A Scoutmaster's Blog

Boy Scouts have been doing skits since the dawn of the program. The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 sometimes do skits during courts of honor as a bit of entertainment for parents and family members. The old scoutmaster and the new Life Scout did just that during Troop 68′s June court court of honor. And they did not even practice it before the ceremony.

The Candy Store has been an old standby for decades in this area. I have seen several versions of it performed by dozens of Scouts and troop leaders. It is an easy skit to do, one that is mostly ad-libbed. Just be sure not to blow the punchline at the end.

How many times has your troop performed this skit. How many times have you seen it done during campfire programs? How well do you like it? Leave a comment and let us know how you feel about The Candy Store.

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Yes, I realize that if your tent leaks during a rainstorm your fun and enjoyable weekend could turn somewhat lousy. I understand that because it has happened to me a couple times. That is why when I saw the picture shown at http://www.scoutmastercg.com/2011/05/caption-contest/ I just had to break out laughing. These campers are determined to stay dry, no matter what Mother Nature throws at them. (And no, I am not going to show the picture here. Go to the website.)

Oh, and do not forget to enter the contest sponsored by Scoutmaster CG by leaving a caption for the photo. The winner gets the coveted Kyber Pass granting you the privilege of moving to the front of any line at any camp trading post.

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Every so often I get a note from someone asking me about the Peanuts comic strip in which Snoopy appears as a Beagle Scout or as the scoutmaster of a troop of Woodstock’s friends. I never had a collection of all the comic strips, but today I found a couple of sources that will help you to find them all.

The first is http://peanuts.wikia.com, a site that answers all your questions about Charlie Brown and his gang. It is where I started looking for the comics featuring Snoopy, the Beagle Scout. (Who, by the way, started his Scouting as a Tenderpaw.)

The second site you will need is comics.com. I will save you the trouble of looking for the first strip and give you the address. http://comics.com/peanuts/1974-05-13/

Between these two sites I was able to find over 35 strips dealing with the Beagle Scout and his troop. In one of the last strips he attends a wedding of a couple of the troop members and becomes the groom’s First Beagle. Have fun reading through them all.

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The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 used to like to song songs, mix them up a bit, and write new lyrics to them. They would then perform these “new” versions at campfire programs or during their annual Laughs For Lunch Show. This episode of Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast features one of those songs.

The troop has been spending one spring weekend a year at Camp Watchamagumee (private land north of Melrose). It is one of the Scout’s favorite places to camp. We usually have a great time there, but one year things did not go very well. A local farmer had cattle grazing on the forty acre site. Usually, the cattle are not a problem. We leave them alone and they leave us alone. Not that year. The troop was away from camp for awhile to play some softball. When we arrived back at the site the cows had invaded the camp and had damaged equipment along with a few other problems. It was the one time we left camp due to cattle issues.

A couple years later we decided to take the song “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” and rewrite the lyrics to describe what happened during the weekend in which the cows drove us away from our campsite. Everything in the song did actually take place. This video was taken from the 2001 Laughs For Lunch Show performance. I forgot where the cow costumes came from, but they did add a little something to the song.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast
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Leave feedback at the forums at PTC Media.
Check out other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

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The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 in Melrose have been doing an annual show called Laughs For Lunch for over ten years. The show follows a campfire program format and features songs and skits you may see while you enjoy a program at summer camp or a camporee. The Laughs for Lunch Shows usually last for ninety minutes or so. Both the Boy Scouts and the audience have a good time.

This entry to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast features five Scouts from the 1998 show performing an old favorite, “Singing In The Rain”. I am sure you are very familiar with the song, but are you familiar with the actions that go with it during a Boy Scout campfire program? It is great fun to have the audience stand up and perform this song with the leaders. Try it yourself. It could be quite interesting to do this song at your next pack meeting or troop weekend camping trip.

Just for your information, it has been ten years since this skit was filmed with a vhs camera. These boys are now close to finishing college. One has even served his country over in Iraq. Gosh, where does the time go?

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What is the main reason that boys join Scouting? Is it to earn advancement? Probably not. Is it to learn how to tie knots? I doubt it. Do they join to learn to skills? Maybe, but I do not think that is the real reason. Do they join Scouting to have fun? Bingo! Give the man a cigar.

Boy Scouts like to have a good time, even more then adults do. When they are with their friends they can sometimes get downright silly. That is what happened on fall camping trip in 2003. While sitting around the Saturday night campfire a few members from the Hawks Patrol thought it would be funny to sign the “Song That Never Ends”. And it didn’t. For nearly twenty minutes they kept signing the song, with other Scouts joining in as the minutes added up.

A Scout had a “great” idea. Wouldn’t this be a great joke/song to sign during the troop’s annual Laughs for Lunch Show? The audience would not know what to think. I know what they audience would think, I thought to myself. They will think the Scouts have gone mad.

When the time came to plan the show’s agenda a few months later I thought that maybe they would forget about this song that never ends. They did not. In fact, they decided to open the show with the song. A few Scouts wanted to sign it for fifteen minutes, like they did around the campfire. I vetoed that idea, however, we came up with a plan to sign it for a few minutes and then remove the Scouts one by one from the stage, to give the impression that the song was going to end. By force.

Today’s addition to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast is the video of that song performance. I thought it went pretty well, and that the Scouts did a great job with it. It is a great example of how Scouts can be silly, have a good time, and share that good time with other people. What silly thing has your troop done lately?

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