Scouting, Volume 68, Number 5, October 1980 Page: 62
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Scouting Magazine and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.
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Jamboree (from page 45)
Intriguing gateways
beckon visitors and
Scouts to the jamboree
campsites where lasting
friendships are made.
camped under canvas, cooked their own
meals, absorbed leadership lessons from
the old British general, practiced tracking
as he had mastered it on the Dark Con-
tinent. After a week, they reluctantly
broke camp and returned home. The gen-
eral and the boys pronounced the trial a
success. And the world would soon agree
with them.
It's some 3,500 miles and almost 75
years between that event which would be
recognized as the world's first Boy Scout
camp and its reenactment at the 1981
National Scout Jamboree near Freder-
icksburg, Va. At a staging of that historic
happening, the old general, Baden-Powell,
played with suitable flair by a Scouter with
a handlebar moustache, will pace the
grounds just as he did long ago, dressed in
an old felt hat, flannel shirt, below-the-
knee shorts, long golfing stockings. His
"boys" (Scouts of the BSA) will be there,
too, with the brims of cowboy-style hats
pinned up to one side just like the general's
old South African Constabulary of the
turn of the century. At the reenactment
they will play observation games like Old
Spotty-face and practice deer stalking just
as the youngsters did on Brownsea Island
in the summer of 1907. At that time,
though, there were only a few observers.
At the 1981 re-staging, some 28,000 jambo
Scouts and tens of thousands of visitors
will be on hand.
Those participants will not only witness
the Brownsea Island camp. They'll remain
spellbound by a 50-ring Scouting circus of
everything from roasting goat over char-
coal fires to foot-stomping in time with the
musical offerings of top country and west-
ern singers. Scouts and Scouters will revel
in brotherhood, camp in patrols, rush
through such theme trails as electronic
orienteering, pioneering, action archery,
handicapped awareness, "confidence"
obstacle course, and marksmanship. They
will splash in Bullock Lake and paddle
and row in nearby Travis Lake. Through-
out they'll be watched over by health and
safety experts and others skilled in all sorts
of Scout lore.
Their wilderness city will be a
77,000-acre U.S. Army installation. Fort
A.P. Hill, named after a Confederate
general. But they'll transform it into a
substitute for their hometown, any place
from Chula Vista, Calif., to Traverse City,
Mich. Intriguing gateways at the entrance
to their homes away from home will
beckon visitors. Many threshold decora-
tions will reflect their community's histor-
ic heritage with, let's say, a Spanish mis-
sion replica or New York City's Ver-
razano-Narrows Bridge in miniature.
Others will be crafted of lashed spars
and show off their home state's principal
agricultural product, possibly an en-
tranceway heavy with real apples tied in
place.
New friendships will sprout as Scouts
meet at trading posts or snack stands or
throughout the normal daily events. One
medium for forming new comradeships
will be the wide game. Unlike former
jamborees, the game runs all week long,
not on one day. Each Scout will receive 18
small "baseball" cards bearing the color
picture of the jamboree flag of his sub-
camp (there are 18 subcamps, each sub-
camp having a different flag.) Printed on
the card will be a brief description of the
Hag (it's one of those that flew during our
Revolutionary War) and a place for the
Scout to jot his name, address, and phone
number. Purpose is for the jamboree-goer
to introduce himself to fellow Scouts, then
exchange flag cards. Added value is that
the card promotes post-jamboree contacts
between the new-found friends. For those
who collect all 18 of the cards, there is an
embroidered, canoe-shaped patch bearing
the jamboree slogan, "Scouting's Reunion
with History" to be sewn beneath the
jamboree patch.
Those friendships may stretch a bit but
not sever during the four competitive
events staged during the jamboree. At
back-home, prejamboree training camps,
council jamboree troops will hold elimi-
nation contests in volleyball, tug-of-war,
flagpole raising, and fire dousing. At the
jamboree, further heats of those contests
determine subcamp champs. Finally,
there will be regional playoffs from which
will come 18 campwide winners (six first-,
second-, and third-places) who will come
away from recognition ceremonies wear-
ing handsome medallions.
On two days at the 1981 jamboree there
will be SEE 'N' DO demonstrations with
half the camp (nine subcamps) hosting the
other half. There Scouts from New Eng-
land might treat onlookers with a lesson on
how to set a clam bake. Payoff is a steam-
ing, luscious sample of corn, fish, lobster,
potatoes, and clams from the center of the
fire. A Northwest U.S. troop could enter-
tain jamboree Scouts with a show of au-
thentic Haida Indian costuming and
dancing. Youngsters and oldsters then get
a chance to try on the headgear and robes,
learn how to imitate those designs of
whales and beavers on the ceremonial
garb, and try the dancesteps.
On the following day jambo campers
swap places. Now the other half of the
subcamps act as hosts with more chances
to SEE 'N' DO a host of different activities
from neckerchief slide carving to riding a
"bucking bronco" (an oil drum suspended
by four ropes) to learning how to flip a
pancake that measures two feet wide. Of
course, part of the thrill is to dribble syrup
and butter and help consume that Paul
Bunyan-size delicacy.
Evenings offer opportunities to be a bit
serious and consider the greater dimen-
sions of the jamboree with pageants
depicting the rich background of Colonial
Virginia and the noteworthy spots of the
Civil War that surround Fort A.P. Hill.
There are two troop campfires, small
gatherings where the atmosphere is infor-
mal and two intertroop campfires where
groups from widely separated communi-
ties get a chance to know each other better
away from the hubbub of the day's rou-
tine. A gigantic arena-type show greets
Scouts and Scouters while another such
campfire caps the jamboree festivities
with a spectacular fireworks display.
Then comes the time to pull up tent
stakes and head back home. Many council
contingents will have stopped off at scenic
spots on the trip to the jamboree site.
Other contingents will delay homecom-
ings for stopoffs at nearby Colonial Wil-
liamsburg, Yorktown, or the nation's
capital just 50 miles away. Civil War buffs
might include a visit to Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, or Petersburg.
Old B-P would marvel at the almost
limitless breadth of friendships formed,
and Scout skills sharpened at this huge
gathering—a far cry from the experience
he provided for those 21 kids at Brownsea
in 1907. And you just feel that he'd be
proud of the distance that first Scout camp
has come, just one year short of its
diamond anniversary. ■
62
October 1980 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 68, Number 5, October 1980, periodical, October 1980; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353641/m1/62/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.