Posts Tagged ‘photography’


The House of Scouting (100 DoS: Day 12)

on February 19, 2011 in collections, Memorabilia 1 Comment »

Once you have been a Boy Scout or Cub Scout leader for awhile you may notice something that starts to occur. Slowly and gradually, Scouting begins to take over your house. It may start with a few items in the corner of one room. Soon, that corner is filled, and a gear pile may be found in another room. Collections begin to grow and may need to be displayed. Your garage looses space because troop or pack stuff needs to be stored somewhere. Photographs and videos begin to fill your computer hard drive.

As I was trying to think of something to write about for this post of the 100 Days of Scouting, I just needed to look around the house for inspiration. In the city of Melrose, my house is the House of Scouting. There are pictures of the groups of Scouts who have gone to camp hanging on my stairway wall. Dozens of photo albums fill shelves of a bookcase. My basement rec room showcases my Scouting mugs, books, and awards earned over the years. I have a gallery of Eagle Scout photos hanging next to a 4′ x 4′ sheet of paneling that is full of activity patches. There is a large Norman Rockwell print hanging in the living, and a Scout Camp: The Movie poster, signed by the director Garrett Batty, hanging in my bedroom. The closet in the spare bedroom is full of camping gear. Twelve Norman Rockwell prints hang on my office wall. Dozens of dvd’s of troop outings, shows, and courts of honor fill a cabinet.

Then there is the computer. The file of Scouting pictures contains over 33 GB of photos, and it is still growing as I scan old photos. I have over 400 GB of Scouting related videos. These include promotion and training videos by the B.S.A. along with videos and slideshows of Troop 68 activities and Scout members. I am the webmaster for the troop’s website. That file contains over 10 GB of stuff.

It took thirty years for Scouting to take over my house to the extent that it has. I am glad that I have not been a Scout leader for 100 years for I would have to be living in a mansion to display everything collected over ten decades. The funny part is, when a new Boy Scout comes to the house for the first time, he is not all that interested in seeing the Scout stuff. He wants to see the Star Wars or the medieval weapons collections.

How has Scouting taken over your house or apartment?

A Look Back: The Photography Merit Badge

on February 17, 2011 in Advancement, pictures No Comments »

When I was a Boy Scout in the 1970’s there was no such thing as a home video recorder, so there was not a Cinematography Merit Badge. There was the Photography Merit Badge, however. I like taking pictures so I thought I would try earning that badge. I grabbed my Kodak Instamatic camera that used 126 film, a merit badge book, and began taking pictures.

One of the requirements for the merit badge was to tell a story with photographs. I decided to do a story of the missing cookie mystery. The members of my troop would be the “actors” of my story. Even my scoutmaster got in on the action. He held sheets of paper with my opening and closing titles. I discovered, after the film was developed, that the writing on the paper was not dark enough and it was difficult to read the titles.

The plot of the story was simple. The troop’s snack, a batch of cookies, had disappeared. It was up to the troop members to find them. They began searching the building in which we had our troop meetings. Pictures were taken of my fellow Scouts looking in various nooks and crannies. They finally catch the cookie thieves in a corner of the balcony, eating the evidence.

Unfortunately, I never finished the merit badge. I do not know why not. Maybe I lost interest, or we lost our counselor. All I know is that I still have the photographs of my picture story. Here are the pictures for you to view, in the order they were meant to be used. The photos are thumbnailed. Click on any for a larger view.

100 Days of Scouting: Day #10.