Camp Hazing the good kind

[Skyhook]

I am called Skyhook because I was sent out the first day of Camp to hunt for a skyhook. {skyhook attched to thin air and helped hold the tent up. The camp director after I roamed around all morning told me to go tell the boys it had fallen in the outhouse and they where more than welcome to climb down after it. I would like to hear more I guess Hazing stories but of the good kind. I saw more of the camp and learned it that morning walking around hunitng for a skyhook.

Bye

[OldGreyEagle]

There is no such thing as "good" hazing

[Skyhook]

I disagree, I have gone through hazing in several different ways. I was sent out after a skyhook and sent to specific places to look thusly the new kid learned the camp. No one got hurt and I actually had a good time. I college hazing at our fraternity was also not something which would hurt your physically or mentally but a learning experiance. So old grey eagle this one has to disagree

[FScouter]

It would be a "good" laugh if one of the boys climbed down the pit toilet looking for the skyhook. Har har har-dy har har.

[9muckraker7]

(This topic shouldn't be discussed in this forum, BUT)

 

Is this "practical joke" of which Skyhook speaks considered a form of hazing, and therefore, discouraged by the BSA? I wouldn't think it would be...

[Twocubdad]

You may have taken it all in good fun, but what about the next boy? Aren't there more positive way to learn about the camp? Looking for a skyhook may have been harmless (or not), but what about the next prank that gets thought up? You and your buddies may be able to control things (or not), but what happens when the next bunch of guys go over the line?

 

This stuff has no place in Scouting. Sorry, but you're not going to find support for it here.

[OldGreyEagle]

Whether its looking for a Skyhook, a Left (or right) Handed Smoke bender, 50 feet of shoreline or the Camps Canon report, or any other type of "wild goose chase" where a well meaning scout is sent in pursuit of a mythical object, its all hazing, its all unscout like and has no place in the program.

 

If your college fraternity allows hazing, thats fine, but dont use it as a reason to justify hazing in the BSA program.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[EagleInKY]

You're not going to get much support here skyhook. While these "harmless" gags are fun, and for many boys - like yourself - are fine. We can't predict which boy will "get the joke" and which ones will be hurt by it. I think we've gone overboard with the political correctness in this aspect of scouting, but we are where we are. Best to just leave it alone.

[CaveEagle]

Anything that could even develope into hazing should be forbiden. I know that we had some "fun" with "snipe hunts" and "bacon stretchers", and I can't remember anyone being scarred for life. But, from my current persective as a scouter, we need to make sure that all new scouts are treated with dignity and respect.

 

CE

[johndaigler]

Hey, Skyhook, WELCOME!!!!!!!

 

One person's skyhook is another person's Tailhook!! All in good fun . . . hazing isn't accepted. Even if you thought of it as a good-natured prank, there's no way to be sure every Scout would. The exact same story could make someone feel enbarassed and belittled and certainly separate from the team. There are a lot of good ways to teach new Scouts about camp.

 

But, feel free to keep talking, I'm looking for somebody to take my place in the great one's doghouse!!!!!!!

 

 

jd(This message has been edited by johndaigler)

[dsteele]

Setting aside the hazing question for a moment . . .

 

I have more trouble with this lone Scout's search being in violation of the buddy plan. In his happy wanderings, what if he'd become injured or lost?

 

Unc.

[johndaigler]

Nice Catch, Uncleguinea.

[dsteele]

Thanks, John. The secret to my success is finding the hidden dangers/causes/objections to what needs to be done.

 

Expose them and they wilt like leeches in the sun. Hopefully.

 

Unc.

[Skyhook]

Ok let me do some clarification on this. I was sent to do this in 1963 at Camp Pellissippi and back then it was harmless and was also educational. Our scoutmaster did it and had it setup where every boy was sent to areas where he learned the camp on the first morning of the first day. The final stop on the little jaunt was with the Camp leader. But I was interested in some of the other things people where sent looking for in a historical outlook. Back then they and I did not consider it harmful, of course back then there was no AIDS, school shootings and things like this. So do not get upset with me I am looking for the names of the GAGS sorry if it got off on a bad start.

[OldGreyEagle]

It was a long time ago, in a place far far away, well, actually Chicago area, about 1965 or so. I was a bright young scout, really Gung Ho. I thought being a scout was the bestest thing in the whole world. On one summer campout. we drove for what seemed like hours. We got to the campsite and set up.. The Troop used an Army surplus 16X16, that thing was huge, and it was heavy and we all loved it. After the tent was up and the gear stowed, Charlie, the SPL came over and told me he needed my help. I was in like 7th heaven. Charlie was like a god to us younger scouts, he had his license and his own car. It was a 57-58 Chevy, it was painted candy apple red and roared like a jet, that car was cool. Rumor was he shaved everyday and had a girl friend.

 

I fairly floated as we walked over to the group of older cooler scouts. Finally I was going to be part of the in crowd. I was to be the bag man on a snipe hunt. It was simple, all I had to do was stand on the Snipe trail and hold the bag open and the Snipe would run straight into it. Now, wait I said, I know what a Snipe hunt is, and I am not going to do it. I felt a lot let down that Charlie thought I was stupid enough to fall for a gag like that. So then Charlie says, well, you are right, but you know, Snipes are birds and we happened to have driven into where they live. So, I bought it. I went out and held the bag, and held it, and held it and held it. Well, back at camp the older scouts sure were having a party at my expense, they had this kid who knew about Snipe Hunts out on a Snipe Hunt, it was glorious. The adults on the trip knew what was going on, and reminded them that I was supposed to be brought back to camp about 1 am if I didnt show up first. Back at the Snipe Trail I stood, bag open. I knew Snipes were rare birds and figured we had driven long enough to get in their range. I waited, and waited. Along about dawn I figured I had waited long enough. Seems the older scouts got their signals crossed and everyone thought someone else would get me, but nobody did. I got back to camp as breakfast was being made, and when I was spotted, the whole camp cheered, laughed and hooted. I was not having a fun time. I remember thinking, remember this moment, remember how hot your cheeks feel, how angry you are, you are never ever going to feel this way again.

 

A few months later it was the Fall Camporee. Charlie again asked me for some help. I asked him what, I was more than a little suspicious of anything he said at this point. He told me he needed the Camps Canon Report. It has the schedule of the Camporee on it and it was floating around the camp and people would get it, copy it down and pass it on. So, after being assured it was real, I went off. Gol dang it if every troop I visited had just had it but passed it along minutes before I got there. I went to over 10 troops before a kindly old scoutmaster who knew my dad from work asked me if I had ever been on a Snipe Hunt,. I almost fainted. The rage, anger, fear, humiliation just ran through me like an electric shock. He had done it to me again. I walked back to camp, slinked actually, imagining all who saw me were laughing behind my back, pointing me out as that absolute and complete idiot. When I got back to camp, I walked up to Charlie and told him I was sorry, but I didnt get it, but I would go after it first thing in the morning. I never did go after it and I never talked to Charlie again. I never did anything he said and completely blocked him and all his older buddies out. I learned never, ever to trust what a boy leader said because they were out to get me. As time went on, I made sure that no other scout ever went through what I did. I would tell all the new scouts about snipe hunts and canon reports and all that. I told them if anyone asked them to do anything that didnt sound right, to ask me first. I had a few angry older scouts, but I didnt care and I was getting big enough that nobody retaliated. I eventually was elected Senior Patrol Leader because the scouts knew I would not betray them

 

Is that the kind of good hazing story you want?

 

zzz

(This message has been edited by a staff member.)