Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975 Page: 43
68 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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try to be enthusiastic about his sports
life, though it is hard for me.
Publishing this story is a direct slap
at parents who try to interest their
sons in the arts. Think of the reinforce-
ment of all those unnecessary feelings
of young boys that music is a woman's
domain, and the further implication that
those women who learn it and teach it
are odd, bizarre, freaky. I'll bet you
have done at least one boy out of the
joy he might have felt in playing piano
in arousing in him the fear of being la-
beled a sissy-freak.
Particularly obnoxious to me is the
paragraph beginning "Many beautiful
changes occur within a girl as she
gradually blooms from childhood to
womanhood. If she's a piano freak, one
of the most beautiful changes is that
she slowly, but almost always, gives
up playing the piano." I have done
some entertaining, playing at senior
citizens' organizations, and schools,
and have been very glad to be able to
bring the joy of music to people. My
ability to play has opened many doors
to me, and I have been able to meet
people I never would have met had I
not been able to play.
I pity John R. Powers in his apparent
shutting off from his life something
which could bring him much satisfac-
tion, and I censure him for contributing
to the same feeling in the Scouts who
might read his "cute" little piece.
I won't forgive you until I see an arti-
cle or a story which presents the op-
posite point of view. My September is-
sue of Scouting goes straight to the
garbage after I address the envelope,
and before my son reads the story.
June L. Revi
Highland Park, III.
In John Powers' defense, we really
don't think that he intended to put
down piano teachers or suggest that
music lessons are a waste of time. He
was just whimsically recalling his own
experience at home when he was a
youngster. Apparently his sister had so
little ability that she might better have
turned her talents to poetry, or art, at
which she might have shown some
promise. Perhaps what he was also
suggesting is that there is enough
mediocrity in the world to go around,
and that we shouldn't overburden it
with more.
Brownsea. I enjoyed Paul Dunn's arti-
cle, "All Out for Scouting," in the Oc-
tober issue. It looks good enough to
try — especially since Bill Hillcourt
had his hand in developing the pro-
gram.
But two things in the story puzzled
me. I know that Brownsea Island is
where Scouting began. But, what does
the expression Brownsea Double-Two
mean? And what do the letters "BA"
mean on all those patrol flags pictured
in the story?
Joe Vertanian
Long Island, N.Y.
We're glad you asked about Double-
Two. It refers to Baden-Powell's birth-
day, which is February 22 and also to
the 22 people involved in B-P's first
Brownsea Island experience. The "BA"
escaped us, too. It is an abbreviation
for Brownsea
WORTH
RETELUNG
Staying Power. A couple of years
ago, Ted Pritchard, American Oil Co.
employee in Yorktown, Va., signed up
as Scoutmaster for a troop of retarded
boys. Since then the boys have grown
older, and their thoughts have turned
from Scouting to jobs. And so Mr.
Pritchard has turned from Scout leader
to job-hunter. Working with sheltered
workshops and vocational rehabilita-
tion officials, he has placed two dozen
of his boys in the past year. "I
try to find compatible jobs with sympa-
thetic employers," he said. "At the
same time, I urge that the retarded be
hired purely on the basis of skills and
productivity. In the right jobs, they do
make excellent employees."
The President's Committee on Em-
ployment of the Handicapped
Tender(foot) Romance. Douglas Fair-
banks, Jr., romantic hero of a couple
of generations of movies, was scorned
by his first love because he
wasn't old enough to be a Scout. "Her
name was Agnes Hawkins," Fairbanks
recalled. "She was much admired by
some of the Boy Scouts in our school,
which was a source of great anguish
to me at the time. I was only 11 years
old — ineligible for the Scouts — and
she wouldn't have anything to do with
me." The star, who is now 64, remem-
bers that when he finally turned 12
(the minimum age for Scouts then) and
joined, his reward "was an innocent
peck on the cheek under a tree in a
California orange grove. I nearly
swooned with delight." Unfortunately,
Fairbanks said, "we moved away, and I
never saw her again."
Copyright: National Enquirer
Lantana Fla.
Coping Cub Scout. The high cost
of living overlooks no one. Overheard,
one Cub Scout to another: "Bubble
gum has gone up from a penny to two
cents. From now on, I'm chewing the
paper!"
Dorothy M. Stanaitis
Gloucester City, N.J.
Value of Eagle. Scouters who have
boys stalled just short of the Ea-
gle Award may find this letter useful in
encouraging the boys to go all the
way. I received it some time ago from
a young man in Marine officers'
training.
"If it hadn't been for my experience
with Troop 9 and the Boy Scouts of
America, I would never be where I am
at this moment. Soon I will become one
of the youngest commissioned of-
ficers in the United States Marine
Corps. This experience will be rivaled
only by the thrill I had when I received
my Eagle Award.
"The requirements for Eagle Scout
and an officer's commission are
amazingly similar. Had I not had the
opportunity to exploit my potential in
leadership while pursuing the Eagle
Award, I would not have been pre-
pared for the grueling tasks and high
standards expected here at Officer
Candidate School."
Joseph A. Berol
Troop 9 Committee Chairman
Wilmette, III.
"Corpse" Goes Home. In a civil de-
fense test, during a mock air raid,
Scouts were impersonating wounded
people who would be picked up by the
defense units. One Scout, after lying
"wounded" for several hours, evident-
ly got a little disgusted because the
squad that came to rescue him found
this scrawled note: "Have bled to
death and gone home."
Spartanburg, S.C. Herald
43
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975, periodical, January 1975; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353656/m1/43/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.