiry.net/advancement/tf-1st_require_1911.htm

Eamonn writes:

"Is Scoutcraft the art of living like a Scout? Or is it just having "Outdoor Skills"?

Scoutcraft is the process of learning outdoor skills in a Patrol. Living the Scout Law is something that a boy learns to do along the way outdoors with his HANDS.

Eamonn writes:

"I like to think that I'm the man I am today, not because I can make myself comfortable in the great outdoors, but because of the life lessons I learned as a Scout."

If you had never been a Scout but instead learned your "life lessons" on a soccer field, then you would have athlete values, not Scout values.

A good athlete would never twist the meaning of baseball terms so that he could play soccer in his Little League team. If he wanted to be popular so very badly, he would go try out for soccer.

Maybe that is why so many parents believe that the values a boy learns from sports are far superior to anything he can learn in Scouts, where "ethical choices" means twisting words just to be popular.

Kudu