A Scoutmaster's Blog

When you have been a scoutmaster for as long as I have been, nearly 29 years, you see a lot of boys go and go through the Scouting program. Some do very well in Scouting, some not so well. Some boys stick with it until their eighteenth birthday, some only last for a few months. There have a wide variety of personalities and temperaments. As a scoutmaster, I hope they all grow into fine young young and are successful in their lives.

Once in a while, I like to go through the old photos of the troop. Not only do they bring back memories (mostly good ones) but they also bring to mind questions. Where are they now? How are they doing? Do they have families? Thanks to the internet, namely Facebook, I have been able to track several dozen of them. From their profiles and pictures it looks like many of them are doing well. Unfortunately, I have lost contact with nearly half of the alumni of Troop 68.

Look at the group photo shown above. (Click on the picture for a larger view.) It shows the eighteen Boy Scouts of Troop 68 who attended summer camp at Crow Wing Scout Reservation in 1984, over twenty five years ago. Pat celebrated his birthday while at camp so I saw a Kodak moment, of course. It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures.

When I look at this photo a lot of thoughts run through my mind. First was , as it probably was for you, wow, those are short shorts the boys are wearing. Then it dawns on me that these boys are now men in their mid to late thirties. I am getting old.

Out of these eighteen Boy Scouts, three have stopped by to visit this year. Seven of them are friends of mine on Facebook. I have not heard from another seven of them in over ten years. Only two of them still live in town. Sadly, two of them have died in the last twenty years.

You can see that this photo alone brings up many memories, plenty of questions, and some mixed emotions. And this is only one of the thousands of pictures I have taken during nearly three decades with the troop.

By the way, if you would like to view some of the early photos of Boy Scout Troop 68 through the 1980’s check out our troop’s website at http://www.melrosetroop68.org or check out my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevejb68/sets/

I am still having fun with my Flickr account. Travel back in time and watch this slide show of Boy Scout Troop 68 pictures from 1981. If you wish to see the pictures individually check out the photo gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8515713@N06/sets/72157622054953898/

Way back in 1988, I began video taping Boy Scout courts of honor and troop activities to create programs to air on our local community access television station, Mel-TV, and thus promote Scouting in the community. These shows were recorded with a large hand-held camcorder that used VHS tapes, which should have a 10-20 lifespan. A few years ago I switched to using a digital camcorder with mini-dv tapes. I now edit on a computer and print the programs to dvd-r’s, which should have a 40 year or more lifespan.

Back to those vhs tapes. I have a goal to transfer many of those old tapes sitting at the studio to dvd’s. I have already “saved” a couple dozen programs. Alas, I am too late to save some of them. A couple of the early slideshows were so bad in video quality I could only save the sound, and had to re-edit nearly the whole video which gave me the opportunity to add more pictures to the program. A few tapes have deteriorated so badly that the sound and video are beyond using. Unfortunately, this includes an Eagle court of honor and at least one troop Laughs For Lunch Show.

Are dvd-r’s the answer to archiving the programs? It depends on who you talk to. I have been using dvd’s rated to have a lifespan of at least 40 years. But a lot depends on the manufacturing process. Some of the cheap dvd’s may only last for several years before they begin to deteriorate.

Then comes the next problem. I can place the shows on a dvd, but will dvd technology still be reverent in another ten or twenty years? The world of electronics is constantly changing. For example, look at the world of music that has gone from LP albums, to 8-tracks, to cassette tapes, to compact disc, to the current digital formats.

I currently save a video program as a Quicktime file on my computer and back it up to an external hard drive. This is in addition to making several copies of the playable dvd-r to hand out to family or troop members. As the formats change in the future I hope to update these files. Well, at least for the next 30 years or so. After that, it will be someone else’s responsibility if they want these programs’ lives to be extended.

If you have been a Scouter for any length of time you probably enjoy looking through old Scouting magazines and books, or checking out old Scouting memorabilia. I know I do. In fact, I have a nice collection of old handbooks and fictional novels about Scouting. I even own several old rank patches and small toys.

If you share my love of old Scouting things you may enjoy a website called BoyScoutStuff.com. The site features pictures of Boy Scouts of America memorabilia from 1910 through 1919. Galleries include pictures of old handbooks, Boy’s Life magazines, awards, patches, games, equipment and more.

My favorite gallery features advertising for various products. It seems that back then some companies used the Boy Scouts to promote their products, something almost unheard of in today’s organization. Advertised products included toothpaste, breakfast cereals, shoes, cameras, and soap. I was surprised to see Boy Scouts used in advertising promoting ammunition and cigars. I guess things were a little different back then, huh?

Yes, I was a Boy Scout. For three and one half years I was a member of Troop 68 in Melrose, Minnesota. The troop had about a dozen members or so, divided into two patrols, the Falcons and the Cougars.

I am the oldest of three brothers. My brothers were Cub Scouts. Unfortunately, when I was Cub Scout age there was not an active pack in town. However, I did get to participate in a couple Webelos den activities with my brother Dan. At the time I wished I could be a Scout.

About the time when Dan’s den was ready to graduate into Boy Scouting a troop was formed in town. I joined the troop right away. I started out as the oldest member of the troop at 13 years old. The rest of the troop members were 11 or 12 years old. It did not take long for me to become the senior patrol leader, a position I held for most of the years I was in Scouting.

I have forgotten more about my time as a Scout then I remember. I am sure there are a few things best left unremembered. But there are also a few things I will never forget.

I remember going to summer camp for three years at Parker Scout Reservation. Two of those years were spent at the Bear Skin campsite. We (all the campers) would sing songs before supper in the dining hall. I earned pioneering merit badge although I had a lot of trouble trying to learn how to splice ropes. I saw a skunk and it’s little ones for the first time as it crossed the trail on my way back to the campsite. I remember one afternoon when my fellow troop members and I sat in a tent and discussed things that were important to us at the time, including the existence of God. I remember one patrol event which involved getting the patrol up into a tree as fast as possible. Friday night campfires were great, and my troop even performed a skit at one which involved Dracula, the werewolf, the mummy, and Frankenstein’s monster, but I don’t remember what it was about anymore. In other words, I had fun at summer camp.

One year my scoutmaster wanted everyone to wear his uniform to school for Scout Day. At the time, I was the only student in the high school who was a Boy Scout. I knew I would be the only boy in school wearing that uniform, but I wore it because I was proud to be a Boy Scout.

I prepared myself for the snide comments I expected to receive in school, but they never came. No one made fun of me and my uniform, at least not to my face. In fact, I had people asking me about the patches on my shirt and what they represented.

As the scoutmaster of that same troop today, I do not ask the boys to wear their uniform to school. Society has changed somewhat during the last 30 years. But you know, when you stop and think about it, Scouting is as much fun today as it was back then. Don’t cha think?