Scouting, Volume 63, Number 1, January-February 1975 Page: 1
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held that evening in the city auditori-
um. (You can bet the council received
lots of free help with their new summer
camp in that area the next year.)
Not all of the high adventure over-
seas was reserved for the boys.
Volunteer and professional Scouters
came in for their fair share, too. Like
the time some friends and I tried to en-
ter Hungary at a little-used border
crossing with a tourist passport, a set
of military orders and a khaki uniform
they had never seen before. When the
soldiers looked up the word "Scout"
my uimbi, imcw mc icu nuui\v> n...
around my neck and began to march
briskly around the squad of soldiers
loudly proclaiming the virtues of the
Pioneer comrades. The message got
through loud and clear! The soldiers
began to smile for the first time, maybe
because they thought I really was a
Pioneer.
I'll never know how much they un-
derstood, but we shook hands and
joined the other soldiers in all the
back-slapping and shouting that fol-
lowed. Then they really rolled out the
red carpet. Within minutes they'd
stamped our passports, issued visas,
exchanged some forints for our
Deutsche marks and waved us on our
way toward Budapest. That was the
last time we took the advice of well-
meaning friends who just happened to
know a shortcut.
Heavy rotation and constant turn-
over of den mothers, unit leaders
and committeemen necessitated
around-the-clock training, both formal
and informal. Council courses had to
ho ov<~ontinna| to get people to at-
jters in Turkey, for ex-
5,000-mile round trip,
aining conferences at
Berchtesgaden were
ice shows, tours, Okto-
nich, and featured such
Astronaut John Glenn,
ixecutive Alden Barber
3rs.
three-day courses and
r, Turkey, and Athens
3 building the Crusader
5 refreshing for all of us
in territory and organize
iout any hang-ups. Oh,
o get a lot of unsolicited
t district committees,
run training and all that
vals who had not been
but the commissioner
; it stop them from doing
me the subject came up,
)ut that there would be
ty selecting a central
e between Athens and
a stretch of over 2,000
s, by the time the district
n got there on their cam-
snt crop of boys would
home with their parents
month tour.
jsual for military Scout-
jrn to the Transatlantic
tnd sometimes even to
ict or unit —after serving
"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch
a tour of duty at some other place. It is
always a thrill to any Scouter to return
to his old stomping grounds. The first
Scoutmaster in Weisbaden, Germany,
buried a time capsule and returned
many years later to help dig it up as
Scoutmaster of the same troop.
One of the thrills I had was to revisit
the area in Italy where I served in the
ski troops, and spent some time after
the Axis surrender helping reorganize
Scouting while I was on temporary
duty with the allied military govern-
ment.
High adventure to those little Italian
boys was a camping trip in a pair of
cut-down U.S. Army suntans with any
color neckerchief except red, a badge
and, most of all, the opportunity to be a
Scout instead of a Fascist Youth.
We could all rest better tonight if
every one of the millions of boys and
girls in Russia, China and the rest of
the Communist world were allowed to
subscribe to the Scout Oath and Law.
I'm sure that Scouters from the Far
East Council could also tell some
unusual and exciting Scouting stories
like those I've told you about in the
Transatlantic Council. But folks over-
seas don't have a corner on high ad-
venture, nor does it happen there un-
less career and volunteer Scouters
make it happen.
There are just as many opportunities
for adventure — maybe even more —
right here in the United States, and yotv
can help make it happen. It usually
starts with a desire to do something
different, a need, a special interest, a
challenge, or a little "brainstorming"
session. One of the great adventures
in the whole BSA was started by a
simple phone call.
In 1952 the Oregon Trail Council at
Eugene, Oreg., was looking for an In-
dian dance act to plus up their Scout
circus at the University of Oregon. Six
months before the show we phoned
Irving Shepard, Superintendent of
Schools at the Warm Springs Indian
Reservation, to invite its troop to per-
form. He told us that they didn't have a
troop. He had been unable to arouse
any interest in dancing or costuming,
but he had been looking for some way
to stir up some interest and this just
might be it!
Sure enough, 50 Indian Boy Scouts
showed up for our show. They have
been heel and toeing at jamborees and
Scout shows ever since.
Often it takes only a little effort on
our part to help kids get "high" on ad-
venture and it can happen anywhere
on this earth of ours. ■
61
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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/m1/61/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.