Camping In The Twenties

In February - we'll be joining in celebrating the birthday of Scouting in America. Actually, we're going to start celebrating this month.

We'll start by playing some of the games and learning some skills used by Scouts 60 years ago - and even farther back. On our campout we'll hike into camp the way they did, and maybe we'll use some of the homemade equipment they did - pots, pans, and dishes from home, for example. Some of you may want to leave your sleeping bags at home, because Scouts didn't have them in those days.

But you know, Scouting's historians tell us that Scouting wasn't all that different from what it is today. The big attractions were in the outdoors, hiking and camping, just as they are today.

So your grandfathers enjoyed the same kind of Scouting that you do. Oh, there are changes, of course. The early Boy Scouts hiked a lot more than we do, but that was mainly because they didn't have access to cars. There were cars on the roads, but not very many.

At home, they didn't find television or video games, and radio was brand new then. In many respects, it was a different world. But Scouting wasn't so different. We are following in their footsteps. Let's see what it was like to be a Scout 60 -odd years ago. It must have been fun, just as it is today.