I was a semi-nerd in high school. I thought I was cool, but the fact I was not included in the parties and gatherings of the in-crowd was probably a hint. I wasn't picked on or bullied either. I wasn't part of the hoodlum crowd either. I was a kid who played sports and did band ( it was an easy "A"). I got good grades. In short, if such a vote had been held I would have been voted "most forgettable" of my high school class -- except no one would have remembered to vote for me. Instoner words,I was just like a lot of high school kids.
One thing pushed me to the nerd category: I was a Boy Scout. The local paper featured me a couple of times in the United Way write ups. Even in the Seventies being Joey Boy Scout wasn't a ticket to nekkid co-ed swim parties with the hot popular chicks. An Eagle Scout badge never made a teen girl swoon. Ever.
I enjoyed Scouts, especially the camping. After college I started out merit badge counseling for a local troop and eventually serving as a very young Ass't Scoutmaster. Kids and new jobs and a move ended that and I did not don a uniform again until my oldest boy jumped into Cub Scouts. I helped out and ended up being Weblos leader and finally Cub Master until he moved on and decided to be a Scout no more, eschewing Boy Scouts altogether. The youngest had no interest at all. He was into sports and I was OK with both boys' decisions.
Still, it pains me to see The Scouts succumb to pressure and go co-ed. Changing the name from Boy Scouts is even more pathetic. I get it. We talked about political pressure and declining Scout enrollment here when the decision was made to accept girls into the Boy Scouts. I suppose now critics cannot ridicule girls in the ranks by muttering "it is the BOY Scouts, fer cripes sake". Now the organization will just be "Scouts BSA".
Still, it just seems a little like combining the army and marines and calling that branch "military".
Oh well, I've been done with the BSA for a long time. No one asked me, and I'm sure they don't care for my opinion.
3 comments:
Boy Scout membership has been declining for a long time. Parents and kids now days are just not interested, might be time to fold the tent and go away. I was a scout, my dad was a pack leader, but that is ancient history, back when guns were not bad and people were held accountable for their actions.
James Old Guy
Without commenting on the politics, this is a boon to girls, so I'm in the positive column. Hopefully it wakes up the ever lovin girl scouts to the fact that girls, especially teen girls like high adventure as much as the boys. I mean the gs don't let you stay in the woods overnight alone to get a survival badge or shoot a gun or a whole lot of other things. THe boys had a coed program for years, the Explorers.
The National Council apparently never heard of Santayana.
They tried this back in the ‘70s, rebranding it “Scouting/BSA”, apparently in an attempt to draw in inner-city youth from communities to whom “boy” had negative social connotations. To nobody’s overwhelming surprise, that failed, and they were back to Boy Scouts of America by 1980.
I think one of my Jambo shirts in ‘73 read “Scouting/BSA” over the pocket. It was also green, not khaki.
I’m still in, as a Venture leader now, but not for much longer, I fear. And I have almost 40 years in the program. It makes me sad. But it’s a perfect example of SJW capture at this point.
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