willysjeep

We have had female venturers on staff. We have cabins across the lake from the scout camp that were part of a little hole in the wall fishing resort in the 70's. We call them te "family side" for a reason. the families of staffers and even to some extent the families of campers can rent a little cabin. There are allways vacant cabins, so female staffers bunk together in one. This combined with the mile walk and all of the old adult staffers who rent cabins over tere there have never been problems. Plus the girls mother was on staff, I'm sure that helped.

true about the G2SS. No matter what when you set a rule in stone some people are bound to think it is too strict and some people are bound to think it's not strict enough. Beyond that though some people make up their own safety guidelines. Like I actually got a "talking to" for slicing an apple and eating it with a completely dull butter knife from one leader in my troop. You know, take a slice of apple and pop it in your mouth. "If somebody bumps your elbow you could get cut with that knife" the man said. I guess this guy must think forks are dangerous to put near your mouth too. But an

The issue may not be the colors at all but the shades and patterns. Camouflage basically blends you in with the shadows and light patterns of the woods.If camo were all grey and black it might still work well hiding from deer in a green and brown woods. That funky world war two camo doesn't match the colors of any where very well, but the pattern makes the human form less visible because the form is broken up. The tent thing I admit is a stretch for a defense for camouflage. Still, there is a part of low impact that deals with the immediate impact of a group (noise, bright colors). I remain f

A lot of my complaints apply to my troop more than to scouting in general. Even within my troop though I often wonder if it is worth stirring things up just to try to get some little change made. Some of my complaints stem from the general attitude that I seem to get from the program. It seems like the focous has switched from being masculine and outdoors oriented to being politically correct and neutral and inoffensive even if it means stifling useful information. Personally, in my troop, I would like to see more sensible leadership with less emotional crybaby adults and wannabee

"For example, it is now prohibited for Scouts to participate in close order drill (marching)" I think this is a myth, otherwise how could Mackinac Island Scout Service Camp get away with it. The MISSC office at the state park sets the regulations for troops serving at the camp, and one is that any group of scouts in uniform on official business has to march. We even march to the swimming pool at the Grand Hotel. We hold usually about two weekend long trainings before the camp and one thing we cover is marching. We march to flags, we march from flags, we march down town, we march to the gr

I have to say someting here. My grandmother gave me an old beat up copy of the 1948 handbook when I was 5 years old. It was my first exposure to scouting, and I was hooked. I'm just about 20 now and my grand illusion of how scouting is has been almost totally shattered. Reading the old handbooks time and time again kind of set me up for some sort of norman rockwell-esq scouting experience. The newest two handbooks which I used as a scout allways seemed lacking in some areas. Scouting as a whole has changed a lot since 1948 and I don't think allways for the better. Yet still, I am a slave to th

Ok, now i'm lost. What did I miss?

Interesting story. There was a fella on summer camp staff many years ago who only wore gallouses to keep his pants up. He got razzed one year about them not being uniform, so the next year he had a pair of OD green suspenders for everybody on staff. Thet matched the scout pants perfectly. I think they were called "the boss" or something. Really interesting design. They only had two clips and clipped onto your pants right on the side. So, for a few years there were "official" suspenders on summer camp staff at least. OD green worked great for scouts, but I shudder to think of them in gold for c

I bought one recently for a 15 year old guy I was on summer camp staff with. He wanted one because he collected pins, and you can wear a few more pins on an overseas cap and not look like a dork. They sell for a few bucks on E-bay. Nice, but I like my surplus store campaign hat just as well. I don't understand why I can find a hat that meets all the BSA specifications (size, shape, material, made in USA) that costs under 1/3 of what the BSA wants for their official hat. Beats a $20 ball cap with some wild logo and an FDL stuck in there. More "scoutly" too. It seems like the new uniform stuff i

I may have a somewhat warped take on this topic. Back in the day the scout uniforms and the military uniforms were ereily identical. You couldn't tell if it were a scout campaign at or a military campaign hat because there was no diference what so ever. This was done, so I have been told, because surplus uniforms could be had anywhere for cheap, were extremely durable, and could be used in many situations. Not that the BDU is perfect, but if they went back to the original idea they could make something that could be used in many diferent situations, so here are my ideas. 1) Cotton is not

I hear ya about the shoulder straps. I solved some of the problem by sewing up a nice wide tump line to take some of the load off my shoulders. Also, I am carrying a 9X9 foot canvas tarp tent I made from some old plans in an outdated handbook. I bet this tarp is a bit larger than the average shelter half. Of course I am also using a 3 point wool blanket which is probably smaller than the average sleeping bag. I guess it all evens out. I am sort of trying to simplify my camping experience. I have spend years hauling way too much. Now I am looking at things from a more minimalist perspecti

It's kind of funny. I have an old handbook that shows a hypothetical backpack with the blankets and tent neatly packed in the bag with food and a mess kit and all this other stuff. Apparently they had tents and blankets about the size of handkerchiefs at the time because my blanket alone just about fills the pack to capacity. Other than that, it looks like I won't be hurting too much for room if the tent and blanket stay outside. I also did a little research o tump lines and if I ever give this pack a real life trial on the trail then I will give the tump line a shot too.

OK, here goes another one. I just recently got an old yucca pack to fool around with. Mabey some of you experienced folks could help me out here. How in the heck do you lash all of your gear to them? I have boiled it down to rolling my bedroll and tarp tent into a big sausage and wearing it "civil war style" ontop of the bag and held down by the flap, and lashed to the bottom D rings on the sides. This makes the pack pretty compact, but for some reason it doesn't seem right to have that big roll of blankets lashed to the outside of the pack. So, how were the old canvas yucca packs actually use

dancinfox you are from michigan, and looking to save some money? Check out my summer camp. Last year was my second (non-consecutive) year on staff at Camp Hiawatha in Munising, in da U.P. Our rates are the lowest in the state. IIRC it's about $130 per scout. 100% patrol camping and patrol cooking, we offer tons of merit badges....sorry, couldn't resist the little plug there. Up here Hiawatha is THE summer camp. There are no othre really convienient options. We get a lot of repeats and a few out of council people too. Actually, we had a troop from Elk Rapids last summer. We have al

the material the flag was made of is not revered, and neither is the flag (to me) atleast not any more than what it stands for. what I revere is what the flag stands for, encluding free speach. Granted, it wasn't so nice of him to wear it as a shirt, but chances are he didn't do it intentionally.

Exactly, they are old, tired, and not that funny to begin with. If only slightly cleaner than Many Moons, the tent skit is still much more original at this point. There are even better ones out there that are totally clean if you look hard. It's just that somebody's definition of clean can be pretty diferent from another persons.

True, morse code may be a bit outdated, but it is no less useful today, if scouts still knew it, than it was in 1911. As for stalking and tracking, I am really sad that that requirement is gone too. Tracking and stalking are skills that I wish I had learned as a scout. Now I have to pick them up by myself. I do find that I get to experience nature more fully by being able to read tracks and follow animals though. Mabey they could reintroduce it under nature study or low impact or something. After all, if a deer doesn't notice you, you are probably less visible to other hikers too. So, he

The pregnant tent skit definantly goes into a grey area. I saw it done at a campfire once pretty tastefully(compared to others), and it certainly was much cleaner than "The Roler Coaster/Latrine" or "Many Moons" or "cooking pot/latrine" skits. Althought I admit it is definantly not approprioate for cub scouts. Even SLIGHTLY risque humor can be used in some situations. Getting pooped on while down a latrine, drinking from a "latrine" cooking pot, or being "tricked" into faking an attack of explosive diareah on stage isn't subtle, but they are all done so often that we all know them.

Oops! No, no scout needs to know edible plants anymore. IIRC the official stance in the Wilderness Survival pamphlet says something like 1) you'll probably poison yourself 2) food uses up water, you can go a long time without food 3) you probably can't tell what is safe, see No 1 Funny how prioritys change huh? At one time the wilderness survival book talked about knapping arrow points and building wikiups and figure 4 deadfalls. Now it tells you to not eat any wild foods. Change ain't allways that great.

I think I read somewhere online that they made some "experimental" green jackets for "professional" scouters to wear when a field uniform would be inappropriate, like the official adult business uniform today. I guess they thought they might get in trouble with the PGA for having a green jacket or something. Unless mabey it was a blue wool coat for professionals and a green for ventures, I forget which. Anyways I guess they got rid of the green and blue jac-shirts when they got a new "color identity" scheme in the 60's, making it a universal red ja-shirt. I would still like to get a green jac-

Hi all, again I think I saw in the "uniform" board a thread on the red woolrich jac-shirt that there once were green jac-shirts for scouts and red for scouters. About how long ago did this practice cease? As long as I'm asking about jac-shirts, did anybody but woolrich ever make the official ones, or was it an exclusive type thing? I know that the BSA has had other equipment made by just about every company in that perticular business at some time (Axes by Collins, Keen Kutter, and Plumb, along with the generic offical inexpensive axes). Were the Jac-Shirts something similar? T

IIRC, if you get a hat from the catalog, it should come with the band, and possibly the insignia. They ptobably expect it to be in the right spot when you get it, so they probably don't address how it should be. I bought an army surplus store el-cheapo last summer. It is brand new, made by the "campaign" company, and is made in the USA. It is not the offical Stetson or any other famous brand, but it is made in the USA and fits me well. I took off the goofy vinyl chin strap and replaced it with a leather lace and rawhide slider. I also got the old First Class pin for it, and the Adult one

Got my old (Imperial I think) mess kit and canteen with aluminum stopper off of e-bay about a year ago. Got the Imperial leather cased chow set too. they are a LOT better than the new stuff I had. Kind of funny, that mess kit was in great shape, like it wasn't used even. I have already baked bread in the frying pan. I also snagged a reflector oven, offical even, that I polished up and plan on using this summer. I'm hoping to make this summer an "antique equipment" summer. Working on a mostly complete camping outfit that would fit in about 1948. I even made up a bedroll with a light canvas cove

I also "inherited" a set of morse code keys when my summer camp cleaned out it's quartermaster shed. The buzzers were all shot, but the keys were fine. I am thinking about making a set of good buzzers to wire together with cheap speaker wire or doorbell wire. I am also pretty handy with a sewing machine so a set of wigwag and semaphore flags. Mabey I could even get some other folks in my troop excited about signaling. Might be fun on canoe trips or at summer camp.

Ok all, for all of the 1990's while I was in scouting the semaphore flag code and morse code were all still in the handbook. I guess they were sort of an institution in scouting for a long time. However....it seems that hardly anybody in scouting teaches morse code, hand signals, or semaphore any more. I understand that cell phones and 2 way radios have mostly replaced flags for signaling, but when did they? I remember talking to an old scouter who said he never got his first class because when he was a youth there was a signaling requirement for first class, and his scoutmaster made everybody