Wednesday, August 01, 2007

My Scouting Career

I was a scout once. I didn't enjoy it one bit.
Posted by Bryan Appleyard at 7:56 am

13 comments:

  1. NigeAugust 01, 2007 9:19 am

    I was too and I didn't either. However, seeing the throngs of foreign Scouts milling about all over the country at the moment, I'm rather pleased to see that some countries have kept the rather fetching bush hat. As a mildly hat-fixated blog, I think we should salute that, if nothing else.

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  2. Bryan AppleyardAugust 01, 2007 9:32 am

    I didn't know you were a scout. Did you have any badges? And, yes indeed, the hat, a fine thing.

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  3. NigeAugust 01, 2007 10:09 am

    I only remember that I was what is called a Tenderfoot an embarrassingly long time, that the one summer camp I attended (deep in west Wales) was among the most wretched experiences of my life, and that I was 'at Scouts' when the news of JFK's assassination came through (this was, of course, the day before the equally memorable debut of Dr Who on BBC TV). I can also tell you that, among firewoods, 'apple burns well with a sweet smell' - and I can tie a rather advanced knot called the Fisherman's Knot. It's oddly useful (unlike the applewood information).

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  4. Richard HaversAugust 01, 2007 11:08 am

    I was at Scouts when the news of JKF's assination came through! Nige am I you? Are you me?

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  5. Ian russellAugust 01, 2007 11:23 am

    I was set to go into the Combined Cadet Force but a man came around to our house and persuaded me to try the Scouts instead. I am grateful to that man - his name was Terry. Thanks, Terry!
    No badges, (keep your stinkin' badges) but some great times. I don't know what there wasn't to like but I suppose there is bad in every organization.

    Did you get your gullibility badge? ;o)

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  6. NigeAugust 01, 2007 12:33 pm

    I wouldn't mind being you Richard, that's for sure - a vastly better name. Even better than Richard Madeley.
    (Incidentally, we can be sure that if the JFK assassination (or equivalent) happened now, the BBC wouldn't be showing the 1st episode of Dr Who (or equivalent) the next day - it would be wall-to-wall news on all channels for several days. Remember Diana...)

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  7. Richard HaversAugust 01, 2007 3:01 pm

    Back then the BBC only had the one O/B camera and it was being used in filming the sequence in the quarry, so they couldn't cover things in Dallas as well.

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  8. James HighamAugust 01, 2007 6:41 pm

    Was it the gay scoutmasters, Bryan?

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  9. James HighamAugust 01, 2007 6:42 pm

    Nige, was that "throngs of foreign Scouts"? Surely there is an extra "r" in there.

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  10. AnonymousAugust 02, 2007 1:58 am

    My son is a scout but he's not really into it. Daddy is pushing him to be a leader of men, but son wants to be a lover of women and there's no women on these scout trips. Mark does like the weaponry though. Especially the trebuchet they built, then loaded with jack o' lanterns they'd stuffed with hay and set aflame, and launched into the middle of someone's afternoon tea party which happened to be in their range. They wrecked a table and got the scoutmaster in trouble, though I think he also kinda wished he'd been part of it.

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  11. NigeAugust 02, 2007 11:59 am

    That sounds like my kind of scouting, Susan. No trebuchets in my day, worse luck.

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  12. AnonymousAugust 02, 2007 10:05 pm

    i bet you learned some valuable skills, though: how to start fires, how to distinguish between birds & squirrels, how to heat baked beans in the wild, how to organise a well-armed cadre, how to deploy interlocking fields of supressing fire with heavy machine guns, etc. - all this will come in use one day. i didn't go to the Scouts, so had to learn it all the hard way.

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