The Boy Scout Oath
Filed under
Hiking & Backpacking
I found some great old Boy Scout cigarette cards from the early 20′s that made me think about our current culture and how it tries to beat the things that once made us strong out of us.
Sadly, we live in a time where the biggest adventure most kids will experience is sitting in front of a T.V. watching someone else experience the outdoors. It really is a shame that more parents don’t encourage their kids to experience the adventures that were once a part of daily life.
The Boy Scout Oath:
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Boy Scout Knot Techniques:
How to Splice Rope Together:
An Emergency Water Filter
Boy Scout Techniques and Skills
Thank you for this post!
I’d never seen “Cigarette Cards” before, and isn’t it just a sign of the way times change that these seem to have been intended for Boy Scouts!
I’m a scout leader and I appreciate and agree with your view of kids/parents today….
I grew up running the hills, and while my boy doesn’t do much of that with us living in the suburbs, he certainly gets his opportunity to camp just about every month!
It makes my proud to know that he can handle himself so well in the woods, taking care of most of his needs and working to do more! (He’s just twelve, but he’s a heck of a cook!)
Thanks again!
Tim
Troop 44
Collinsville, OK
Thanks for stopping by Tim! It’s good to see that their are still parents out there who are instilling values and teaching their kids outdoor skills.
Have to agree with Tim. Both my children learned to camp hike in the woods, fish and the fundamentals of shooting. Son now an Eagle Scout. Daughter spent her spring lashing together a raised sleeping platform in the woods, felling her own wood.
They could handle themselves in most situations, unlike a lot of their contemporaries
I have two Eagle Scouts and my husband several years later is still Scoutmaster of the Troop. The skills this program teaches boys are so valuable in todays world. If you have sons I highly recommend Boy Scouts and if you don’t buy a Scout handbook and Fieldbook for your survival library. Great wealth of information in both books.
These are really cool and I to have never seen these before.
I wonder if the Boy Scouts emergency water filter up above could still be used in this day and age with all the polutants that are found in the water?
When I was younger I was heavily involved in Boy Scouts in all it’s aspects (Week long camps, National, Council and OA) Now that I am older I long for the times when I can do that stuff again. If Boy Scouts taught me anything it was 2 things.
1. Love the outdoors and treat it with respect
2. Be prepared
Both things I think your website reflects.
Thanks!
@mike
Yes the water filter will still work as long as you use non-standing water like a fast moving stream. If it’s still non-moving water you run the risk of having large animal fecal matter decomposing in it.
Personally I’d boil it as it’s easier to do but if I couldn’t start a fire that’s an option.
As a Scout Leader, I’d have to agree. The biggest challenge many of us face is xbox, wii, etc. Getting the boys off the couch and into the woods can be a challenge.
Those that do make the leap, love it. There’s something innately appealing about camping, hiking, fire building, etc.
My son and I recently completed a 50 mile bike ride in just over 7 hours for one of his merit badges. The things he learned about himself during that ride can never be replaced or forgotten. He was pushed to his limit a couple of times, yet kept going. Character was built; confidence was gained. You don’t get that on the couch.
Joe
My 2 brothers were Eagle Scouts as was I. I remember going out into the woods camping and learning how to live off the land as a preteen and teenager. As I look back – Philmont Scout ranch, Order of the Arrow and Summer Scout camp were priceless experiences that have helped me with life. I served 23 years and 8 months in the USAF and worked with Force Recon Marines and US Army Special Forces and I can honestly say that my scouting skills learned when I was a kid gave me a huge advantage in trainng because believe it or not the military teaches those same skills. I learned them when I was 12 – 14 years old. Yea Boy Scouts was the bomb!
just interesting that they were on cigarett packs,makes you say huuuumm
Well, back then, you didn’t have everyone trying to make you not do something for your own good. Scouts didn’t smoke and the info was a service. C-rations used to have cigarettes in them. They removed them, but guess what? Didn’t stop the troops from smoking. Signs of the times I guess.
If only young boys today were as good at knot-tying, camping, cooking, and hiking as they are adept at posting on Facebook and playing Halo!
As an Eagle Scout and now Cub scout leader it saddens me to see so many parents raising Sheeple instead of fostering individualism and strength in our youth. Electronic babysitters (xbox, PC, Gameboy, iPod, etc) are no sustitute for dirt, blood and outdoor adventures. Having travelled around the world to some very bad places, I can’t tell you how many times my BSA skills have come into play both in the survival aspect as well as medical.
My 8yo son and 13yo daughter continue to learn about the outdoors and about being tough blooded Americans cause that’s the proper way to raise kids…
My brother was in the cubs for a while,which is what the little boys were in before they were old enough to go into scouts, but never went into the scouts, while and my sisters were in the Brownies, which I guess is the equivalent, of Americas girl scouts. It was a time they lost its appeal in England, but I guess it all depended on where you were. As youngsters you enjoyed everything but they werent as active in England as they tended to be in this country. My fathers cigarettes had cards in each packet, they used to vary in lots of subjects. He used to give them to me to collect and I had a bunch growing up, from Naval ships, movie stars, athletes, cowboys to boy scouts and everything in between. I cant remember when they stopped putting cards in the packets, but the packets were very small. My father smoked Park Drive.
These are an interesting bit of Americana, but I wouldn’t blame parents so much for not encouraging scouting. I’d say that BSA failed our youth when it sold out to evangelicals and Mormons and made scouting less about fun, adventure, and skills, and made it more about church indoctrination.
When this happened, it lost its appeal to our youth, and parents stopped encouraging it if the local troop was run by the “wrong” denomination.
I remember scouting when I was young (the ’70s), and there was none of this. It was just good clean fun and adventure without people trying to convert and indoctrinate. When I took my boy in the ’90s, it was like a fundamentalist church camp – and we, apparently, were from the “wrong” church.
I was an assistant scout master for a time, but was told that my religious views (which I never shared with the kids) might be “confusing” and send “mixed messages”.
BSA needs to get back to its roots if it wants to be relevant to our youth or it will continue its slip into obscurity. Of course, it doesn’t help that, increasingly, Scout leaders just don’t know how to do those things we would like our kids to be learning, and even when they do, fear of lawsuits makes most Scout activities too diluted to be fun or valuable.
My grandson (now 14), my son and myself were all involved in scouting. For all of us it was the best teacher and best experience we ever could have had. In my grandson’s troop there was never any type of religious indoctrination at all, except for “A Scout is reverent.” and I don’t consider one of the Scout laws as indoctrination. Tom, I think that you hit a bad troop. They are not all like that.
My experience in the early 90s was similar to what Tom described. I left the scouts early. The youth needs to learn love of the outdoors and to be prepared, but without the mind-control.