One for all and all for one

La mélée scout.

Scouts en exploration.

These two wonderful illustrations capture perfectly the whole feeling of both comradeship and being challenged many of us had or get from scouting as part of that pack so well.

Scots Uniform

Today we're continuing around Camp topics

Original source: VintageYouthGroups

It is by no means uncommon in Scotland for Scouts to wear Kilts both at regular weekly meetings or to camp where on the top picture we see a scout posed outside his traditional wax canvas tent in his.

This isn't just a patriotic Scottish tradition but because wears often say they feel more comfortable in them.

In the second picture he's the only one in a  kilt surround by other Scouts and Cubs in shorts which looks like common recreational room where they are reading magazines which he isn't.

Just what the one in blue denim jeans thinks he's doing I don't know as honestly having worn them grudgingly whilst hard wearing they tend to stick to your skin and awful when damp.  I am quite sure BP wouldn't approve at all of his attire

Lending a helping hand

A Scout helping out whilst at camp although I'm not sure the building itself is connected to them looking more like a gift shop but as he's wearing bracelets there must be some scheme in operation that allows him access.

Cubs and Scouts do from time to time a number of things to raise awareness and also funds such as 'bagging' - putting groceries into bags for people by prior agreement with the store or hosting a display about themselves with people to talk about scouting inside malls.

Cubbery of my generation

This blog shares a general trait with That Uniformed Schoolboy which is that it looks back at past boyhoods in scouting and similar boys youth organizations and also forward the needs of boys today as they met by those organizations in our time and in inspiring me today.
Thus it's neither a nostalgia trip of the past nor is it just about the here and now but that said I do talk about that past as it was important to me and my generation.

Much of my school-age boyhood went though the nineteen-seventies and early nineteen-eighties and running alongside that was Cubs at Junior School as a few years before Wolf Cubs had been removed and Scouts at High School that my mates were very much a part of

While it is right to be focused on the Cub Scout program rather than uniforms nontheless it was that uniform you wanted because it was a sign of belonging, of being a cub so putting it on remains a strong memory with you.
The green jersey increasingly got festooned with your award badges and as was the convention at the time you wore school shorts and long socks with green garters to hold them up
lt was no surprise this was the catalyst when I first started age regression toward being and presenting as the eternal boy I am

You often went away although this place isn't so far from me being in the Peak District and if I am not mistaken that farm is in  North-East Staffordshire having hiked up there.
Such experiences are core childhood memories for me .

The sense of belonging to your pack is so telling in this period as they all rest on the bench and those bonds still remain important to this day, the cornerstone of life-long friendships.

This cub leader is no doubt very proud of how her Cubs have turned out looking extremely smart

On parade with the bigger boys in Scouts who you looked up to.

Situation under control

In a clearing in the forest, the Scouts have assembled for themselves benches from nearby logs to sit upon while one member has got the fire lit, ready to put some logs on so it will be up to temperature ready to cooks with.

By their very own efforts, they have their needs under control and met.
Note they have had the sense to keep it a good distance from open woodland to minimize the risks of setting the forest on fire.

The unity of the pack

Original source: redneckerchiefs

The sense of "esprit de corps" you get in a pack of boys together is immense as we'd do anything and everything to help each other and our pack so we'd get through every challenge.

That feeling of total connectedness physically, mentally and psychologically is the most intense feeling I've ever had and why this life continues on.

A knife for all occasions

Knives always had a fascination for me particularly pen knives and pocket knifes such as the "Swiss Army Knife" and in Scouting knives do play an important part as tools when going camping or exploring.

This 1929 advertisement shows one endorsed by the By Scouts of America for the variety of different shaped ones fitted AND a can opener for tinned soup, meats and fruit which will help with all those boys preparing food. 

A Scout is...Proud

Any member of the Scouting Family be they cubs, scouts or leaders of has every good reason to feel proud of themselves and their achievements  not just within Scouting itself but also in their roles in the wider community without falling into the trap of getting 'too big' in the head.

As a Wolf Cub in spirit, I am proud of myself, my achievements not just as they personally benefit me but for how they make a difference to the better for others not withstanding my own disability centred challenges.

The Wolf Cub Promise:

I promise to Do My Best.

To do my duty to God, and to the Queen,

To keep the Law of the Wolf Cub Pack,

and to do a good turn to somebody every day.

The Wolf Cub Law:

The Cub gives in to the Old Wolf.

The Cub does not give in to himself.

Our Motto is: Do Your Best

On the march again

On the march again in this picture from June 9th this year, this is clearly connected to a Christian probably Lutheran centred activity judging by the outfit of the man three rows back on the far left.

Some scouting groups are connected with Churches and other places of Christian worship at various levels such as use of facilities and God is mentioned within the Scout Oath and Law but it should be noted scouting is non-sectarian in attitude and not exclusively Christian.

It recognizes the importance of spirituality to the moral training of children and young people within our society that form the basis of shared belief.

Just having my picture taken

I am going to make an assumption not that I like doing so but we're in a parking area having pulled up and this scout has got out, picked up all of his kit which is in that rather sturdy rucksack he is carrying complete with anything else tied across it when he was asked to pose for this picture.

It is very important not to either carry a rucksack bigger than you can carry comfortably and that it is properly loaded to avoid causing strains or even long term damage to your back specially toward the base of the spine.

He most probably would be making his way to met with the other scouts before all marching together to where they would

make camp.

Log making

Gathering material while camping is more a preoccupation for those who are Scouts or above because it used to meet some of your needs such as finding material for tindering or putting on the open fire.

It's not always enough to just find and drag it back to camp though because it may need to be cut or have any bark removed.

Here the Scouts are using a simple cross-cut  hand saw to remove the bark to making cutiing this branch into logs much easier.

Camp food prep

The pack and its leader are altogether at on logs that are like improvised benches armed with the pans and billy cans ready to chop and peel food into in groups ready to go on the big fire to cook their meal.

Fresh food stuffs are generally speaking much healthier so provided you get from on location it makes sense to use them preparing yourself which is also a skill worth teaching through scouting even if it is just how to peel and cut carrots and potatoes. 

Gathering in the wood

Here we have a boy on wood fetching duty which no doubt was cut into chunks using the axe before and a small fire started which naturally enough everyone has gathered around for a warm although I think the appeal of a fire goes beyond that most useful property somehow.

UK current Scouting Sections

Members of the Scouting family come in all shapes and sizes, a fact all to often people do forget.

The current UK scouting family is divided into sections by age although as with any family there are transitional arrangements as people move up and are taken on.

Beavers (6–8) 

Cubs (8-10½)

Scouts (10½–14) 

Explorer Scouts (14–18)

Scout Network (18-25)

Bear Grylls OBE

Today in Her Majesties birthday honours, Bear Grylls, television personality and Chief Scout of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for services to young people, the media and charity.
Upon being asked about what he thought about it he said "I really do feel it's a team effort, this award is for every one of those incredible Scout volunteers."
As this blogs author I would like to congratulate him for all his work not least in raising the profile of Scouting here in the UK and inspiring countless children and young adults to get involved in this excellent movement.

Our French Camp

Camping need not be confined to your own country while obviously age does come into it such as here where these scouts are on the French coast surveying the beach scene.

Travel it is often said, broadens the mind and certainly there are ample opportunities to do such things as learn and practice basic communication such as using the local language (an aside I did speak French while in Juniors), learn about the history and geography of  a country as well as wildlife and the environment.

Such opportunities for children and young people I feel are priceless.

Summer sing a long

The circle has been made where the resources for the boys fire will be kept as they sit for an impromptu performance while they have fun one with his Duck plushie - plushies are a thing I like too actually - with a nice warm sheepskin fleece on the ground and a cowboy styled stetson hat with a wide brim on top of it.

While I never had a sheepskin with me on the times I've been out camping I am assuming it's to avoid grazing their knees if they needed to kneel such as for making a fire up at night.

The pack takes it salute

Here we are all turned out looking fairly traditional in our cotton dress shirt with the arms neatly rolled up and shorts all making our Scout Salute.

Sometimes we hear from various folk in policy institutes that such things as compliance with a strict uniform, showing signs of  acceptance of authority and even being prepared to stand out are things today's young people don't do, feeling less than cool.

All I can say seeing the number that are, the number of youngsters on the books waiting to join is actually they do because they sense the value of belonging to an organization and family unit such as Scouting that is prepared to train the up to look after themselves and be useful, hard working members of the community.

Wolf Cubs in action

Sometimes I go on about what it feels like to emulate the Wolf Cub in Spirit on this blog which in some ways is shown in the image used for this 1958 edition of the Sixer Annual.

Wolf Cubs were the original eight through ten and a half section of the Scouting Association before the changes of 1967 that saw the creation of Cub Scouts and some changes in units.

Some seem to think Wolf Cubs was just an evening a week in a hut playing games while earning badges but all that that was directed toward an appropriate level of real Scouting for Boys such as in this 1964 photograph of Wolf Cubs cooking lunch in the field using the skills they had learnt.

Scout Network

Scouting has always had a place for those who were older beginning in 1918 with the establishment of Rover Scouts and to which originally the progress badges were very similar to that of the Scout section and they were able to achieve and wear the Rambler badge as well as the Rovering Instructor badge.
The badge range was extensively reduced in the 1930's.

In 1956 as part of an attempt to maintain the popularity of Rover Scouts, the Scouts Association introduced a new program and organization, Queen Scouts, with new badges and the highest award was the the Baden-Powell Award.
The minimum age was fixed at 17 years and while originally no upper limit was set later on 24 years of age became it.

In the late 1960's Rovering was replaced by Venture Scouts which is something I recall from being with my brother, that in turn got replaced by Explorer Scouts.

Today the Scout Network established in 2003 replaces completely all of that for 18 to 25 year olds and here we have a 20 year old scout joining and enjoying scouting.

The Rovering program has been kept by traditional scouting groups such as the Baden-Powell Scouts' Association. To qualify for the Baden-Powell Award, a Rover must gain the Rambler (cloth version), Project (renamed from Progress badge), Scoutcraft Star and Service Training Star. Rovers are also entitled to wear Interpreter emblems of the specialized language

The 100th post of Scouting and Me

Today marks the one hundreth post on this Blogger form of my Tumblr that in a number of ways is more the full expression of what can be summed up in its very title, Scouting and Me.
It goes back to December of last year with finding I was blogging a number of images and accompanying text concerning Scouting in its differing forms I began to realize it really needed a spot of its own focused just on that.
A lot of it is to do with the role of Scouting in my childhood which was a running sore in my life as a disabled boy who saw his brothers going off to Cubs or Scouts as with my older one, coming back with tales, even sometimes helping them out with things to do with it but inexplicably and with no fault at all to the Scouting Association at the time, my parents never ever considered approaching the local Scouts and getting me in even though amazingly enough when you look at the information that was available from them, they were very inclusive at the time and certainly would of had me.
While I did in other forms get some opportunities to do some activities that cubs and scouts would of done together nontheless it wasn't the same because actually I wanted to live to the same principals and that Cub Promise they had made and as I got older I began to see the difference it had made to others.
When as with certain aspects of my disabilities became more obvious in a good number of ways I still was very much the same boy, the odd more grown up interest aside I began to explore more the notion of what it was I liked about that point and from that did dress more younger.
It was little accident that upon finding folded up neatly my brothers cub scout uniform that I did begin to wear parts of it aided by being short and relatively thinly built, seeing myself as that Cub who could of been right down to the green garters while also wearing the shorts I'd been abruptly taken out of as started to get toward being fourteen.
To me had I of gone to see an Akela or Skip around that time I feel that they would not of encouraged me to go on moping or carry on with a regret for it but rather to explore and live in the spirit of that Cub doing things in more age appropriate roles that still tied to it so while I would not of had the experiences I so long for, I'd of experienced the feelings of learning to explore and grow up in in my limited capacities.
As the years have gone by I have accepted my child-like nature that comes from having developmental disabilities that leave me more as a child and through that become a Wolf Cub in spirit exploring his environment, finding out about his community learning to be a asset to it and being the very best most independent boy I can
That takes me on in this special post to the third thing about this blog which is to say that it is apologetically in favour of Scouting For Boys, supporting Scouting for today's boys (and girls) for the benefits, values and skills it brings to them that cannot be found in sometimes more superficially attractive commercial activities.
Thus it's not just a nostalgia for a past that scouting had a place in or just the alignment with the spirit of that as a kind of relearning through age regression of the skills and building of missed experiences but the endorsement of a system of helping to raise a healthy, active and responsible community starting from children upward to the next generation so they are well prepared to take on adulthood.
That is what this blog is about so while it may not be the most prolific in terms of posts made, I feel it has a great value.

A different kind of camping.

Although this isn't in my own experience here we have a Scout Cruise Ship which to me looks more like  a tent on floating structure where these three older scouts have popped out one morning while the middle one is attending to his uniform before they consider the day's activities.

These may involve being on land or travelling in this structure further down the river to an agreed rendezvous point.

The nearest I ever got to something like that is spending four days on a narrow boat being expected to help out.