yaworski

My son wears his uniform with pride. Shirt, shorts, socks, neckerchief, cap pose no problems. Where we go 'round and 'round is on the belt. When I was a young man, my tailor said to me, "ifa you gotta belt loops, you weara da belt." Unfortunately, my son sees no reason to wear the belt because he doesn't need it to hold his britches up. My explanation of "it's part of the uniform" doesn't impress him and there is usually a bit of pouting on his part. Strange, very strange. We do have a Life Scout in our troop who is just plain embarassed to be a Scout. He refuses to wear the uniform in public and only puts it on after he arrives at meetings.

"Yes, but think of all the new people you would meet." I know many Scouters that seem as embarrassed as the boy by their uniforms. As soon as a meeting is over, they shed the shirt. I, on the other hand, wear mine with pride. One day, I was going home from a meeting and stopped at the supermarket to get some stuff. A lady stopped me as I walked down the aisle and said, "I want to thank you for all the wonderful things that you do for the boys." She sounded choked up and hurried off before I could get her story. The actor, William H. Masey (sp?) was a Scouter and related a story on the Tonight Show (if memory serves). As I recall the story, he was headed home from a scout function in full uniform and had to visit an ATM in a "not so good" section of the city (my faulty memory says that it was because he needed cash to pay a tow truck). As Masey is standing at the ATM, a fearsome looking black man and glowers at Masey. Of course Masey thinks the worst until the man sticks out his left hand and says, "I'm Bill Brown, Scoutmaster of Troop 567"

Last spring we had three Scouts earn their Eagles within a month of each other and all had separate COHs. If memory serves, the first to get his Eagle was the last to have a COH. I asked about this and was told that it is unusual to have multilple Eagles at one COH, much like you rarely see double weddings. Ask the Scouts involved what they'd like. After all, the parents didn't earn the award, the Scout did.

"I am not sure if he is still alive or not, but if he is not, he is certainly helping scouts and scouters in Heaven." I think that now would be the time to look this person up. If he's still alive, pay him a visit or make a call. In our extremely connected world with email, faxes, IM, etc. we still have a tendency to allow ourselves to become disconnected from the people who were important in our lives. Much of this is because we are so migratory. I live 250 miles from where I grew up. Most of my friends from high school and college live are gone to the four corners of the Earth. A while back, I tracked down a college friend and gave him a call. We talked for about three hours, catching up on the joys and tragedies of our respective lives. I currently live in a small town where many of the residents grew up here, some moved away for a while but many came back. I envy these people who see people that they've known all of their lives on a daily basis.

That's what Scouting is all about, having fun while learning!

"Just steer clear of the BB gun shooting. I don't know about the training of the people in our district and council, but I do know they ARE very careful. Each boy must have an adult with him when he shoots. Everyone must wear eye goggles. " This isn't a "just steer clear of it item," this is a prohibited activity at a unit campout. Next you'll be suggestion other dangerous activities like wearing unauthorized neckerchiefs. :-)

I'll play Bob White here and quote the Guide to Safe Scouting . . . Cub Scout Standards Gun-shooting sports are not an approved part of the Cub Scout program except at a council-approved Cub Scout day camp, Cub Scout resident camp, or Cub Scout family camp. At camp, Cub Scouts may have an opportunity to take part in a BB-gun (rifle) safety and marksmanship program under the direction of a trained and certified BB-gun range officer. Cub Scouts are not permitted to use any other type of handgun or firearm. If this isn't an approved activity, they shouldn't be shooting BB guns. Now, I'm all for firearms instruction, that's the best way to keep a kid safe around firearms. The problem is that it is very likely that none of the fathers will be a trained firearms instructor. (This message has been edited by yaworski)

For some reason, we don't have a problem recruiting ASMs or committtee members. We have at least six trained ASMs and three more are going to training this fall. Maybe our District's BSLE course is so much fun that everyone wants to go. :-)

"The next day the boy wandered into a camp about 1 mile from where he started just as a horse fell over dead. " Did I miss something? Where did the horse come from?

If you can get people from the community who don't have children in the troop to sit on your committee, go for it. All too often, parent want to skew the troop activities and policies to benefit their child. Not all the children, just theirs.

This may be a reason that GSUSA looks a troops finances every year. If Judge Wopner is any indication, you'd have a good chance in small claims court. If she doesn't have any paperwork to back up her expenses, she won't be able to show that she deserved the money. Based on conversations that I've had with a client who is a former Assistant DA, you might want to discuss the situation with some one in the DA's office or the police fraud department to see if they'd even do anything in such a situation (mom, apple pie, boy scouts, etc.) Have you revoked her check writing priveleges? A couple decades ago, the treasurer of my referee association "borrowed" $15,000 to start a business with the intent of paying it back before he needed to write checks to pay the officials. Well, the business folded and he couldn't put the money back into the account. Oops. He went to jail. Good luck. It sucks when someone that you trusted steals from you.

I must have frightened the poor guy. Evidently, "Bob White's" fearsome nature is well known. Well, I'll out SmT206. He commented that his colour guard and honour guard wear red berets, white gloves and white web belts. He also said that boys just about fight to be on one of these special details.

I hope that Bob White, who ever he may be, doesn't read you message. He'll lecture you on how it isn't permitted to wear white belts or white gloves and that by doing so, you are detracting from the program. God help you if you have them wear white leggings too. :-)

So far my son has enjoyed building fires and carving things with his spiffy pocket knife. Interestingly, that's two of the classic three reasons that boys join Boy Scouts.

Who runs the troop? The boys or the parents? Are the boys the ones fixated on advancement or are the parents? Why not have games that involve scouting skills? Rescue relays, knot tying races, tracking games like "hare and hound" It seems that once taught, most scouting skills can be honed and tested in games. They may not be tag or capture the flag but they are games. On campouts you can do things like night time hikes, night time hide and seek. Kids today seem to need guidance when it comes to having fun. My son and a friend rececntly spent the day at another friend's house. The third fellow's family rents a house on a 400 acre farm with barns, pond, woods, etc.. Can you believe these kids were bored all day because the father wouldn't let them stay inside and play computer games. They couldn't think of anything to do. Pretty sad, isn't it.

Names on youth sport jerseys are recent innovations. They were first put on professional and college jerseys so TV viewers would know who was who. As I recall, the strip of masking tape on the helmet was so you could identify your helmet in the equipment room or if you set it down.

Demand that they double your pay!

I like the old leather belt with the two piece buckle but it is a pain to get through the belt loops. The current web belt is okay but the quality of the buckle sucks. If you have a 60's vintage buckle compare it to the current one. The metal is heavier and the stamping is cleaner. I know that it is too much to expect the boys to learn the proper "metal on metal" way of wearing it but I wish the stupid parents would trim the end of the belt so their son doesn't have an extra 15" of webbing wrapped around his waist.

"Sounds like you don't really know your scouts very well." In retrospect, some have less common sense than a poodle. Last summer at camp we had a boy wander off after dinner, when the lost camper search finally found him, he was in a canoe in the middle of the lake with neither PFD nor paddle. This year I fortunate enough to be there to stop another boy from stirring the coals in a fire with his hands. He thought that he wouldn't get burned because there were no flames. One fellow managed to lose his shirt on the last day of camp. He was fully dressed waiting for our convoy to leave but when he go home his shirt was nowhere to be found.

" The settlers of this country wiped out many Native Americans and "appropriated" their land." So what? The Normans . . . The Turks invaded Greece. The Persians invaded. . . . The Egyptians invaded . . . The Zulus invaded . . . Hey, you know what? The Indians were invading each others territories, looting, killing and pillaging long before we got here. The Central and South American cultures were horrible, just killing right and left. There was a war, the Indians lost. Wah, wah, wah! I see no one crying out about the horrible Normans squashing the Saxon way of life. Let's ban all words of Norman origin from our language.

I really wonder what they teach in school today. According to my son, "George Washington was that President guy." Thy'e studied Japan, Mexico, and China in great detail but he can't tell you where California is.

" I majored in this in college, and worked in radio and TV for a few years afterwards." You majored in communications and you still have such an abysmal commonad of the English language? I offer, "CopyRight violations is an expensive crime" as evidence.

"Youth does not necessarily equal ignorance" Youth usually implies inexperience but youth is also usually accompanied by uncluttered thought, and idealism. Way back when, one of my physics professors told me that most of the great theories in physics were first postulated when the physisit was young. It may have taken their lifetime to fine tune it and prove it but the original ideas came when they were young. In effect, what Bob was saying to Venturer2002 is, "Hey young'un! If'n ya know wots good fe ya, ye'll shut up, cuz I know what's what and you don't!"

"You are actually holding a bag of urine to brandishing a gun?" I'll guess that you left out a word. Holding a bag of urine? No, I said that he was brandishing a bag of urine. You're up to your old tricks of changing words.

"He said he held it up. He displayed it he did not threaten anyone. " "I have a gun and I know how to use it" is considered a threat. Brandishing a bag of urine and uttering similar words is equally a threat. We all know that he wasn't announcing that he was skilled in the operation of a pee bag. As, I said before, humourous intent or not, it was a threat.