What did you learn in Scouting?

I learned how to not be afraid.

Before Scouts I was afraid of a lot of stuff. Now, this is typically true of most young children and whether or not we are Scouts, we typically grow out of many of those childhood fears. But I know that my time in Scouting included getting up in front of a group (SPL), having to explain (telling the truth) about why things are bad (PL) and how to handle myself and behave in new situations (summer camp).

I ended up having very little stage fright by the time I graduated from high school.

I attribute that to Scouting.

I also learned how to find my way around. As Clarke said in a former post, many of had quite a bit of freedom on our bicycles when we were young. But those trips always started at home and returned to home.

Scouting campouts taught me to learn to focus on where I was, even when I wasn’t sure (after a two hour drive) exactly how to return all the way home. It wasn’t until I turned 16 and started to drive that all that fully came together in my mind. At summer camp, I was always the one out front leading the way to the archery range and the dining hall and the trading post, because most of the Scouts were lost the first three days of camp.

I learned how to talk to and work with adults who weren’t my parents.

Students back then did not “work with” teachers.

Teachers taught. From way up front. We worked with Scout leaders. We approached them, asked questions and received valuable answers. We went into the outdoors and basically worked through the same situations without the adults having a lot of special privileges. That fostered working together. My Scout leaders were not “my friends” exactly or pals but they were approachable and helpful.

I learned how to have fun without a whole bunch of illicit stuff. We did not need a lot of cursing, smoking, drinking, drug dealing and other unsavory activities to have a blast. To have a blast most all the time. At least in my opinion.

Fortunately, I’ve avoided almost all of the illicit things that my generation embraced and I’ve been better off for it.

I learned how to cook and how to swim. At summer camp.

After starting cooking MB at camp, I returned home and cooked a seven course meal, on an open fire in my back yard for my whole family one day.

Bread, beverage, main course, veggies, dessert, etc. My mom and brothers still remember that.

I learned how to swim in Lake Norris off the end of the concrete dock.

I learned how when a swimming counselor noticed that a fully functional, 14 year old, Florida native, male, could barely keep himself on top of the water. I’m no swim team guy but in a week I learned valuable strokes and lifesaving techniques (survival floating) that have helped me all through my life around the water.

I eventually earned my Lifesaving badge and later on in life became a Red Cross certified Lifeguard.

I learned the Scout Oath and Law.

I amazed my self at my son’s first scout meeting when I realized that I still knew them both after all those years. I’m a Florida boy, born and bred.

I still live here and I love it. But, through Scouting, I learned about a wonderful place.

Western North Carolina.

During my ninth grade summer my troop embarked on a fifty mile hike through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We started at Cades Cove and headed up to Newfound Gap. We never made it to the Gap and over but it was a great trip.

Since we got off the trail early, we went back to our campsite in Townsend, TN and spent the last three days playing in the Little River.

I took my family back there the next two summers and we had a blast.

During that time I loved the area so much I jumped at a chance to go to Montreat for some conferences for several weeks each summer through high school.

Because of those experiences I signed up for summer staff at a place called YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, NC, right across the valley from Montreat. It was at Blue Ridge that I met my one and only love, my wife Carol. That will be 40 years ago, June 12. I’ve learned that being a Scout was fun and cool, but I’ve learned that being an adult leader with my sons is even more fun. I’ve been back to the AT five times with my sons (each time completing a full 50 miles I’ve been to Camp Daniel Boone in NC with both son’s about eight times. I’ve learned, after about 50 years since I first joined, that I don’t want to be doing anything else and that I’m sort of stuck in this Scouting thing. That’s good.