From: Dr. Charles Goodwin (doc236@erinet.com)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 11:19:59 CST
John,
I am in total agreement with this. Adults and youth should be treated absolutely the same. If anyone gets the special treatment, I believe very strongly, it should be the youth. Scouting is really for them, not for the adults. There merely give us the opportunity to be big kids and get to do all of the exciting acitivities. Actually at Baldy Town during our trip in 2000, it was cloudy and there was not enough water for everyone to shower. Our youth all got a quick shower but the adults did not until the next day. There was a great deal of water being wasted with people doing laundry with the water running wide open, rather than using the water efficiently so that everyone could enjoy a quick shower.
Charles Goodwin, MD, Scoutmaster Troop 236 Kettering, Ohio
----- Original Message -----
From: Johnlebl@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 11:09 AM
Subject: [Philmont]: A Scout is clean
<< Despite the water shortages, I'm proud to say that we went 8 days
without shower facilities because we HAD to, but all of our guys remembered
the addage, "A Scout is Clean". We made full use of the water we did have
at camps.....>>
It was at Apache Springs.........quite a water shortage, but at Apache we had our layover. The schedule called for "showers". The staff told us there was not enough water for showers. The lead advisor whined enough so that the staff finally relented. Said "OK, advisors only, no youth."
Out lead advisor and his wife jumped on it and showered. I refused to on the premise "if the youth can't then I'm not going to". I remember the days when I was the Scout and someone else, my Scoutmaster, did likewise. It's the principle of the thing.
I would never ask a youth to do anything I would not do nor would I do anything that a youth couldn't do. I'm not one to hang around the advisors lounge, but I am not critical of those who do. It's just not the way I lead. I don't drink coffee, so I have an advantage over those who need their cup of java.
I did manage to pursuade the staff at Apache Springs into giving us some fresh oranges and apples.
We went back to our campsite and I helped the crew rig a privacy curtain and took turns enjoying out bucket baths in about a quart of warm water each. We had a coed crew and they got to practice their social skills of respectability to each other during the process.
After we all took our bath in a bucket, we fired up our "fire ban campfire" as one youth called the Whisperlite and proceeded to boil the cut up apples. After adding some sugar and red hots we dribbled in globs of dough for dumplings and had warm apple dumplings on a cool evening around the "fire ban campfire" stove and reveled in our cleanliness.
The lead advisor and his wife came back and made the mistake of telling some of the crew members how good the shower felt. He knew nothign about the rest of us taking warm bucket baths. They weren't bragging or being tacky, just being themselves......well maybe it was kinda tacky. One of the crew spoke up and told him she preferred the warm bath in a bucket to a cold shower "but maybe you need a cold shower" to the laughter of all the youth. Kids don't miss a thing and they don't forget either.
Anyway, I thought nothing more about it until a few weeks ago when I got a Christmas card from one of the crew who lives in another town. Inside it was a little note to me telling me "I did not know you well at all until at Apache Springs when you refused to take a shower because we couldn't and then you helped us rig up the "camp shower". That is when I saw what kind of a leader you were. Thanks for being the kind of man you are and I hope to be someday."
That Christmas card note meant a lot to me. Evidently my actions at Apache Springs meant a lot to that crew member.
It's not about what we do, but about how we go about doing it.
John LeBlanc
Eagle Class of 1959
Phirst Phil Ptrek 1959
PhilTrek 2002 630H2 Trek 16
My latest adventure was yesterday,
Today is not over yet!
-------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu Mar 13 2003 - 10:37:58 CST