A Scoutmaster's Blog

In 1996 the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 held their first Laughs For Lunch Show. There have been quite a few since then, eleven in all. The boys have a great time doing them, and the audience seems to have a lot of fun watching the shows.

This video is part of that very first show. It is the Echo System skit, which is one of the oldest skits in Scouting. At least I think it is an old skit. It has been one of the favorites of the troop’s, and very easy for the younger Scouts to learn. In this version we used a “remote control” to turn the echo system on and off.

One thing that always scares me a little when the boys do this skit is that I never know what line they will come up with for the punchline. It often changes from performance to performance. But that is okay, as long as they keep it clean.

Enjoy it and let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment.
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Watch Video on the troop’s website.
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It is that time of year. Time to pack up and head out to a week of summer camp with the boys from Boy Scout Troop 68. Once again we will be attending Many Point Scout Camp located in northern Minnesota near Pondsford. The troop will be heading out Sunday morning and getting back early Saturday afternoon. This also means that there will not be many blog entries added during the coming week. I will be in the middle of nowhere without internet access. Not that that would matter anyway because I do not own a laptop. I do plan to bring pad and paper to camp to write blog entries while sitting around the campsite, sipping on root beer and eating marshmallows.

I think the troop has attended Many Point Scout Camp for nearly 20 years. The boys have a great time there. The staff is fantastic and work well with the boys. We stay in Buckskin Camp, so we get to eat in the dining hall, which also means I will be eating better this coming week then I do at home. (Keep in mind that I am single.) I will probably gain a few pounds while at camp, which is something I really do not want to do. Oh, if I could just keep my hands off the homemade Granny Bread!

During the early stays at Many Point, Troop 68 was at the height of its campfire song creation phase. The boys and scoutmaster (me) would take songs and change the words to make campfire songs out of them. After staying at Many Point a few times we decided to create a song about the camp. We wrote the following lyrics based on the Village People’s “YMCA” song. It became a hit the first time we performed it at the Friday night closing campfire. We have repeated the performance a few times over the years.

Interested in what the lyrics are? Well, lucky you. I decided to post them here just for your enjoyment. I bet you may be singing them to yourself before you are done reading the last verse.

MPSC
(sung to the tune YMCA)

1) Young man, When you need to get out,
I said, young man, get away from the crowds.
I said, young man, don’t just sit there and pout.
Get up and camp with the Boy Scouts.

That’s where, you can shoot 22’s.
I said, that’s where, there’s always something to do.
I said, that’s where, you can eats lots of stew,
get belly aches and turn shades of blue.

(Refrain)
It’s fun to go to the M.P.S.C. You’ve got to go to the M.P.S.C.
You can tie a few knots, you can cook your own meal,
You can do whatever you feel.

M.P.S.C. You’ve got to go to the M.P.S.C.
Young man, young man, don’t just sit on your tail.
Young man, young man, get yourself on the trail.

2) Voyagers, is the place you should be
if you want to, cook your food as you please.
Then there’s Ten Chiefs, out among all the trees,
without a shower facility.

Buck Skin, is the camp where you call
patrol members, to eat in the dining hall.
Project Cope is, the place where you do it all
even experience free fall.

3) Young man, the bathrooms are quite unique.
I said, young man, wait till you get a peek.
I said, young man, it’s the place that you seek
When you can’t wait any longer.

Then there’s, the bedroom facilities
Where you can get, a bit caught up on your zzz’s
Where the canvas, let’s in all the bugs and fleas
Unless you’ve got mosquito netting.

(Are you singing yet?)

So you want to have a great campfire program, huh? Well, you have to have a great opening song, something to get the Boy Scouts fired up, something with a lot of energy. You need a song like the Many Point Scout Camp Rouser Song!

The MPSC Rouser Song is this week’s Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (MSPP) video. The staff begins each week’s Sunday night opening campfire with this song which sets the tone for the rest of the evening. It is fast. It is loud. It is energetic. It is rowdy. It is everything a good opening campfire song should be.

This video was taped at MPSC in July of 2006. You can tell that the staff is hyper and ready to have some fun. In four weeks the Scouts from Troop 68 will be attending MPSC again. It will be time once again to join the camp staff in being as loud as we can possibly be!

Download Podcast
Watch Video on the troop’s website.
Subscribe through iTunes.

I have heard it said many times over the years that anyone who is a scoutmaster (or cubmaster) must be a little crazy. Well, I do not know if crazy is the right word to use but I will admit that a Scout leader must have a lot of patience, must be able to still find the kid within yourself, and must have a good sense of humor. The sense of humor is a necessity. You must be able to laugh and have fun with the boys, and sometimes the summer camp staff.

During the weekly closing campfire at Many Point Scout Camp the staff asks the scoutmasters to come down to the stage. The staff thanks the scoutmasters, and the other adult leaders they represent, for taking the time to spend with the boys at camp. They then present the scoutmasters with a gift. Of course, this happens after they get the scout leaders to perform a song in front of all the Boy Scouts in attendance. You can bet the song will be silly and will be enjoyed by all the boys. Participating in this song is a great test of a scoutmaster’s sense of humor.

This video podcast demonstrates the humor of several scoutmasters during the closing campfire at Many Point Scout Camp in July, 2006. My Scouts thought I would erase this footage since I am one of the scout leaders in the video. However, I have often stated that if you can not laugh at yourself, then you should not be laughing at others. So, sit back, relax, and watch the MPSC staff and the week’s scout leaders “Go Bananas”.

In the mid-1980’s Troop 68 began camping on 40 acres of private land north of Melrose. After a couple years the owners of the property allowed the troop to start developing campsites near a pond on the south end of the land. The campsite soon received the name Camp Watchamagumee, a name made up by one of the Scouts in the troop.

In 1987, the troop was still working on various parts of the camp. A council-style campfire ring had been started, three campsites had been cleared, and the adult’s site had been created on top of a hill overlooking the camping area. The adult’s site was named Bunker hill because the older Scouts and former troop members had built a small “bunker” there that contained a homemade bunk bed. (That bunker only lasted for a couple of years, but the hill has retained that name. It is still the adult leader’s site.)

If you have seen the camp food fight video on Youtube or the troop’s website then you are already familiar with this weekend. With this video, which is an exclusive to this website and podcast, you get to meet many of the Scouts who attended that weekend and discover what they think about Scouting. It is a great video of boys enjoying Scouting.

This video was edited from an old VHS tape which contained a show called “Silly Troop Tracks” that was aired on Mel-TV3, the local television access station. I wish it was better quality but it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it. So, sit back, download it, and enjoy the video.

This podcast is brought to you from Many Point Scout Camp. During Troop 68’s stay at camp in July, 2006, we were treated to a great campfire program by the Buckskin staff. During the program the staff paid this tribute to the largest American legend of all time, Paul Bunyan. You can tell the staff had a lot of enthusiasm and were having a lot of fun. (Unfortunately, I do not know the names of all the staff members who were a part of this ski/song.) So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

http://melrosetroop68.org/QTmov/MPSCPaulBunyan.m4v

Telling stories around the campfire has been part of Scouting since the first Boy Scouts went camping. Boys and adults love hearing a good story while sitting around a crackling campfire surrounded by the darkness of the wilderness.

As my troop gathered around the campfire during the first night of a week long summer camp one year, I opened a book of short stories that I had brought along, and told the boys that I would read them a story each night before heading off to bed.

The younger boys were enthusiastic about hearing the stories. The older boys complained that they did not want to sit and listen to stories being read to them. I told them to sit back, relax, and listen. And I read them a different story each night.

Our last night in camp finally arrived, Friday night. We had just arrived back at our campsite after attending the closing campfire. It was late, everyone was tired. I thought the Scouts would want to go straight to bed. I was wrong.

I was surprised when the older Scouts asked me if I would be reading a story yet. These were the same boys that did not want to listen to stories earlier in the week. I smiled to myself and grabbed my book as the troop gathered around the campfire ring one last time.

Campfire storytelling is what I call the “mind’s television” for the Scouts when they are camping. It does not matter if the story is comical, serious, scary, or has a moral to it. If the story is told well it will hold the boy’s attention and have them using their imaginations.

I would suggest that every troop have at least one storyteller, be it an adult or an older Scout. The storyteller should have fun telling the stories, putting a little emotion into the tales, changing his voice a little for each character. The more the teller does with the story the more fun it will be to listen to it.

So next time your troop heads out to its campground do not be afraid to grab a good short story book and bring the magic of the mind’s television to your campfire.

In the previous blog entry I wrote about scary campfire stories. This time I would like to share with you a couple of experiences regarding the Wolfen story. The first time I told the Boy Scout about the wolfen was over 25 years ago. The troop was attending a camporee and we had a few Webelos Scouts staying with us. We were sitting around the campfire Saturday night when the boys first heard about these creatures.

I must have done a very good job of telling the boys about the wolfen. Shortly after I got home from the camporee I received a phone call a parent of one of the Webelos Scouts. He was a little upset that I would tell such a story to young Scouts who would become so scared they could not sleep during the night.

Okay, the lesson was learned. Do not send the boys to bed when they think there really is wolfen that could attack them during the dark night hours. So I changed the end of the story. Now, after I tell them all about the wolfen and how viscous they are, I look the new listeners in the eyes and tell them that the most important thing to remember about the creatures, the one things that will save them from being attacked during the night, is to remember that they are not real, that they are fictional creatures from a book I read.

There always seems to be the sigh of relief and maybe a nervous chuckle, from the new boys after I tell them the wolfen do not exist.

One winter, while we were at Parker Scout Reservation, we invited another troop that was also there that weekend, to join us for a campfire program at our building. We had a large fireplace so it would give us a little of that outdoor campfire feel to the skits and songs.

The program ended with me telling the Scouts from the other troop about the wolfen. I also told them, at the end of the story, that the wolfen were not real creatures. The boys laughed and told me they knew all along that I was just telling them a story.

But yet, when the other troop left us to return to there own building for the night, the boys were huddled together tightly around their scoutmaster. My troop giggled as we watched them from our windows.

A few years later, that scoutmaster told me just how much the boys in his troop were frightened by the wolfen story. As his boys prepared to go to bed that night one Scout needed to visit the latrine outside of their building. He did not want to go out there by himself so he asked a buddy to go out with him. His buddy did not want to be standing outside all alone so it was finally decided that the boys would go to the latrine in groups of three. No one wanted to be outside alone, just in case that the fictional wolfen were not truly fictional.

It appears that even though I tell the Scouts that there is no such thing as the wolfen, their imaginations do not always get the message.