Greywarrior and I have been reminiscing about Scouting - were you ever a scout?

[old mark]

Do you have any funny or other stories about it?
Did it affect you positively? Or not?

Or what?:shrug:

markO8)

[Heidi]

1. I was a Brownie for about two hours.

After the snack of stale Oreos and warm grape Kool-Aid, I knew that Scouting was not for me. I guess I'm a Brownie dropout.

[old mark]

2. GW was thrown out of scouts twice and I was thrown out of cubs -

I think it's just funny, which, now that I think of it, is why I was thrown out in the first place.....

markO8)

[rug]

4. Me too, but then I was drafted into it by the nuns.

In 6th grade they forced about 5 of us into it. Within 4 weeks we were all thrown out for knocking the folding chairs down in the lower church.

[cwydro]

3. I was a Brownie and a Scout.

The only memories I have about Brownies is the time we made tom-toms from coffee cans, lol! I only remember that because that tom-tom stayed around my parents house for years and years.

In Girl Scouts we once made a trip to Williamsburg, which I enjoyed.

But I wanted to go camping and do cool stuff like the Boy Scouts did. Thank goodness my parents took us camping, horseback riding and all the good stuff.

[HopeHoops]

5. I was a cub scout for two years - I quit after the leaders cheated at the pinewood derby.

Talk about being role models. The only judges at the pinewood derby were the leader and assistant leader. Both of their kids had cars that lost at least one race. My car and at least two others had yet to be defeated. We didn't consider the contest to be over yet, but the outcome pissed us off. The leaders went off in a huddle and came back to announce the winners - SHOCK of shocks - the leader's son got 1st and the assistant leader's son got 2nd. I don't even remember who got third - may even have been me - it didn't matter. They cheated. I quit. Fuck that noise.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. I was a boy scout. I learned to tie knots.

Which may be a good thing, depending ...

:hi:

[femmocrat]

7. I was a Brownie and a den mother to Cub Scouts.

My sons were very into scouting until they discovered girls. :)

[old mark]

24. Yeah, that did it for me, too.....

Beats going into the woods with guys any day.

For me, anyway.....


markO8)

[SoxFan]

8. I was never a Kansas City Scout

These guys were!

[trof]

9. Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Explorer Scout.

Overall, it was a good experience.
Except for the time we walked up on a moonshine still during a hike in the woods.
And the time I got hit in the head with a green pine cone during a pine cone battle.
Those things HURT.
;-)

[seemunkee]

10. Cub/Boy Scout

Started Cub Scouts when I was 10 and moved on to Boy Scouts. When I turned 18 I signed up as a leader and stayed active with my troop for another year. Became a Den leader when my son joined and helped out when he moved to Boy Scouts. My son and I both quit when the scouts won their lawsuit to excluded gays.
I met my oldest friend in scouts. Together we have hiked long sections of the AT, climbed Mt Ranier, hiked Utah deserts, did a century ride in Death Valley.
I also smoked my first cigarette, drank my first beer and saw my first girlie magazine in Scouts. So all in all I would say it was a positive experience.

[trof]

13. We made 'cigars' out of pine straw and toilet paper.

The scoutmaster thought it was funny as hell and even took a couple of hits.
And that...was a long...LONG time ago.
;-)

[Auggie]

16. Cigarettes? Beer? Nudity?

LOL

[graywarrior]

11. LOL

:rofl:

[backtoblue]

12. did they teach you the fine art of duct taping?????

well, did they? :evilgrin:

[graywarrior]

14. I learned how to tape up animals at a young age

[old mark]

28. I bet you got a merit badge for that.......

some skills you acquire in youth just stay with you for life.


markO8)

[graywarrior]

35. Like my dancing skills...lol

[1gobluedem]

15. I was kicked out of Girl Scouts

For being too rowdy.

[graywarrior]

17. All that therapy and now I find out there were others.

[Bertha Venation]

18. I was a Girl Scout - a Brownie

I don't remember ever being a Junior (the next step up)

I remember two crafts:

A "Sit-Upon," which was vinyl stiched around a stack of newspapers. I vaguely remember using it at a campfire.

A thing to hold my barrettes: a round Quaker Oats box with a face out of construction paper and "hair" made of yarn, glued to the top of the box and braided down the sides.

That is all I remember from scouting.

Oh, and there is this:

[WolverineDG]

30. I was in Girl Scouts so long

I still look for a "sit-upon" whenever I'm outdoors & want to sit down. :rofl:

Made it all the way through Cadettes. There was only one Senior Troop in my town & the troop leader wouldn't let anyone outside her social circle in. But it was okay. I discovered I could be a "Boy Scout" & joined the Explorer program (which let girls in) & way more much fun.

dg

[Scout]

19. i was a Brownie, a Junior and a Senior Scout

i mostly enjoyed the time and experiences i had. so much of the experience depends on having good leaders. we were able to go to day camp in the summers when a brownie and a junior, then sleepaway camp when older.

overall it was "good for me" to have been a scout.

[NJmaverick]

20. I was a Cub Scout and Weablo (SP?)

they werer pretty good times, but were uneventful.

[cemaphonic]

21. I had a great scout troop in my early teen years

Frequent and varied outdoor trips, about once a month, and the adult leadership didn't really have much use for the whole paramilitary aspect of it - highlighting the good citizenship and community service parts instead. I would have hit Eagle if we had stuck around for another year or so.

Then we moved to Northern VA, and all the adult leaders were Pentagon dads. It stopped being much fun pretty quickly, and my schedule was getting pretty overloaded by that time anyway.

[Strong Atheist]

22. Eagle Scout and a DeMolay. Funny, given my handle... nt.

[WolverineDG]

31. Former Rainbow here

:hi:

Ever ride the greased pig? :rofl:

dg

[Strong Atheist]

36. Wow! I always liked the rainbows better than the... OTHER ONES, who tended to be

VERY stuck up...


"greased pig": no, but I am intrigued. Is the like the kingdom of honesty? That one almost got me...

[WolverineDG]

38. Must have been a local thing then

the altar where you had to kneel during initiation was covered in leather, hence the term "greased pig."

dg

[Strong Atheist]

39. Ah. I never went beyond the joining part to move up; I did not

feel comfortable lying about religion to do more. It was bad enough that I had to do it to join, which I DESPERATELY wanted to do; our chapter was full of fun guys (and, of course, GREAT rainbows!)

[TheMightyFavog]

23. Yes.

Went as far as Star before I got bored with it.

I remember earning my Shotgun merit badge just by the skin of my teeth. The final requirement was to dust 50 out of 100 clay pigeons. I got my 50th on the 100 try. I remember the gun they had at the camp was a POS Savage break action 20 gauge that would misfire if you looked at it the wrong way.

[timtom]

25. Yeah!

I made Second Class.

Rank was tough in my outfit.

Came home from every camping trip vowing never to go again, only to get ready for the next one with a whoop and a yell.

[datasuspect]

26. we'd wake up at night and play vietnam

[mike_c]

27. I was kicked out for disciplinary problems...

...involving cigarettes, beer, and cussing on camp outs. Our BS troop used to "hike" to woodsy open fields next to the housing development I lived in at the time and "camp" there overnight. Of course, none of us realized how hokey that was, at the time.

[surrealAmerican]

29. I hated it.

The craft projects were fun, but I hated the way the other kids, who had just spent the school day teasing me, would pretend they were my friends when the troop leader was watching. Selling cookies and calenders was also something I dreaded.

[msanthrope]

32. One of the best memories of my Dad comes from Girl Scouts.....

I had to sell cookies.

This was way back when they still expected you to go door to door and take orders. And then deliver the cookies.

My Dad took my order form to Wednesday night bowling (an IBM workers league) one week, and delivered the cookies a few weeks later.

I sold 461 boxes.


Dad knew how to sell.

[Sisaruus]

33. Girl Scouts introduced me to the field of social justice

My *summer camp* experience in the mid-60s was at Yale where we learned about social justice issues in morning seminars and did community service in the inner city in the afternoon. In lieu of traditional campfire songs, I learned all the great civil rights ballads. Later in life, after 2 decades of anti-poverty work and professional feminism, I became a Girl Scout executive staffperson. I took an early retirement package two years ago and have returned to New Haven working on statewide hunger issues. Everytime I drive through the Yale campus I remember that life-changing Girl Scout summer. I've always credited Girl Scouts for my professional career path.

[LanternWaste]

34. Cub- and Boy Scout...

Cub- and Boy Scout. From 5th grade through my freshman year in HS-- then my marching, symphonic and jazz band weeniness took too much of time to let me continue. I had hoped to become an Eagle scout one day.

Had a lot of good times and friends. And I still know the oath like the back of my hand, and do my utmost to live it.

[annabanana]

37. We were a camping Girl Scout Troop..

Our two leaders had us do a whole host of camping & outdoor cooking badges for two years.. And it was all capped off with a trip to Canada. We had a bus driver named Al who ferried the two leaders and 30 of us 12 year old girls around Nova Scotia. We pitched tents, dug trenches & made outdoor latrines, built fires & cooked all our meals. . What a great trip!

[petronius]

40. I was an Eagle Scout - all in all a good experience, I still backpack the places

I learned to love through scouting, and the foundation of my wilderness ethic was laid then (although my thinking has seriously evolved from the rock-fighting, match-flicking, and bigger-campfires-are-better days of yore... :)) We had a good troop, with lots of hiking and climbing activities, and not a lot of the bible-thumping that can be found elsewhere.

Still, there are things I would change on the inclusiveness front, and I'd be very conflicted about participating in Scouting today...

[realisticphish]

42. ditto

I didn't go so far as to return my Eagle, but I would definitely try to find something else for my own children.

[realisticphish]

41. Eagle Scout

Had a lot of fun, did a lot of stuff I wouldn't have had the chance to do.

Have something good to put on the ol' CV.

Overall a positive experience. It was also a small troop, never more than 10 boys.

My sister had a great experience with our local Venture Crew. She hated girl scouts while she was in it

[alarimer]

43. I used to play hookey from Brownies.

I got in trouble for that. So I was only in Brownies for a couple of years. All they did was stupid shit, like arts and crafts. WE never got to camping like the boys did. So unfair.

[Strong Atheist]

44. Recommended,

dammit! x(

[txwhitedove]

45. Brownie and Girl Scout, loved it. Went to scout camp 2 times...

One summer a few of us had to hike to a remote (scary to us) part of the camp and sleep overnight in a cocoon hammock. They're hard to get into, zip closed all around with mosquito netting sides. I woke up twisted up inside the hammock, which must have flipped over and over during the night, hollering for someone to get me out. Learned how to build fires, cook on a campfire, and we ate a snake once. Aahh, good times...

[charlie and algernon]

46. Boy scouts

Made it quickly to second class, then HS marching band took precidence and I never advanced further. Hard to do much when nearly every weekend was consumed with a football game, parade, competition, etc. Ended up quitting the scouts the beginning shortly before I turned 18 when meetings started turning into clusterfucks with nothing getting done. The proverbial straw was the night I chose to skip a pep rally senior year where the band was playing to attend a meeting about an upcoming trip. The meeting was said clusterfuck with nothing about said trip discussed. End of the meeting I told the scoutmasters I was done and walked out.

[JTG of the PRB]

47. I earned my Arrow of Light and went to one Boy Scout meeting.

I decided I was done with scouts, so I stopped after being a Webelo... Whatever that is. :shrug:

[UrbScotty]

48. For a year. 3rd grade. Didn't like it.