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Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Neutral Corner, Feb 18, 2020.

  1. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    I was in the Cub and Boy Scouts for seven years, and there are any number of things I learned and good memories that I took away from Scouting. It's a damn shame that pedos used it as a way to get at young boys. It's a bigger shame that BSA didn't take a look at what was happening in the Catholic Church scandal and choose to get out in front of it instead of letting thi8ng fester until it got to this point.
     
  2. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Axel bearings? My axles were nails. I sanded and polished the nail shaft by the head where the wheels went and squirted some graphite in there.

    Bearings? LOL
     
  3. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    You could get two badges at once if you had a beaver carve your Pinewood racer.
     
  4. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    My son was an Eagle Scout. His troop's leadership was all fathers of other scouts and BTW one of the key pillars of the Democratic "machine" (people willing to do the hard work of governing) in the town. My son's Scout firends are still his closest friends at age 35. One of them is a Special Forces major, two Bronze Stars. One's a rock climbing instructor in Tacoma. They're all fine people. This story just makes me sad and mad in equal and very large measures.
     
    maumann and Neutral Corner like this.
  5. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    That’s what she said?
     
  6. Driftwood

    Driftwood Well-Known Member

    I was in the Cub Scouts, but never went beyond that.
    I loved the Pinewood Derby. My first year, my dad and I totally tricked out my car with a hidden piece of pipe to get it just the right weight with proper distribution (well concealed by wood filler). I placed second. The troop impounded the cars or something, because when I got a car back, they messed up and gave me the winner's car. We weighed, measured, and outlined it to make mine better in year two.
    I also remember some kind of boat race where they had two pieces of guttering and a fan. I won that.
    I probably got an early start with a historical research and public speaking presentation on an ancestor who fought in the Civil War.

    Honestly, though, I probably got more traction out of my Cub Scout uniform when I realized it looked like the 7th Cavalry and I'd play Battle of Little Bighorn out in the field.
     
    maumann and Neutral Corner like this.
  7. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    Scouting in Canada, at least where I was, seems way more chill. I joined because a friend did and was into it because of the camping.

    My troop sort of disintegrated and I joined another one and they were a lot more regimented, started school sports and that was the end of that.

    I remember we had one Scout Leader who was a single guy in his thirties. On a camping trip he stripped naked in front of us and went skinny dipping in the water, nobody joined him.

    Girls Scouts here seem to be a bigger deal, way more friend’s kids in that than Boy Scouts. The little cookie pushers soak me for big money every 6 months.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2020
    maumann likes this.
  8. Kato

    Kato Well-Known Member

    I made it to Star for sure, maybe to Life (but never got the patch), and, was in Order of the Arrow. Thought I wanted to go for Eagle but then I got involved in a lot of school stuff — sports, music, theater, just general social things — and lost interest in scouts. My troop was also falling apart a bit too. Numbers were declining.

    We lived in a township outside of a small city and had our own troop out there. I was always jealous of the in-city troop, because while we were going to the regular (and very nice) scout camp in northern Wisconsin — they, instead, went on big trips — to the Rocky Mountains, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Ireland. And a lot of their scouts made it to Eagle. But, later, it turned out that the scoutmaster of that super-cool, in-town troop got caught molesting at least one kid. That shook the troop big-time. This was in the 80s, and I'm surprised it came out then. A friend of mine who was in that troop said it was plain to see the predatory nature of the scoutmaster, who went after one of the weaker, poorer kids with the troubled home life. Sounds like the Catholic Church.
     
    maumann likes this.
  9. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member

    My kid recently chose sports over continuing in Cub Scouts - disappointing, because we were getting pretty close to Arrow of Light.

    He had fun with a lot of the activities, but I was always disappointed with the leadership. The planning sucked, and I have no idea how our Den is pulling off camping without me there to do the planning and to tap into my thorough supply of camping gear. It was shocking to me how many parents we had who just didn't know how to "camp out" or to feed a large group of people off camp stoves and fire rings.

    There was a ton of religious-oriented activities, which didn't really appeal to a bunch of heathens like my family.

    I made it to Life Scout back when I was a kid. We had a typical small-town troop, but I always felt like opportunities were skewed towards those who had a parent active in the Troop Leadership. I was not one of those; therefore I received less attention from the troop dads.
     
    maumann likes this.
  10. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    Mom was a Denmother and my friends were all involved. When it came time for Boy Scouts there was zero outreach from National that I saw, or any attempts to transition to the next level. Fortunately for us boys, it turns out.
     
  11. Roscablo

    Roscablo Well-Known Member

    Honestly this is where it's such a tough go for Scouts. There is the right fit for pack or den or troop for everyone but it's practically impossible to find that fit. You usually go with school or neighborhood or friends. If that doesn't fit once you are in it, it makes it impossible to stay in it. While being an adult leader has drained me, it has helped me shape our units some. I like the fits we have for the most part. The focus on religion isn't there. Not a ridiculous influence on uniforms. Just the outings and skills and leadership and so forth. But every unit is going to have its own focus, it's not as standard as it seems, and that's not going to fit everyone even though there are other options out there..

    Unlike some troop leaders who bend over backward just to get numbers, I tell everyone visiting us looking to join to look around until your kid finds the fit he or she likes. That's the key.
     
    maumann and Neutral Corner like this.
  12. misterbc

    misterbc Well-Known Member

    I was a Patrol Leader in Scouts Canada and had a blast. Our Scoutmaster, some better than others, took us camping every second weekend and the meetings often turned into a ping pong tournament after the formal part. There was probably 12-14 of us we all went to school together or lived near each other. We had a baseball team, too. We would wear our Scout shirts with the badges etc. to school often and the girls were very impressed. In a small city like Red Deer, Alberta there were Scout troops everywhere. Very common for early teen boys to get involved and the only abuse I ever heard of was too much murder ball played at some ‘meetings’.
    Sad to see what it became.
     
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