The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 have had a lot of fun performing at campfires over the years. They have been doing it since attending summer camp at Crow Wing Scout Camp in 1981. Then in 1996, they began doing a yearly campfire-style show for the community that they call Laughs For Lunch.
The performances have really improved over the years. During that first summer camp in 1981 the troop sang a country music song called Running Bear. The only change the troop made to the song was to substitute camp staff names for Running Bear and Little White Dove. We did nothing very fancy, just stood in front of the campfire and sang the song for the campers, but the Scouts loved it. I think we embarrassed the male staffer we picked on though, although the female staffer thought it was funny.
The next year the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 wanted to do better. We rewrote the lyrics to The Battle of New Orleans, and created a song we called The Battle of Plenty Coup, named after our campsite at Crow Wing. Instead of a song about battling the British, our song was about battling the mosquitoes. The troop was invited to perform the song at the Friday night closing campfire. Imagine our surprise when we received a standing ovation! We were all grinning from ear to ear as we returned to our seats.
The performing bug had bit us! We were determined to sing again at the closing campfire the next year. We wrote the Battle of Plenty Coup, Part 2. This time we battled the staff instead of the bugs. Once again, it was a hit with that week’s campers.
During the following years we created more songs, and even developed a few skits. Our repotour began to grow. The troop began performing at camporees and other Scout gatherings. By the late 1980’s Troop 68 had become well know throughout the district and council.
Scouts and other leaders began asking us for the words to the songs we created, and the scripts to the skits. When I began forming the idea for a troop website I thought this would present a great way to share these songs and skits with other units. I posted them into two categories. The first was our troop’s original songs and skits. The second included our favorites that we had picked up over the years.
You can check out these songs and skits by going to our troop website at http://melrosetroop68.org/campfirestuff.html
We also have a lot of songs and skits videotaped that can be seen at our troop’s video site:
http://melrosetroop68.org/videos.html
So tell me, does your troop (or pack) like to perform songs or skits at meetings or campfire programs? What are their favorites?
