Just ponderin'

[Pine]

I was just sitting here remembering how when I was a kid and I was in the Boy Scouts.  I got my first backpack and I had to see just how much stuff I could get in it.
I don't know how heavy it was but I had more outdoor stuff in there than I could possibly need.
Those campouts were so much fun and it seemed like a competition with who had the heaviest pack.
After I had been in the Scouts about a year, I discovered that I could go without most of the equipment that I used to pack. I think I figured that out after the first five mile hike.
Over the years I learned to improvise, like making cooking utensils like tongs or a spit to cook on. And guess what, I didn't need a machete or a cross cut saw.
I don't know what brought that up, but I think back on those days and I get a chuckle out of it.
Buy the time I was 17, I worked at a Boy Scout camp as a pioneering instructor.
I would enjoy watching the green kids with there enormous back packs.
And every week I had at least one young man that truly wanted to learn how to tie knots and  lash. But this one young man  really stands out, he was so grateful for me teaching him about pioneering, that he made me a chair. It was like a dining room chair, all lashed together with a woven seat and back. It was awsom and it wasn't his final exam test to build something.  He did that on his free time and I didn't see it until he was heading home and he gave it to me.
I have to admit, I was dumbfounded by that. It was my job to teach that class, he didn't owe me a thing.
So now I'm old and gray, and no more young people that have the slightest interest to learn anything that I could teach about the outdoors. I find things on the internet about how to do things and I'm just dumbfounded by how complicated things have been made that are so simple. It's like a ritual with some things,  like making char cloth or rope.
I see the same thing with archery. It gets over thought so much. And people shoot with there head and wonder why they have target panic and stuff like that.
Oh well, I'm just an ornery old curmudgeon,  pay no attention to me......

[Deno]

Just wait Dale....It get's worse as we get older.   

Deno

[GCook]

Pine, the BSA is not the organization it used to be.  Those skills are still valuable to those who enjoy those pursuits but to most it holds no call for them.
Just in the 13 years I spent as a scout leader the changes in society and morality are devastating the organization and abandoning those values once held in esteem by most people.
However crying over spilt milk does no one any good.  And there are a few youth left that love the outdoors.  Even if they'd rather use a bic lighter and processed fire starter over char cloth they are still worth giving the time and benefit of your experience and wisdom.
However I'm looking in a different direction than scouts for my grandsons.
From Discover on Google https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/23/boy-scouts-of-americas-bankrupt-moral-standards-em/

[Wudstix]

I too recall the days of backpacking with 50-60# packs for a week hike.  Now the race is on to get below 30# for a similar hike.  Going again in September for another section of the AT with my brothers and best friend.  Might eventually get crazy and do a through hike with brother #2.

                            

[stevem]

I have great memories of scouts, particulary camp in the mountains.  Telling and hearing scary stories around the fire at night, then having to go to your dark tent!  It is where I learned the proper way to shoot a bow.  I then asked for a bow for Christmas and Santa delivered a straight longbow with fiberglass backing.  This was some 50 years ago.   

[GCook]

I took two groups to Philmont and a 50lb pack was a really light one.

[Horserod]

  I earned my Eagle Scout Award in 1964.  Worked at the local Boy Scout Camp.  Learned to drive with the 1952 Chevy pickup that belonged to the camp Ranger.  Those were the days...……     Horserod