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I got my Eagle rank when I was 14. Some of the best experiences I ever had were on 50 Miler trips. There is nothing like the scout program out there for helping young men become honest, strong, and slightly pyromaniac.

What about you guys?

Never was a scout but I was in 4-H for a good ten years. That really lead to a lot of skills and experiances. Even went to Haiti to do goat care.

I was one of those kids who gave any boy scout I heard tell of at my school an atomic wedgie, and then really went to work. There were about a dozen of us, so it wasn't pretty. Had something to do with them constantly snitching on us.

Thats odd cause where im from I made it to Eagle and we were the ones giveing people atomic situps/wedgies.

I was a Scout, from Cub on up, but I never made Eagle... mainly because my dad wasn't involved (too busy being a doctor), and all the men who could have helped with badges and such favored their own kids outrageously.

I was a sea scout.

I was kicked out of the Scouts because my father had a conversation with the Troop Leader about his conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism. Essentially, the Leader accused him of being an agnostic, which would exempt me from membership. I remember the ensuing argument being quite thrilling. I've hated the Scouts ever since.

Da Boss wrote:I was a sea scout.

I'm not knocking you personally or anything, but I hate sea scouts. Around here they are total dicks to people in the boat business for some reason. My father has had to deal with them doing stupid stuff at the docks before.

On topic, I was a scout. Didn't make eagle. We all played games though. Got some good skills out of it but there are too many suck up goody two shoes in there. Eagles didn't really have any appeal in it either. All the Eagle scouts my crew and I knew of were gay or just total failures at social activity.

Canadian Boy Scouts. Beavers, Cub Scouts and Scouts although I left after ... three? years in Scouts, after moving, and never finished. 1st Vegreville.

Our forte was winter camping. Lean-tos and hikes. Later on we got into canoeing. Canada, you know.

I do not even know what an Eagle Scout is, to be honest. Although I may be forgetting.

Definately a worthwhile activity, including civic leadership. We had a "Citizenship" badge, that was mandatory to progress. Bronze, Silver and Gold.

I see, we have the Chief Scout Award, given by the Governor General. Shame I had to move. I was not interested in rejoining, on grounds it "would not be the same". I was not interested in dodge ball day or whatever.

I was a Cub Scout but not a senior scout or whatever it's called.

I hated it because I had to miss Star Trek on a Wednesday evening to go to the meeting.

I was a scout but don't remember to much about it, It ran meetings on the same day as karate so I stopped going.

dogma wrote:I was kicked out of the Scouts because my father had a conversation with the Troop Leader about his conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism. Essentially, the Leader accused him of being an agnostic, which would exempt me from membership. I remember the ensuing argument being quite thrilling. I've hated the Scouts ever since.

That sounds pretty interesting, care to elaborate.

I was a cub scout for about a month or two in the early 80's

Never was:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/18883/saturday-night-live-canteen-boy-and-the-scoutmaster

George Spiggott wrote:
That sounds pretty interesting, care to elaborate.

I was a cub scout for about a month or two in the early 80's

First some background. My Scout Troop used to have reading sessions. Basically 30 minutes segments of our meeting during which we were supposed to read a book of our choosing. I was 11 at the time, and had brought Aristotle's Metaphysics (yes, I was that much of a nerd) with me. The Troop Leader asked me what it was about, deemed it inappropriate, and confiscated it. When my dad came to pick me up from the meeting I told him what happened, so he confronted the Troop Leader.

This lead to my father, who was a UCC minister at the time, discussing the role of faith in the Boy Scouts with my Troop Leader. The Troop Leader wanted to essentially plug the Bible as the word of God. My father disagreed, citing his conversion (among other things) as evidence for the validity of multiple interpretations of the faith. The Leader laughed at my Dad, and said that he clearly did not understand faith if he felt one could change his mind about it. My father countered by citing the many, and varied, external influences on the modern Bible. The Troop Leader said that if my father did not believe the Bible was the infallible word of God he was "...clearly nothing more than an agnostic parading around as though he can speak as an authority on religion. Precisely the type of person that isn't fit to be a member of the Scout community." I remember those words pretty well because of how dripping with disdain they were, and also because my father's response was a long string of epithets that covered:
1) The Leader's intelligence
2) The Leader's prejudice
3) The Leader's general worth
The Leader's response was to laugh, and tell my Dad we were 'free to leave'. My Father's parting remark was " you, you ignorant . It is people like you who make violence necessary."

Wow, Dogma! Sounds like you kinda got screwed in the troop you were in! I guess a lot of the quality of the experience is based on the quality of the leadership in the troop.

Otoh, it must have been awesome to have your dad stand up for you! That is cool, and a good memory!

I was a scout for about 7 years. Didn't get much in the way of badges, but I learned a lot of useful skills, like how not to take your toes off with a hatchet, how to make a really really hot fire out of pallets, and how to pack all sorts of random crap into a trailer and a minibus.

I was a cub scout, up to Webelos. Never got my Wolf patch (although I almost finished it) because I joined the year the kids in my age group were earning their Bear patch, so I went from Bobcat straight to Bear, then Webelos, while trying to earn my Wolf patch in between. I had a lot of fun with it (really enjoyed some of the camping activities) but I never joined regular Boy Scouts after I was a Webelos.

Like Corey85 I did 4-H too, though. I was in 4-H longer, really. I took pigs and chickens and a cow to the county fair. I enjoyed that. I took Guinea pigs too, one year.

Good times.

I was in cubs, got to be a seconder.

Didn't go on to become a sixer as left in year 5 when we moved.

I was in scouts for about four years and managed to get my Eagle done early in high school, after which I stopped going.

I guess I had a really different scouting experience than the rest of you; it's where I had my first alcohol, cigarettes and steady supply of porno mags (they were naked ladies, not dudes, just to clarify). There was also some weed floating around, but I never tried it when I was in the scouts.

Typeline wrote:
On topic, I was a scout. Didn't make eagle. We all played games though. Got some good skills out of it but there are too many suck up goody two shoes in there. Eagles didn't really have any appeal in it either. All the Eagle scouts my crew and I knew of were gay or just total failures at social activity.

I think I made it to Life Scout.

Most of the people I knew who made Eagle were Eagles on paper only. The couldn't orienteer, couldn't start a fire with kerosene, etc. The ones that legitimately made Eagle really had my respect.

That being said, some of my best memories were of scouting. Hiking the Appalachian Trail, camping at Broadcreek and at Goshen, winning an orienteering challenge with my troop. All good stuff.

I still am

I was. Webelo/cub, boy scout up to star then we moved to an area where the scouts were politically inseparable from the scoutmasters church(1st baptist). Not the Scouts fault. Good times up til the move.

I'm a Girl Scout. I make the highest numbers of cookie sales in the troup. When an angry unshaven guy who may or may not be carrying a shotgun in that burlap sack over his shoulder asks if you would like to buy girl scout cookies-you buy girl scout cookies.

Well the Girl Scout part is true anyway. And the sales...

i was in a group ran by the church i grew up in, where most of our manuals and books and whatnot were aided in their writing by the boy scouts. instead of the boy scouts, i had "royal rangers" (cheesy name i know). very similar to the BSA, i learned all the "necessary" skills of manhood: map and compass orienteering, knot tying, traps/snares/deadfalls that are essential to wilderness survival, wilderness survival.. and cooking

sadly, all of the boy scout troops in my hometown are ran in LDS buildings... so they get brought up as mormons nowadays.

It "is" sad the lack of real experience and skills being imparted to todays youth. Most can't make heads or tales of a problem without a game controller in their hands. Its not their fault. It's just how things are these days.

are scouts the ones with the weird brown uniforms? (in England) i could never tell the difference between them and army cadets.

either way they all cried the same when i hit them.

Darkchild

Darkchild wrote:are scouts the ones with the weird brown uniforms? (in England) i could never tell the difference between them and army cadets.

either way they all cried the same when i hit them.

Darkchild

The ones in the brown uniforms were/are Brownies. They are also girls.

reds8n wrote:

Darkchild wrote:are scouts the ones with the weird brown uniforms? (in England) i could never tell the difference between them and army cadets.

either way they all cried the same when i hit them.

Darkchild

The ones in the brown uniforms were/are Brownies. They are also girls.

Hit a girl scout and the best you can hope for is the Dad gets to you first. He'll only put you in the hospital. If the mom gets to you its torture porn time with you as the starring role of victim.

lol