At the end of the day.

A couple of weeks back HWMBO and self went to see Les Miserables.

I really enjoyed it. Not so sure about HWMBO. She was upset that I hadn't wanted to spend almost $400.00 to see Barry Manilow, not that I have anything against Barry Manilow! I'm just not willing to spend that much to go and see him live.

Seems that more and more in the forum I'm reading how we need to go back to "Traditional Scouting".

We need to return to woodcraft and Scout-craft.

Then of course there is the "Need" for Patrols to camp 100 yards apart.

I don't have a problem with any of this.

My problem is with the idea that someone? Anyone? Has said that we can't do this!

No one said I had to not go see Barry Manilow. I choose not to go. No one said that I had to go and see Les Miserables.

Again this was my choice.

While I would agree that maybe some of the things that we used to do are maybe not done as much. - Cooking over a wood fire is not as big now as it was when I was a Scout, but any Troop that feels the need is more than welcome to cook over a wood fire at any one of our Council sites.

Maybe some pioneering projects are not seen as being earth-friendly, but there are ways around this.

If we are not delivering the program?

Who is to blame?

I would say that we are.

I have yet to see the memo that requires we all do something that we don't want to do.

I know that I'm big enough and ugly enough so as not to care what the "Other" Troop down the road is doing.

I've been around long enough to know that, not every Troop has always done things the same way as I have or I might think is the way that things should be done.

If I can sell the idea of Patrols camping 100 yards or 250 yards apart. I'm OK with it, if the Troop down the road wants to camp on top of each other? Do I care?

Does it matter to me that BP didn't have the Patrols cook their own meals at Brownsea Island?

One of the songs from Les Miserables is At The End Of The Day.

At the end of the day if Traditional Scouting is not being done? Surely the blame lies with the unit leader. No one said he or she had to do it the way it's being done.

At the end of the day there's another day dawning

And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise

Like the waves crash on the sand

Like a storm that'll break any second

There's a hunger in the land

There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and

There's gonna be hell to pay

At the end of the day!

Eamonn

Good post Eamonn. I have often heard Scouter bemoan the lack of traditional Scouting skills. But if we're not teaching those skills how our the Scout's supposed to aquire them? On another Scouting forum someone asked the UK Chief Commissioner to bring back Scout staves, the UKCC pointed out that they were still available, that Scout Shops sold them, and that The Scout Association encouraged their use.

Chug

I don't know how things were in Kent?

When I first joined a Troop. Pre-Advanced Party!

The P/L's all had Scout Staves. - Real ones!! Made from good quality ash. Marked off in feet with inches on the top -Heck some of the P/L's even knew too mark 12 of these inches on the top.

Of course more often then not, boys being boys and England being England, these youngsters all thought that they were Robin Hood and Little John!

I had a couple of hundred of these stashed away. We used them for indoor pioneering projects, bean bag hockey, floating flag poles.

Sure by the time I became a Scout Leader, Robin Hood and Little John weren't as popular and had been replaced by Bruce Lee and some guy called Grasshopper.

I remember seeing some Morris Dancers who did a wonderful dance with these staves, I'll bet before they perfected the routine there had been a good many grazed knuckles and the odd broken finger.

Back in them dark days a P/L armed with a six foot piece of ash gave real meaning to "Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing" He needed very little in the way of leadership training. (My brother who is 4 years older than myself who was a P/L when I first joined Scouts was always armed and ready. Maybe he was taking this Be Prepared thing to a whole new level?)

Most of the things they sell over here are little more than broom handles, made of pine.

Ea.

I guess it is all relative. I developed the reputation as the most traditional SM in the District. I never really considered that because I was just doing it the way I learned when I was a boy scout. Another SM friend, who was never a boy scout as a youth, called me at work one Monday and asked what his scouts should do on campouts when they get bored with learning scout skills. At first I thought he was joking, but then he explained that he was doing everything that he learned at Wood Badge (old course) and SM Handbook. His agendas were pretty regimented with getting up, eating breakfast, scouts skills activities, eating lunch, more scout skills activities, dinner, Campfire and lights out. I asked him where he fit free time in there. He asked What free time?. I imagine if you asked him at that time if he was running a traditional scouting program, he would say yes because he knew of no other way of doing it. Its all relative.

I love this scouting stuff

Barry

(not Manilow)

Ahh,

another Le Miz fan.

Eamonn

I didn't join the movement until well after the APR. My Scout troop still had staves, they were used for pioneering and also for a variety of games, we also had two trek carts which were often used, especially on camps as many campsites didn't allow you to drive your van onto the fields.

I don't know if the same is true in the US, but I find many Scouters believe things that just aint true. A game Eamonn should know is "British Bulldog", speak to most Scouters and they'll tell you it's banned. They'll rename it "Irish Wolfhound" or "French Poodle" to get round the ban. Only problem is, it was never banned. People just assumed it was.

Another example is wearing of uniform. My sons Akela says that Scouts are only insured on activities if they are wearing uniform. "That must make swimming fun" says I.

Back during the Civil War, Southern soldiers called the book 'Lee's Miserables'. Guess that explains one reason the North had its way with the South, LMAO.

Anyway, I think Les Miserables is one of the great works of literature of all time. My favorite film adaptation is the 1934 version by Raymond Bernard (you have to understand French or be able to read subtitles). I haven't encountered it often here in the South.

Another great version was actually a made-for-television version in (where else?) France back in 2000. It's kind of long, six hours, but also very convincing and fairly true to the original story.

At the end of the day, all the BSA vagueness and wanderings by councils and units is tending to a de facto 'local option' reality.

I'dd go see Barry Manilow, IF you paid me the $200, don't hate him just do not want to spend that long listening to him.

The proablem is when an activity is allowed but nobody does it for a few years the notion sets in that its not allowed because it hasn't happened since the Lockstep Scouters moved up to troop level. Lockstep Scouters; those parrents who follow junior through the Scouting program, they may be helocopters or subscribe boy led, what does define them is as soon as the boy is done so are they. To ballance this the longterm Scouters need to be a tree of knoledge not dead wood.