{"id":19,"date":"2006-06-15T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-15T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/?p=19"},"modified":"2013-09-14T17:25:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-14T22:25:17","slug":"follow-me-boys-plus-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/?p=19","title":{"rendered":"Follow Me Boys; plus five years."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/follow_me_boys_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1746\" alt=\"follow_me_boys_large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/follow_me_boys_large-209x300.jpg\" width=\"174\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/follow_me_boys_large-209x300.jpg 209w, https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/follow_me_boys_large.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 174px) 100vw, 174px\" \/><\/a>I still remember the first time I saw the movie &#8220;Follow Me Boys.&#8221; I was attending the Philmont Scout Ranch Training Facility for a week long Scoutmaster Fundamentals course. It was in the summer of 1984.<\/p>\n<p>As I sat there that night watching the film with Scout leaders from all over the country, I kept thinking to myself, &#8220;Wow! A scoutmaster for twenty years. That would be quite an accomplishment.&#8221; I was twenty-four years old at the time. I had not been a scoutmaster for three years yet. A twenty year stint seemed like an impossibility back then.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it is now 2006. In September I will have been the scoutmaster of Troop 68 for 25 years, far surpassing Lem Siddons term of service.<\/p>\n<p>Have any of my boys fallen off of a cliff? No. Have my boys tried building their own clubhouse? No. Has anyone offered to donate a valuable piece of property to my troop? No again. My troop is a real troop, not a Hollywood version of one.<\/p>\n<p>However, Scouting has given me many memorable experiences. I have been hiking in the mountains of Virginia, canoeing in the BWCA of Minnesota, exploring caves and mines in Wisconsin and Minnesota, been the scoutmaster of a troop at the 2001 National Jamboree, and have attended five treks at Philmont Scout Ranch.<\/p>\n<p>Best of all, I have had the opportunity to know nearly 250 young men through Scouting in Melrose. I have made many friendships, some even lasting long into their adulthood. Fifteen of the boys have attained the rank of Eagle Scout. And just like Lem Siddons, I consider all of them to be one of &#8220;my boys&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>No, my years of being a scoutmaster may not have been as interesting as Lem&#8217;s in the movie &#8220;Follow Me Boys&#8221;. Mine have been more interesting and more fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I still remember the first time I saw the movie &#8220;Follow Me Boys.&#8221; I was attending the Philmont Scout Ranch Training Facility for a week long Scoutmaster Fundamentals course. It was in the summer of 1984. As I sat there that night watching the film with Scout leaders from all over the country, I kept [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[395,169],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-books","tag-film-books","tag-movie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melrosetroop68.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}