A Scoutmaster's Blog

The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 took their May 7 meeting night to have a field trip. They gathered at the Melrose Area Historical Museum for a tour of the facility which worked into their monthly theme of Historical Places. One of the museum curators, Roger Paschke, lead the Boy Scouts through the rooms while explaining several of the more interesting of the exhibits. The Scouts learned a little about the founders of Melrose, Minnesota. Mr. Paschke stopped the troop at the Charles Lindberg display for a short explanation of his famous plane trip and his links to Melrose. The boys enjoyed the “war room”, but quickly passed by the religious displays in the “chapel” for some reason. Other popular areas of the museum included the prohibition (moonshine and stills) area, the old printing press, the railroad displays, and the case with the old Scouting memorabilia.  The troop plans to go back to the museum later this month for a scavenger hunt.

Here are a few pictures from the field trip.

 The Boy Scouts learn about the ties Charles Lindberg had to Melrose, Minnesota.

 This is part of the Scouting display found at the museum.

 
 The group photo was taken in front of some of the old farming machinery found in the museum.

Yes, I realize that it is still July, but it is time to go toward your nearest Hallmark store and buy this year’s Snoopy, the Beagle Scout, Christmas ornament. It features Beagle Scout Snoopy along with a couple of his bird Scouts as they try to sell Christmas trees. Hallmark has named it “Holiday En-tree-preneurs”.  How long will they be in the stores? Keep in mind that these ornaments are available only in the stores, not through online sales.

I have been collecting these ornaments for several years now and always buy two of them, one for the tree and one to store away. Too bad the BSA does not list these in the Scout Stuff store during the holiday shopping season.

It has been said that Boy Scout leaders will do nearly anything for a patch. I guess I may fall into that grouping. I have been to many camporees and Scouting activities over the last three decades, and yes, I attended a few of them just to get the patch, but I have to add that I did have fun at the events. Many of the activity patches I have collected are found on a 4′ x 4′ sheet of paneling that is hanging on a wall in my basement family room.

However, the sheet was filled a few years ago and now I am looking for a different way to display them. A patch blanket quickly come to mind, but I do not like sewing. There are probably about 150 patches on the sheet of paneling and another 30 or so patches waiting for a home.

How many patches do you have? How do you store or display them? Leave a comment and let us know.

100 Days Of Scouting: Day 90.

I know there have been quite a few books written about that magical place we Scouters know as Philmont Scout Ranch. I own a few of them. Four to be precise. Here is a quick description of each of them.

Return To The Summit Of Scouting is “A Scouter’s midlife journey back to Philmont” written by William F Cass. It follows Mr. Cass’ return to Philmont as an advisor and father after having left the ranch as a summer staffer over two decades earlier. Not only does the book follow the expedition of him and his son, but it also gives great nice in-depth outlook from the staff and rangers point of view. This book was first printed in April, 1993.

Head For The High Country was written by David L. Caffey and published in 1973. Mr. Caffey was a member of the Philmont Scout Ranch staff for several seasons. He is also an Eagle Scout and has received the Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow. The book covers the five years he spent working on the staff in various camps around the ranch.

The oldest Philmont-themed book in the collection is The Tooth Of Time, A Philmont Adventure, written by the radio scoutmaster the 1940’s, Gray Sterling. This book was published in 1955. I picked up my copy at a used book store which must have received it from a library because it still has the sign out card on the back cover. I have not read it yet but when I skimmed it for this article I noticed it may be a fictional account of a Scout crew’s trip to Philmont Scout Ranch. I also noticed one more thing today. The book appears to have the author’s signature on the first page of the book, under his picture. Cool.

Beyond The Hills, The Journey of Waite Phillips, written by Michael Wallis, is really not about Philmont Scout Ranch. It is about the life of Waite Phillips, the man who donated to land to the Boy Scouts of America. It is a fascinating book that belongs in any collection of Philmont-themed books. This book does contain a lot of photos.

The final two books, The Scoutmaster and The Scoutmaster II, are not actually books about Philmont. They are written by scoutmaster Jim Boeger who was one of two excellent instructors for Scoutmaster’s Fundamentals, a course I took at the Philmont Training Center in 1984. The books are about Mr. Boeger’s experiences as a scoutmaster. (By the way, he is 6′-9″ tall, which brings some unique experiences to the Scouting table.) The first chapter about his first experience going on a camping trip with a troop of Boy Scouts had me laughing out loud. Mr. Boeger did sign my copy of The Scoutmaster before I left Philmont.

What Philmont-themed books do have own? Do you have any suggestions for us. or a special book perhaps? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 84.

Patches, patches, and more patches. I have quite a few patches. I have already written about my collection of 2001 National Jamboree council shoulder patches, and the collection of Order of the Arrow lodge patches. Add these two together and you may get close to how many patches are in my regular Council Shoulder Patch (CSP) collection, the subject of today’s Memorabilia Monday.

I began collecting CSP’s shortly after attending a scoutmaster training session at Philmont Scout Ranch in 1984. It was during that conference that I was introduced to the world of patch trading. Unfortunately, I did not bring along any patches to trade, but I have made an effort to bring patches to any other national event since then. Patch trading offers a great opportunity to meet people from around the country, and even from other nations.

The picture shows a small part of the collection. I am sure the collection could be much larger, but I am still a shy guy and the opportunities to trade have been few and far between. Sometimes, If I happen to drive by a council office I will stop by and but a patch or two. You could say I trade currency for a patch at those moments. I would guess that the collection currently has over 130 patches, including every Central Minnesota Council patch variation since 1980. (I think.) This does not include the Jamboree patches or Order of the Arrow patches.

Do you collect council shoulder patches? How many do you have? Do you have any that have a special place in your collection?

100 Days of Scouting: Day 56.

The Reading Merit Badge was introduced to the Boy Scouts of America advancement program in 1925. Boys already had plenty of reading material at that time, including books about fictional Boy Scouts named Tom Slade, Roy Bakely, and Pee-Wee Harris.

I own five of the original Pee-Wee Harris novels, and they are the feature of this week’s Memorabilia Monday. A few were found in used book stores. The rest were picked up through online sites like eBay.

I am happy to be able to include these books as part of my Scouting memorabilia collection. Even though they are books about fictional characters, they give us a glimpse into what life was like in the early 1900’s, nearly one hundred years ago. It was a world without video games, cell phones, the internet, and television. Boys made their own adventures instead of buying a pre-made one in a store.

The Pee-Wee Harris books are now in the public domain. Many of them are available as free electronic versions through sites like Amazon, Google Books, and Project Gutenburg. Download them for your iPad, Kindle, or Nook. I have already downloaded them even though I still need a device on which to read them. Until then, I will read them the “old school” way, through the printed hardback versions.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 42.

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?

I collect Boy Scout handbooks. I started collecting them shortly after I became a scoutmaster. I would check out any used bookstores that I would come across to find any Scouting themed books; handbooks, history books about Scouting, fictional novels. I have a decent collection. I have noticed that books in the used bookstores have gone up in price, dramatically at times, so I would guess that more people have been collecting them also. The last few books I added to my shelves have come from eBay.

The oldest Boy Scout Handbooks in my collection are from 1932. I was lucky enough to find two of them over the years. Both are in pretty good condition. Both have writing in them from the boys who once used the books. It is fun to look through them and see how Scouting has changed over the years, especially the advancement program. It is also interesting to how the Scouting program has not changed. Outdoor program, character building, and values are still an important part of the program. The more things change, the more the stay the same.

Do you collect handbooks? What is the oldest one in your collection?