Basic Training 1st Time.
Scouting has not always been a major part of my life. I was a Blazer Scout Leader in Primary when I was 17 before I received my Eagle and have the feeling the reson was so that I would somehow be made to have a desire to get it while setting an example to the youth in the Blazer Patrol. (There was never a problem of having a desire to get it just a lack of swimming ability.) I was an Eagle Scout thanks to a dedicated Scoutmaster Brother Ray Hansen and a loving Committee Member Sister Caldwell. I did do some in college thanks to Brother Findlay as he asked me to help with merit badge Pow Wow sat the college and then later in the 4th ward after I was married I was called as a Webelos Leader and later Cubmaster. It was something that I had fun with mainly because I wanted the boys to have fun and knew that if they were going to I had to be having fun as well. I did know from my youth the importance of Scouting in the lives of boys but it hadn’t really become a passion UNTIL I attended Basic Training.
I was second counselor in the 4th ward Bishopric responsible for the scouting program. I had a great Scoutmaster Bruce Palmer, Marie’s cousin, so I didn’t feel the crunch of doing much about it. Even our cub program was running pretty well. But my mind kept getting in my way and telling me that I really ought to be learning what I was supposed to do. (Also Brother Findlay kept asking if I had been to Woodbadge yet.) So I finally signed up for Basic Training. I felt totally out of my element and was very nervous about my scouting skills but was assigned to a patrol which we later named the Quacker Patrol. I have no idea anymore why we decided on that name but I am sure it was due to one sister in the patrol who suggested it and made it stick. We had a lot of fun for the next three weeks as we grew close together as a patrol and performed fairly well in all of the events. I learned a lot about scouting protocol and organization. I learned the value of scout committees and Key Scouter meetings, which I had been holding but not using to their full potential. I learned the importance of putting the s from scouting at the end of the word instead of the beginning to find the real value for boys, outings. We spent a lot of time discussing the committees and how to help them function so as to prevent burnout in the Scoutmaster and Cubmaster positions. We played a lot of what I had thought to be silly games until we associated them with boys and what we could teach boys by using them. I remember having won the fire starting contest and receiving a big wooden match (12 inches long) that had to hang from our staves. My stave was a short crutch like piece of wood that I had cut for a stake road show in which I played a Lepricon and had to have a short stick for the part so that match was a bit overwhelming for it. Later between weeks we had a ward father’s and son’s campout at Jolley’s Ranch so I took a hike up onto the hill and found a worthy piece of wood for a better stave for the rest of the training. That second stave later became my history stick as I carved it and labeled my positions in scouting. Our overnight campout was a great experience that introduced me again to Dutch oven cooking. Dad had been a great cook with Dutch oven’s but I really hadn’t picked up the skill too well from him. It was fun to see them in use again and find out how easy it was to cook with one of them. (Later at woodbadge we did most of our evening meals in Dutch ovens and after that I was hooked. I now have at least 9 of varying sizes and get to use them once in a while.)
I will always appreciate that experience and later the experiences of being on staff several times and being the Scout Master several times as well and taking a lot of pride in finding those who were timid as I had been and making them feel extra welcome in the training. I also ended up staffing three or four Varsity Basic Training courses as well. Some of those I will write about later.
