The silliness within our Scouts

[gwd-scouter 11]

I have watched for years as my sons prepared for OA Fellowship campouts. They've put together costumes and props to go with whatever the theme for the weekend was. They've been pirates, 50s greasers, knights of the roundtable, and had a blast doing it. They would return home and tell me about what the other chapters did and the fun, often times goofy, competitions they had.

 

Our District Camporee is coming up in October and the theme is Highland Games. This just opens up so many opportunities for our Scouts to use their imaginations. Anyone thinking Braveheart? But, I fear that peer-pressure and the "it's just not cool" attitude among some of the scouts in our troop will overcome their willigness to be silly and they just won't get into the spirit of it. I've heard that one troop in our district is actually going full kilt!

 

Our family name (Buchanan) is Scottish and has its own Tartan, which coincidentially is predominantly red and green. After a bit of research, I found out that a few other guys in our Troop have family Tartans as well, also predominantly red and green. Coincidence??

 

Any ideas out there on how I can help these guys. The PLC is meeting next Monday to begin plans for the Camporee. While I want to leave all the planning up to them, I am fully prepared to be the role model of silliness (while still maintaining my dignity of course) if it would help.

 

"...they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM" - William Wallace, Braveheart.

[SemperParatus 1]

Believe me, a kilt-less troop will be at a serious competitive disadvantage if called on to toss the wellie or contest for bonnie knees.

 

Real men where kilts at

 

http://www.utilikilts.com/

 

Some ideas to get the ball rolling:

 

Wearing the webelos necker as a do-rag.

Designing a clan shield for the event.

Some drum & pipes mood music...I highly recommend The Rogues (just saw them again over the weekend at the MD Rennaisance Festival)

 

http://www.therogues.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ManassasEagle 10]

Wasn't it in Braveheart that they ummm... taunted the enemy before battle by ummm... showing their ummmm... well, you know

[SSScout 1615]

Achhh... always with the militarrry stoof... Ye musn't fergit the culinarrry and the literarrry and the atheletic...

 

Dunna fergit yer Haggis... Sum poor laddie 'll be workin' on his cookin' requirrrrement.

 

And the tossin o' the bonny Caber...

 

Then, too, sum prroper rreciting o' apprrroprriate poetry... summat in prrroper dialect...

 

"Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble ore the wabe... "ah ye canna git mooch betterrrr than that, canye?

[CalicoPenn 729]

It might be a bit obscure to some but it would be fun to have a whole patrol decked out in Star Trek Original Series red just like Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott - they could even call themselves the Scotty's (or the Engineers).

 

I saw a similar group to the Rogues at the Bristol Ren Faire in Wisconsin this year - the Tartanics. After checking both groups web sites out, I have to ask - is there some kind of connection between Texas and Bagpipes I haven't heard about? Both groups sure do a lot of concerts in Texas.

 

CalicoPenn

[orennoah 11]

One word: HAGGIS!

[prairie 10]

Sure hope somebody plays Amazing Grace on the pipes during that campout, always bring a lump to my throat.

[yelruh 10]

I'm sure someone could make it in a Dutch Oven, but it's so hard getting all the "correct" ingredients.

 

"HAGGIS"

[orennoah 11]

yelruh wrote:

 

"'HAGGIS'

 

I'm sure someone could make it in a Dutch Oven, but it's so hard getting all the 'correct' ingredients."

 

It could be done. Our Troop used a Camp Chef propane burner and a big stock pot, but we were making two of them.

 

And, yes, we used all the "correct" ingredients, including the lungs. I understand that the USDA has ruled that lungs are "unfit for human consumption," so you can't buy them retail. We had someone who had hired out the butchering of a couple of sheep, so he had them save the "good parts" for us. In addition to the lungs, heart, liver, tongue and intestines (which we cooked, minced and combined with oats, onions spices and stuffed into stomachs), we also used testes. As the boys proudly proclaim, "our Haggis has balls!"

 

It's a long story of how our Troop came to identify with the Clan MacPherson and why we decided to have our own Clan Games, complete with the Haggis. However, it was great for morale.

 

- Oren