Camping with Scouts
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:54 pm
I had the good fortune to camp with my scout troop recently and was very much taken by how modern everything is. Being more used to Icelandic and Bell tents, which took four people just to carry, I was very surprised to see that the tents we were using could a) be carried two at a time by one person and b) go up in a matter of minutes. It got me thinking about my time as a Sprout from 02-09, and how things have changed since then, and before then.
JDS has written, over the years, a very good history of CH scouts (which you may be able to get hold of), but while it has a good set of histories and photographs (including one of a very young Eruresto reciting elvish!) it is perhaps a little short on personal anecdotes, which perhaps we might collect here. For instance, I have joyful memories of one Old Blues' Camp (I believe it was the 80th anniversary, since it was on my LE in 05), getting away with not going to bed like the rest of the juniors. Instead, I very quietly sat around the campfire, saying very little and as a consequence drawing very little attention to myself, but hearing all sorts of stories, as one does on such occasions. When it came to half past eleven, we began to rise to ascend Sharpenhurst. It was only then that Michael Gimber noticed that I was among the group, and let me join them - even though only UF+ were supposed to be up still. As a consequence I was able, a year early, to join the elders at midnight - and I even got some Bucks Fizz (1% alcohol) for my trouble.
Moral of the story: sit still and be quiet, and much like Sam Gamgee, people tend not to notice that you are somewhere you probably oughtn't to be
JDS has written, over the years, a very good history of CH scouts (which you may be able to get hold of), but while it has a good set of histories and photographs (including one of a very young Eruresto reciting elvish!) it is perhaps a little short on personal anecdotes, which perhaps we might collect here. For instance, I have joyful memories of one Old Blues' Camp (I believe it was the 80th anniversary, since it was on my LE in 05), getting away with not going to bed like the rest of the juniors. Instead, I very quietly sat around the campfire, saying very little and as a consequence drawing very little attention to myself, but hearing all sorts of stories, as one does on such occasions. When it came to half past eleven, we began to rise to ascend Sharpenhurst. It was only then that Michael Gimber noticed that I was among the group, and let me join them - even though only UF+ were supposed to be up still. As a consequence I was able, a year early, to join the elders at midnight - and I even got some Bucks Fizz (1% alcohol) for my trouble.
Moral of the story: sit still and be quiet, and much like Sam Gamgee, people tend not to notice that you are somewhere you probably oughtn't to be
