I'm honestly surprised how little discussion about scouting there is on PrepHole let's see if we can change that. Share your experiences from your time as a scout, or with the oa. I'd generally like to avoid talking about national's shenanigans though.
>inb4 'uh OP I think you mean 'just Scouts'
Some troops were hardcore hike to campsites only, some were lax(lazy) tailgate-heavy; fortunately mine was more hiking oriented and cared about developing the skills in merit badges than simply checking boxes. I wish scouting stayed a a more 'the people who want to do this will come' outfit rather than watering down to gain more (which is never a good thing).
What was your favorite merit badge, and why ?
It's really hard for me to say I have a favorite merit badge. I will say the archery merit badge is fun but I have severe bias since I taught it at summer camp for two years.
Hiking and Orienteering were favorites of mine and got my Eagle back in 2012.
It's a shame so many troops are lackluster. I was lucky in that nearly all my scoutmasters were ex-military.
Just found out my wife and I are pregnant with a boy so I'm thinking about raising him to a Boy Scout book if I can't find a halfway decent troop near me.
congratulations anon 🙂
I was only in scouts for a few years, but wilderness survival was my favorite merit badge. My shelter was comfy af. All those years of watching Survivorman payed off.
Scouts as a concept really would have liked, but growing up there was almost nobody my age doing it in my area and I was living in China which didn't have much in the way of outdoors/camping culture.
Even if scouts as a whole goes down I think it could be a good model to follow for when I have kids as far as getting out and teaching them different skills.
I don't know how things will pan out for the bsa specifically. I know the oa is essentially marked for death and will be scrapped probably in the next decade.
Why is that; more political incorrect nonsense ?
That's part of it but honestly since the oa has basically become coed I am certain problems are going to start occurring and the controversy from that will cause national to pull the plug.
>put incompatible parts together
>the machine breaks
Who would have thought ?
I was in the Boy Scouts for like 2 months when I was a kid. Dropped out pretty quick because I just didn't like the socializing. I prefer to experience my wilderness in solitude or with a few close friends. Simple as
Was a cub scout, then a weeblo, then a boyscout. Made it to life before dropping out due to national bullshit. Kind of regret it, honestly I just needed to do my eagle project and I would have something to brag about for the rest of my life. But with the current state of scouting and the political climate, I wouldnt touch that shit with a 10 foot pole, nor would I let any family member participate in it blindly. Scouting is something that requires a high-trust community, and as a society we generally don't have that anymore.
Cub and boyscoutting was really fun, weeblo was kinda boring. We had to baby sit this crippled moronic kid during weablos and basically the whole troop existed so this moron could have friends. In hindsight, how much you can enjoy scouting is going to depend on troop location and troop makeup. When I was a cubscout, the troop was set in an army base, and all the kids were basically officer's children and we all had the same mindset. weeablos was civilian and was full of civvy political bullshit, lots of 'be nice, be respectful to people who dont deserve it, no you cant do that its dangerous'. By the time I was old enough for boyscouts my family had moved and the nearest troop was in a marine base full of middle to upper class government worker kids and soldier's kids. It was nice to be around people who were on the same wave length.
You definetly shouldnt just join any troop in any random place, make sure you vet that shit first. It can mean the difference between your son learning how to do real shit from a soldier, or being forced to baby sit a literal moron because the parents didnt have the courage to abort their mishappened offspring. Yeah I know scouts shouldnt be "mean" like that, it's not the cripple's fault. But you can't really go camping and do fun shit if everyone's attention is on the malformed midget with 1 hand who isn't even smart enough to dress himself. It's unfair to make other children deal with that shit.
>all the kids were basically officer's children
sounds like dependa politics, not gonna lie anon.
My troop was moronic. Instead of doing any of the cool shit in the handbook, we just sat around the scout lodge (a church attic) and tried to max out on merit badges that you could do indoors.
Trying to get my son interested in it now. He loves being outdoors, but he's not into clubs and structured activities.
scouting has been destroyed by modern leftist bullshit
better to spend/waste time with a strictly outdoors focused organization
Reading these stories it seems that scouts in America fell pretty hard !
In France we have several scouting movements. The og ones went full woke (no gender separation, no Christianity, no uniform etc.). But there are at least two other big ones, one in the middle and one which is basically still like in the 70s.
I was in the latter and it was great. Catholicism and spirituality were very important but I actually liked it, even if I'm not from a practicing family. It felt really good to go out there on weekends and disconnect completely from society, wear the uniform, and laugh with the boys. Good times.
Hence, we have it pretty good here, there are even more traditional movements with like 100 people in it. They attend mass in Latin and have very militaristic discipline. A bit too much for me personally but to each their own.
Would that have been the FSE? It's starting to seep into tradcath scouting circles in the US now as the FNE. I was heavily involved with a chapter at my church for several years until it died from bullshit drama. AFAIK the movement on the whole is doing decently still though.
Mine was FSE yeah, "Guides et Scouts d'Europe" in french.
Indeed in Europe it's quite popular. I wouldn't expect it to catch on too much in the us, bc I don't think the Catholic population is that big (correct me if I'm wrong).
No, it will never rival the boy scouts here of course. It seems there are now about 30 chapters across the US and Canada now.
Scouting really fell off in the US for a lot of reasons. I blame mismanagement of the organization the most.
>t.2010 eagle.
I was in cub scouts and webelos. Realized that scouting was lame compared to actually hunting and fishing with my family. Pinewood derby was the shit though.
It depends on your troop. I always had a lot of fun in scouting.
My dad was the troop leader back when it was an actual calling in the mormon church. His second in command (bishop picked him, not my dad) started complaining and whining on a hike into a campsite somewhere close to Zion national park. My dad got fed up with him and turned around, said "stop being a pussy in front of the boys. You're setting a bad example." them kept walking.
Sorry I cant remember all the terminology it happened when I was around 11 and our troop was never big on the book work or merit badges anyway. Definitely recall going shooting 3 weeks in a row because we hadn't used all of our budget for the year.
Wanna meet that dad
I tried the boyscouts out when I was 10. I was super excited to join the kind of group I'd seen in TV shows. Camping and learning life skills.
Instead we just had boring meetings about raising money. At my last meeting, another boy out his hand in my back pocket. I told my parents I was done with the scouts
A bummer the group wasn't active and worthwhile. I could have just dealt with the kid or reported him
Did Scouts from basically 7 to 18. Dad’s Eagle and ex-military so he led a lot of shit. Cub scouts was fricking awesome, we basically just went out into the woods, were all really close friends, and beat the frick out of each other with sticks while the dads ate hotdogs. My Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout troop were attached so we all went the same place, the Boy Scout troop was like a junior fraternity. High adventure stuff all the time, kids who were pussies got hazed until they got with the program or left, went to Philmont and everything. Went to another troop when I moved, I was well into high school at the time and they were mostly middle schoolers who liked car camping. I became SPL (basically elected boy leader of the troop) and managed to whip them into doing backpacking and some other stuff. Lot of fun overall and still a good program for boys, mostly because it’s more influenced by the people who charter/run the troops than national. I missed Scouts for a school dance once. Wouldn’t do again. It’s like 75% fat kids who go into the woods to talk about Minecraft, 5% autists, 10% type A personality future military officers and 10% normal people.
>it’s more influenced by the people who charter/run the troops than national.
Sounds like what I experienced in the 90’s. It’s all on the parents and troop leaders. Good times until they did an “urban” outreach and a bunch of undesirables joined. None of them qualified for the swimming merit badge.
During the OA induction ceremony we had to sleep in sleeping bags with no tent , alone and set up completely in the dark by a trail next to the lake. A kid name Derrick was completely soaked the next morning. He was allowed to temporarily break his silence by one of the camp staff and he said at night he rolled down the hill and fell into the lake. There was no way that was possible, the hill wasn't that steep, and was covered in trees so he would have hit at least one of them before he hit the lake. I'm 95 percent certain he pissed himself and he jumped in the lake to cover it up lol. Good times
Cub scouts was cool, always loved the pinewood derby. My boyscout troop sucked ass though. I was with them for 3 years and we only ever went camping once. All the older scouts ever did was play Magic the Gathering, hell even the scout masters played that shit. When I left, we hadn't even had a meeting in almost 3 months. It really sucks, and always feel a bit jealous when my buddy, who was in another troop, talks about his experience. Weekly meetings, camping every month, out of state trips every 3 months, summer camp every year.
Camp Woodruff was so fricking hot.
Don't the boy scouts have a long history of homophobia? How can you support such an evil, immoral organization?
(You)
>disallowing sick perverts that like to prey on young boys from being in your organization
>immoral
Boy scouts letting poofers in was one of the last nails in their coffin.
>Long history of homophobia
scouts is just hitlerjugend with Black folk and less guns
did cub scouts for like a month and then my parents pulled me out of it because they thought the people were weird