It has been a long time (April 1980) since I asked the scoutmaster if he could could some help with the Boy Scout troop. Little did I know that I would be an adult leader with that troop for the next 27 years. It has been quite a ride, with both highs and lows.
I have been taking photographs of the Boy Scouts during the outings, meetings, and courts of honor since I began attending troop functions. In the late 1980’s, I took a number of photographs from the years of 1980-1985, had slides made from them, wrote a script, and recorded a few Scouts as they read it. This became a slideshow Troop 68: The Early Years that was shown at a court of honor. It was the first Scout show I produced, and soon lead me into videotape and editing.
When a public access television station began operating in Melrose I saw the opportunity to produce Scouting shows for a wider audience. This slideshow was soon videotaped and slightly edited for television viewing. Unfortunately, it looked liked a slideshow that was videotaped off a movie screen. It got the point across, but the quality was not very good.
Fast forward several years. I now have a computer at home that can do digital editing. It was time to give this early show a face lift. The original photographs were scanned into the computer and more photographs were added to the show. Unfortunately, I only had the original soundtrack. The boys had all grown up by this time and had moved away from town. I really did not want to redo the soundtrack anyway. It had a quaint charm all its own.
Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can take a trip back in time to Scouting during the first half of the decade we call the 1980’s. Yes, the uniforms have changed. Yes, the shorts are not as short these days. But you will see that boys back then had just as much fun as do the Boy Scout of today’s program. So sit back, relax, and enjoy watching this entry to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, Troop 68: The Early Years.
Watch this video post of Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, and then leave a comment if your troop has done anything similar to this. You can leave a note below by clicking on the COMMENTS link, or at the PTC media forums.
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That’s a really fascinating video Steve. It’s nice to see you’ve got the history of your Troop well documented.
I hope you will be able to let future generations of your Troop have access to these memories.
While looking into my own Troop’s history, I found we didn’t have much information before 1965, but with a lot of digging I’ve found quite a bit. So it is important for memories to be passed on.
If you’ll excuse the shameless plug, my Troop is 100 years old this year and I’m quite proud to associated with something that’s been around so long and done so much good.
I haven’t put together a video, but I have put our history on line at http://history.porthillscouts.org.uk
I hope you have some good celebrations planned for your Troop’s 30th birthday and the BSA’s 100th in 2010!
Nick