clemlaw

>>>If a boy is taught to be responsible, there isn't a whole lot of need for volumes of the rules that seem to grow daily in our neck of the woods.

>>>>>>If the electricity went out in your house, could you go out in the back yard and make dinner? Sleep? Survive? I'm thinking most kids today can't.

I told our Tiger Cubs (and their parents) that the great thing about Scouting was one of the few places where they will get to do dangerous stuff. Then, I quietly told the parents that it's really not very dangerous, after all. From what I can tell, they still get to do about the same amount of dangerous stuff as I did in the 1970's. (And no, my troop didn't take the "improved scouting" too seriously, so for us, it was about the same as what had been done in the 1960's.) A few dangerous things are gone, but there seem to be a few new dangerous activities. Cub scouts get to do a fe

For many years (when nobody was looking, of course), I used what I thought might be the dreaded "granny knot" to tie things down. It turns out, the know I was using was actually the "trucker's hitch". I was extremely relieved to learn that my knot had an actual name, thus making it an official knot. (It works a lot better than the taut line hitch, but it can be practically impossible to untie.) Calico, thanks for the list. It sounds like your troop made it camping slightly more often than we did, but that looks pretty similar to my old troop's calendar. Whew. What a relief.

I've already confessed that, as an Eagle Scout, I've forgotten how to tie a clove hitch the right way! I remember how to make a figure 8 and slip it over the top of a post, but I don't remember how to tie it if you can't slip it over the top. I'm sure that if I stood there with a piece of rope long enough, I would eventually figure it out. But the fact reamins that I've forgotten this skill! Now, I'm wondering whether my troop was actually one of those dreaded adult-led Eagle Mills that didn't go camping often enough! This was during the 1970's, so I'm inherently suspect! But in our

Don't worry, it's only slightly heretical. My son (a Tiger) seems to like stuff on his uniform, so a den number strip is one more decoration. Come to think of it, when I was a Cub Scout, I thought it was kind of cool that the combination of council patch, pack number, and den number narrowed down my identity, so that anyone in the world could figure out where I belonged. Yes, I was kind of weird about things like that. But I have no idea what den number I was in back then. One thing that I have noticed that does seem heretical is that in two different packs, I have noticed peopl

I have the perfect solution, which will put the ball back into her court. Tell her you'll be able to help her out. She just needs a letter from her son's school, on school letterhead, stating that the son didn't complete fifth grade. If she talks the principal into retroactively flunking her son, then IMHO, the son is entitled to AOL.

I think we usually used rope, or maybe even twine--whatever was handy. But I vaguely recall using clothes pins a few times. I agree, unless you have to haul them very far, I prefer the canvas wall tents over almost anything else. We had a large council camp this past summer and a big windstorm blew through. Many things blew down. But two groups seemed to get through it unscathed. One was the Civil War reenactors, and the other group was the 1910 Boy Scout reenactors. In both cases, their tents seemed to stay standing just fine.

With our Tigers, I told the parents that the requirement says "learn", and not "memorize", so they shouldn't worry excessively about having them memorized. I planned on doing them "repeat after me style" for the first few meetings. But at our second meeting, we accidentally got locked out of the building and had our meeting outside. It was starting to get dark, and I didn't have my cheat sheet handy. (Hey, they changed it since I was a Cub Scout!) So we just started reciting them, and lo and behold, everyone (including me) had them memorized, even though they didn't have to!

Oh, yes, it's vaguely coming back to me.... If you have the tent stake going into sand and it rains a lot during the night, the thing can fall down on top of you. OK, maybe those new-fangled things aren't quite so bad after all. I guess I'll ask my wife to brush up on the EDGE method so that she can show me how to set it up.

All these years, I thought they were saying "to", but someone told me that it was really "two", because "one" would mean "salute", and "two" means "stop saluting". I don't know whether that's true, but it sounds like as good a theory as any. If I had been called upon to come up with a theory, I probably would have said that it means that you can once again put your hand "to" your side.

In the other thread, jblake47 wrote: "I'll take a wall tent over a dome tent any day for coolness. Ever wonder why there are grommets in the 4 corners?" OK, this brings up a question I've had for a while, along with a horrible confession on my part. What kind of tents do scouts use these days, and why have they moved to what appears to me to be a poorer alternative? I've been away from scouts for 30+ years. I still don't have a lot of experience with the way things are done these days. But from my limited experience of Cub Scout camping, and looking around at neighboring

In response to the original post (which I realize is rather old now), there's probably no need to fight this particular battle. The pack leadership doesn't want to _require_ that uniforms be worn to den meetings. So it's not required. But even if they are not required to do so, surely they are _allowed_ to wear uniforms, and nobody can argue with you as den leader if you _allow_ them to wear uniforms. Therefore, as den leader, I would take the initiative and announce that henceforth, the Cubs are allowed to wear their uniforms to den meetings. Make it sound vaguely like this is a

Perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think everyone is overlooking a major difference between LDS scouting and "normal" troops. Isn't it true that in the LDS church, all or virtually all boys enrolled in the Scouting program? If so, that's very different from most other scouting units. In most troops, the boys are there either because they have an interest in the program, or (perhaps more likely) their parents have an interest in scouting. So it seems to me that the sample is rather skewed. Kids who are there because they have that interest, or even because their par

Welcome! Is your web site live yet? I'm notoriously cheap---I mean thrifty, so I probably have a few ideas!

I did look over the G2SS, and here's my take. Admittedly, the first paragraph of the G2SS is somewhat confusing, because it prohibits "overnight camping by dens as dens", but doesn't really define what it means with the term "as dens". It seems pretty clear to me that the intention is to prohibit the den from going on a campout "as a patrol", so to speak. The activity of "overnight den camping" by Webelos is allowed, so it seems to me that the first paragraph makes clear that other Cub Scouts cannot participate in the particular activity described in the Webelos paragraph. The seco

Back when I was a Cub Scout, we never went camping. At the end of Webelos, we had a one night campout. I think the reasoning was that we might be attacked by dinosaurs, who still roamed the earth, so it just wasn't safe for us to spend the night out of the relative safety of our caves. Instead, we spent most of our time doing various "craft" activities that the Den Mother had gleaned from the pages of the even more ancient issues of "Pack O' Fun" magazine that seemed to be handed around from den to den. In short, Cub Scouts was kind of boring back then. But many of us stuck with it an

Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing President Nixon at the 1973 Jamboree! I bet he was saying, "I feel sorry for the Scouts. They won't have Nixon to kick around any more."

Yes, it turns out the podium makes no difference. I guess I should do my research _before_ writing the answer. Here's another link that goes into a little more detail: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html (And I hope this stuff is still to be found in the Boy Scout Handbook!) Yes, the U.S. flag always needs to be to the right or in front of the other flag. So when walking into the gym, the person walking to the right of the other person should be carrying the U.S. flag. When it gets switched to the "other right", the easiest way to do the crossover is to have the U

Ah, yes, this is always the subject of untold confusion. The short answer is that, no, the U.S. flag should never be to the left. A quick Google for "US Flag Etiquette" brings up the following page as the first result, and from my quick perusal, it appears to be accurate: http://www.usflag.org/flagetiquette.html Assuming that there is a stage where the speakers will be speaking, then you have correctly determined that the flag should be to the right of the speakers on the stage, and the state flag should be to the left of the speakers. Think of the flag as being one of the spe

Well, I think it's a bad idea, because it would probably turn Scouting into an exercise class, which would have turned me off as a Scout. Don't get me wrong--being "physically strong" is a good idea. In the other thread, I commented that I was the least athletic kid in the world. This was a slight exageration, but still, the idea of having to do pushups to earn First Class could have easily driven me away. But Scouting, done right, did make me (at least minimally) physically strong. I did have to learn and demonstrate things that required physical strength, but it wasn't mere phys

We didn't have this requirement when I was in Scouts. I was the least athletic kid around, and I don't think I did a complete pull-up ever in my life. But for some strange reason, I was capable of doing basically an infinite number of sit-ups. So let's assume that for the first test, in my youthful exuberance, I decided to do some insanely large number of sit-ups. Thirty days later, would I be obligated to repeat that same number, plus one? IMHO, these kinds of questions call for the application of a little bit of common sense. And if a kid is held back for three years, it

I had a similar experience, although I think I was 13 at the time. It was done at summer camp, and we had to swim a course, and then shout out our number when we passed the starting point. It was probably 20 laps or something. For the last 10 laps, I was the last one, but I kept dutifully shouting out my number, much to the amusement of everyone who stuck around to watch me finish. IIRC, I missed supper, it was almost dark by the time I finished, and I didn't feel so good the next day. But yep, it was a big ego boost.

I'll join two other posters to report that my first merit badge was Coin Collecting. When I earned Tenderfoot, the rules had apparently just changed so that I could start earning merit badges right away. Since I was already quite the numismatist, that one was a natural. I felt quite important when I got the counsellor's name (he was from outside our troop) and called him up to make an appointment. I guess my favorite would be Radio. I spent many a Saturday morning working with a former SM of our troop, mostly to earn my Amateur License, and when that was out of the way, I finished off

---whether you use two fingers or three fingers when a priest blesses a person---- That one is easy. It depends on whether the priest is a Cub Scout or a Boy Scout!