I learned a lot from Scouting. Started as a Cub Scout, then joined Webelos, then the Boy Scouts.

Girls and making money took priority over my time around age 14, so I never made Eagle Scout. But what I learned up until then I still use today.

How to find a place to camp if you’re caught out in the woods. How to find fuel for and build a fire. How to forage and hunt for food. How to tie knots.

These were just some of the things Scout leaders taught me and the other members of my den.

That’s what they call the group of boys in the Cub Scouts. My mom and Ricky Walraven’s mom were our den mothers.

Translation: they had to do everything to keep us occupied and entertained. It was their responsibility to keep activities going.

When it came to camping though, our dad’s were brought in.

We’d go to Albert Pike or to the Little River and set up camp. Each of us had a pup tent (never was sure why they called it that. I wasn’t allowed to take my dog with me), sleeping bag, and a bag of supplies.

I still have a bonafide Scouting pocketknife and had a cooking and utensil kit. The kit unfolded and had a handle. You could cook over a fire with it and then use the fork, spoon, and knife to eat right out of it.

I remember one camping trip where the dad’s tried to get us to break for supper, but we were so busy running around in the woods we wouldn’t stop. When we finally came back after dark, they’d put the food away and told us we’d have to fend for ourselves.

We found a loaf of bread and used sticks to make toast over the fire. We were so hungry; we thought that was the best tasting bread we’d ever eaten.

It rained one night on another camping trip. The men were complaining that the water repellent tents they’d bought weren’t. We learned some new words that night.

The Scouting books had all kinds of projects in them that helped us earn merit badges.

Camping, canoeing, fire safety, backpacking, studying birds, sustainability, and collecting were just a few of the things we learned.

Things that would stick with and serve us well long after we no longer could fit into our scouting uniforms.

It wasn’t just what I learned in Scouting that helped me the rest of my life, it’s what I learned in all aspects of my upbringing that’s made a positive difference.

Growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, almost all kids (boys and girls) were tutored in the basics. Your parents, grandparents, teachers, fellow church members, and others, made sure that they shared with you what they knew.

My dad taught me about coin collecting and pocket watches. One of my grandfathers was a blacksmith. The other did lawn care. They all taught me things I still use today.

In high school, the girls took home economics and the boys had shop class.

Girls learned to cook and manage a household. Boys learned woodworking, welding, and more.

I remember when I first moved out to the country to the homestead my wife and I maintain now, I had a small riding lawnmower and was trying to mow five acres with it. The soil was sandy and the back wheels buried themselves.

A neighbor who’d lived in the country his whole life stopped and helped me get it unstuck.

“Son,” he said. “If you’re going to live in the country, you’d better own a tractor and you’d better know how to weld.”

He was right. I bought a tractor soon after that.

Even as a grown man, I was still learning. I still am.

If I could wave a magic wand today, I’d bring back home economics and shop class. Not just one for girls and the other for boys, but for all students. I’d make sure schools taught kids to balance a checkbook, change a flat tire, work on a lawnmower, learn to negotiate to buy a car, and how to save for a rainy day. And I’d make Scouting available for kids of all ages.

We’d all be better off if we all swore to do our duty, for God and our country, to be square, and to obey the laws of the pack.

 

©2024 John Moore

John’s books, Puns for Groan People and Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, are available on his website TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message.