GKlose

SctDad - from which area? Xenia, or the northeast? I live presently outside of Boston, in the Yankee Clipper Council (10k youth, 4k adult volunteers, I've heard) area. On Maine: had one (fantastic) high adventure trip up to Matagamon base when I was a scout. We spent a week and a half on the Allagash and Webster Brook and environs. I returned several years later to canoe the East Branch (of the Penobscot) with a friend. The Maine Matagamon base is still open (although not as a national high adventure area). I highly recommend the experience!

Funny you should mention tornadoes...my 11y.o.'s science text mentioned the Xenia tornado, so I told his teacher that I would come into the class and show some pictures. I found a plethora of interesting material online, and added some slides that my dad had taken. I plan on putting the pictures up on the web Any Day Now. And greetings back to those of you in Dayton. My dad was a Dayton-area architect, and left behind a few monuments to bad 50s-60s architecture! I haven't lived back there since the early 80s.

WilVick's new post helped coerce me into writing an introductory note as well. Wil and I were on staff together at Camp Birch, Tecumseh Council, in the late 70s. Looking back, I had an amazing set of experiences in the 7 years I was part of Troop 165, Xenia, OH: not only summer camp at Camp Birch several times, but summer camp twice on our own, the 1973 National Jamboree (Moraine S.P. in PA; it would be quite a fluke if anyone remembers "The World's Biggest Camera"), Philmont, a Maine High Adventure trip, camp staff for three years, OA, Brownsea (in Tecumseh Council's inaugural group). We

Wil -- do you by any chance remember me? (Guy) I was on the first Camp Birch staff you joined. I just joined this forum too.

This reminds me of an event from my days as a scout. Our SM was a teacher, and didn't get finished with school until about 3pm on Fridays. One Friday afternoon, prior to a 6pm campout departure, weather looked a little bit too threatening for one mom, so she called the rest of the troop parents to cancel the campout. Her kid, Chuck, a year older than me, was fairly new to the troop, and camping in general. He was a funny, laid-back kid. But he and his mom didn't know that weather *never* stopped us. Never. And we still went that weekend. We did what kids do...Chuck got a good dose of

Thanks, Lisabob. There are no rabble-rousing intentions on my part. I'll do some reading about hats in the Uniforms forum to see what the hot-button issues are.

I joined circa spring 71 (garrison cap era) and shortly thereafter one of my friends (my den chief, and my first patrol leader) came back from a conference at the Philmont training center wearing a red beret and speaking of new program features such as belt loops. I remember being instructed on how to properly wear the beret, and in my mind, it only looked good when it was worn properly. At the '73 National Jamboree, I remember thousands of scouts who didn't know how to wear it properly. But I think the color contrast was good. Summer of '72, my troop sent a contingent to Philmont, a