Made it to Star......then one day, this girl came along and I was hip-moe-tized!..........

 

I would make a common joke about how I got kicked out for eating a certain desert food that shares a name with the female equivalent of a boy scout, but................

 

I was also a trainer and life guard up MillCreek for a couple summers when I was a teen.

 

I earned my Eagle Scout in 1990 just days before I turned 18.

There must be a lot of Boy Scout troops where nobody gets Eagle as the troop I work with is pumping them out. We had 15 boys join in spring 1999. Of that group, over 50% have Eagle or will get Eagle before they turn 18 over the next 6 to 9 months.

We are well over 2% in the last 5 to 10 years.

Brian Elfert

 

i gave up half way through more interested in making money and workin on motors then spending my time with a bunch of nerdy cult like freaks not saying that all scouts are nerds just my troop happened to be the nerdest on around

 

Only made it to order of the arrow. At 15, I went from 5'4" to 6'7" and basketball camps were 24/7

 

I know there are many good scouts around (probably all of you) but I really got offended by them once on the appalachian trail.

They were hiking a lot faster than us (light packs) so they passed us and we caught up to them at a stream as they were leaving. One of them had laid a bomb no more than 5 feet from the stream just off the trail and had wiped with rododendren leaves (which are quite toxic and the last thing you would want to wipe with).
The fact that I was going to get water out of this stream and seeing that did not leave a positve image in my mind toward what they were learning. Everyone that I have ever know to hike (myself included) goes WAY off trail and buries it.


I am not saying the scouts are bad hell I know a couple of eagle scouts and they are stand up guys (and learned lot from the scouts), but that there needs to be some acountablity as to who is leading and teaching.



I hope that I did not offend any of yall but that is just one thing that allways comes to my mind when I think of the scouts, and I hope that I get some interaction with them in the future to change that image.




Oh and if you think I posioned this thread just pm and I will delete this.

Sam

 

Not to poop on your parade or anything, but is there anything in the Eagle Scott book about putting up a tent next to electrical power lines? God be with those during their time of need and bless their families. But, HELLO? Metal pole, at least 7600 volts on a min distribution line. What the heck? Please teach your kids NOT TO DO THIS!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050727/...NWQ52EJ3Ws0NUE

JWB

 

Order and Life too. Weren't enuff of the fun marritt badges left to make eagle. Was a camp counselor a couple of years as well. Keep telling myself to get involved again. They sold that camp though. It's hard to believe it's gone.

 

I think you are being a little rough on them from just the one experience...You need to remember that they are only children and their Scouting time is limited greatly compared to the time they have with their parents.

A Scout leader tries to pack a lot of knowledge in a very short period of time, but it still goes back to how their parents raise them the rest of the time. I recall one time as a patrol leader, one of my new Tenderfoot scouts came to me at his first camp out, asking where to plug in his electric toothbrush.

A lot of these kids grow up with very little parental guidance at all, and Scouting offers them an opportunity to gain something they can't get at home. In your particular encounter I doubt seriously the Scout Leader was aware that happened.

You are correct that as adults it is up to us to point them in the right direction. I don't know you but I gather from your posts that you might be able to make a large impact on some youngsters life through Scouting.

You might want to consider it if you have time, you can pass on your knowledge and hiking etiquette, to some young person who could really benefit from your experience. That's how these children can become better Scouts and adults

 

I made it the Heart and OA. I loved the scouts, camping and just good times. I joined just after moving from Minnesota to Colorado to go back to Minnesota for a 9 day trip to the boundry waters of MN and Canada. Go figure

 

I totally agree and intend to pass as much good info as I can to any person young or old who is willing to listen and learn. I feel that there is so little acountablity by parents (in genral) and so much knowleage is being lost in the upcoming generation (that at age 21 I supose I am a part of) that I almost have a duty to impart some of the knowlege I have been blessed enough to learn.
Hell as I sit here in college I still feel I learned more about buisness and life as a helper at a heavy diesel engine shop than I have learned in 3 years of college.


Oh and does it rub anyone else the way this country looks down at blue collar as jobs for idiots. Most people I know at Saunders Engine company are smarter than the avarage college student.

Anyway I do agree that the scouts are a good thing I just had a very negative experence with them. I am temped to go and help lead them to lend some knowleage but I have no idea how they would accept a hard headed redneck "outsider".

 

My understanding is that this was not your average tent. It was some sort of dining tent. Your average tent generally wouldn't have a pole long enough to reach a power line.

There were probably good reasons adult leaders were doing this instead of the Scouts.

Brian Elfert

 

I am . I had a great time in scouts and also got in lots of trouble

 

Was working on Star, and a move to the other end of the country stopped everything. No scouts in the area I moved too.

Worked as a counselor a couple times for a camp in Gulfport when I was stationed at Keesler AFB.

I wonder if you still get yelled at for using diesel with your "whiffle stick"...

Ed