From: Herb Dulzo (hadulzo@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 21:35:06 CST
Plenty of shakedown hikes with a few in the rain will week out the
home-bodies.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of Dr. Bob Klein
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 8:41 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: Boys Who Aren't Interested
If there are any hard and fast "rules" about Crew composition, it's that
you should *never* take a Scout to Philmont who is being forced to go by
his parents, against his wishes. Yes, there are some happy outcomes -
but far more commonly, it's an absolute Crew-busting disaster. As John
LeBlanc has pointed out, some boys have actually intentionally injured
themselves to get off the trail. Others have feigned injuries or
illness, "lost" prescription medications, broken their backpacks or
"lost" some other vital piece of their equipment (e.g., boots),
adamantly refused to participate in activities or duty roster
responsibilities, refused to get up, refused to hike, criminally (!!!)
sabotaged their Crew's bear-safety precautions, secretly thrown their
Crew's food or equipment away, fought with their fellow Scouts or - Good
God Almighty! - attacked their Advisors.
Someday we'll probably have a book entitled: "True Confessions of a
Philmont Chaplain" - it will likely make for a riveting read.
I will relay some personal history to make a point - on each of my
"Scout" treks (1972, 1973), we had such an individual. In 1972, BION,
it was the Crew Chief - an utterly useless individual who was good at
playing cards and telling jokes, and nothing else. I eventually
replaced him (by unanimous Crew vote) after our highly perplexed and
eventually highly frustrated Advisor had had enough. He later Tetrox'd
himself in a failed effort to get off the trail. In 1973, it was the
one of the biggest kids on our 17 man Crew, who complained long and loud
about everything, all day long, and intentionally broke his own and
later Crew equipment. Two of my primary jobs as Crew Chief was carrying
most of his stuff and preventing the rest of the guys from killing him.
At one point, carrying nothing but an empty and broken backpack (I
was likely carrying 75 pounds plus), he dropped on the trail and refused
to continue. Our Advisor went absolutely ballistic, and he quickly
decided that hiking on was preferable to being murdered in place by a
very large and apparently insanely enraged adult. BION, he finished the
trek; my Advisor actually (and seriously) offered me his Arrowhead patch
(I refused).
The point? On those (sadly) now rare occasions that I chat with any of
my fellow Scouts from those treks, one of our most dominant memories,
the topic that STILL ALWAYS comes up (and not by me), are these two
losers. They negatively impacted our treks, and have negatively
impacted our memories ever since. Fortunately, minus these two, I had
otherwise marvelous experiences in '72 and '73. But the bad memories
have also endured. The only silver lining to having to endure these
two, was knowing to make sure this never happened to any of the 8 trips
(11 Crews) for which I have been the Primary Advisor. I learned why the
hard way.
Anyway, don't ever let this happen to you. Please! Hear the lesson
here: A Scout who doesn't want to go to Philmont - mommy and daddy's
opinions notwithstanding - is almost certainly going to be a millstone
around your Crew's neck. Leave them home - they'll be ecstatic, and
(much more importantly) you will have protected the rest of your Crew's
Philmont experiences. Mommy and daady won't be happy, but believe me,
it's worth the grief.
Been there, done that, got the mental scars to prove it.
- Dr. Bob
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-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
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